I don't know about you, but my ears just seem to have a certain affinity for Bach pieces. Every now and then I come across a piece that resonates with me at which point I have to stop what I am doing and learn the piece! I discovered this piece on Rhapsody, when I came across a CD titled Guitar Transcriptions. Bach's Partita in Am BWV 1013 Allemande certainly had that effect on me. It's been a while since I did a guitar lesson on a Bach piece and so here we are back to Bach!

It has been a while since we revisited this great piece. This piece is certainly not characterized by blazing speed and flash. It is more a focus on melody and chordal structures and if you went through the first part of the lesson, you probably came to realize that it is the gymnastics required to hold some of the chords that makes this piece such a challenge.

Previouly we looked at the first 6 measures of the piece and now we continue with the next 6 measures. Like the first 6 measures, these next 6 once again feature repeated ideas and also pose the challenge of holding chords to allow notes to ring to the maximum extent (If we relaxed this requirement the piece would be much easier!).

Note: The MIDI and audio contain the first 12 measures.

1. Let notes ring to the maximum extent possible. My chosen fingerings have this in mind.
2. At first, practice at an even tempo. Once you get familiar with the piece, let it breathe. Add pauses and tempo changes as you see fit.
3. Focus on phrasing. There are some key parts in these measures that require attention to phrasing.

   7-8: Here we have a repeating pattern moving up the neck, outlining the chords Dm7, Em7, FMaj7 and GMaj7. Try and let notes ring out as much as possible. This section preps the following section quite nicely!

   9-11: In typical Bach fashion, this section features another melodic pattern in which the piece repeats a similar phrasing by altering the chord. In this case, the chords go from CMaj to CDom7 to CDom7b9. This section involves some awkward fingerings (how I arranged it in any case), but I really could not come up with another set of fingerings that lets the notes ring out.

As usual, I recommend listening to other musicians' renditions of this piece. It might give you ideas you wouldn't have otherwise thought of. Rhapsody is a great way to explore music. Click here to get a free 14-day trial of Rhapsody

I hope you enjoy this excellent, melodic piece.

Later,

Brian Huether