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!

After you listen to enough Bach pieces, you start to notice trends and patterns. Bach has an affinity for cycling through a variety chords, around which he builds constantly shifting melodies, often with bass melody notes that accompany a higher register melody. In doing so, he often makes use of repeating patterns/motivs. Often these patterns build or ease tension resulting in dramatic sounding pieces. In Partita in Am (BWV 1013 Allemande), we see much of these Bach trademarks.

Above is the tab for measures 1-6. This is just one possible arrangement based on sheet music I found here. You should feel free to modify so it suits your own personal taste. Ok, let me provide some tips:

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.

   2-3: Note the bass melody pattern (measure 3 is simply a repeat of measure 2). Be sure to make those bass notes stand out!

   4: Again we have a bass melody line that needs to stand out. Also note the recurring pattern (the repeating of the G# and A). I am sure there is a technical term for such movements...

   5-6: Here we have some typical Bach arpeggio lines. Measure 5 starts with an E Maj arpeggio and ends with an E Dom 7. In measure 6, there is a switch to A Min and it ends with C Dom 7. Try to hold the chords and let the notes ring as you arpeggiate. You may wonder at my choice of fingering at the end of measure 6. In the next part of this lesson you will see how that particular fingering sets us up nicely for the next section.

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 piece. Persevere and really focus on letting the notes ring!

Later,

Brian Huether

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

So far we have gone over the first 12 measures and by now you have probably come to appreciate that while not a flashy piece, this piece requires a great deal of skill to navigate through all the chords and hold the chords such that notes are ringing where possible.

Above is the tab for measures 13-19. As you can see, this section reaches a logical ending and may even fake the listener into thinking the piece is over. However, there is a second half to the piece which I do not plan on covering. With the skills you have built up to this point, you are certainly well armed to tackle the rest of the piece. This is just one possible arrangement based on sheet music I found here. You should feel free to modify so it suits your own personal taste. Ok, let me provide some tips:

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.

   14-15: As we have seen many times with Bach, we have a repeating pattern moving down the neck. The outlined chords are Am7, GMaj7 and F#m7 (as close as I can tell anyway).. Try and let notes ring out as much as possible. This section preps the following section quite nicely!

   16: Here we see a symmetrical pattern that moves up the neck a whole step, the first instance which is a return to a phrase from the second measure of the piece.

   17-18: And yet again a recurring pattern... Note that the first three instances of the pattern are identical as we move the pattern down in whole steps. The symmetry is lost at the end as we arrive at a D# Dimished arpeggio. This section then leads us to the conclusion of the first half of the piece.

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.

Note: The audio and MIDI both contain measures 1-19. In the audio file, the segement from this lesson comes in at about 0:43.

Later,

Brian Huether