Hi, and BWV 1001 Presto

Introduce Yourself
#1

Hi,

My first post so hello from Western Canada. I enjoy all kinds guitar but tend to focus on Baroque.
I play a lot of Bach on both Classical and on Strats. Here’s a sample of my playing, hope you enjoy it. BWV 1001 Presto

Thanks
Chris

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#2

Wow that was great! When you have some time could you tell us more about your right hand strategies to play these guitar tongue-twisters?

Very inspiring stuff :metal:

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#3

Woah! I bloody well loved that clip! Executed perfectly and had character.

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#4

Woah…that was f’in AMAZING!

1 Like
#5

This was indeed awesome! A lot of players were probably given this to practice, and I have a penciled-up copy of this from the one or two guitar lessons I took in High School right after Crossroads came out and “classical” was the key to heavy metal stardom.

I can attest to just how weird the fingerings are for something like this compared to the typical scalar and box stuff most of us play all the time. Try transcribing even a couple of bars of this and you’ll instantly learn just how many fretting combinations you’ve never even worked on, and how formulaic most of the fingerings you play on the fretboard really are, even in jazz.

Nice job on the harmonization here also! For the unacquainted, those simultaneous bass notes are not present in the original. There are actually tons of three- and four-note chords in the Bach violin sonatas and partitas, and most of us don’t think of the violin as a polyphonic instrument as extensively as Bach wrote for it. But there are not many two-note wide intervals with sustained bass notes in those pieces. There are occasional open strings, but that’s about it. Anyway great job getting all those notes to ring simultaneously - that ain’t easy.

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#6

Thanks Troy, They are a real blast to figure and albeit challenging, very rewarding as well. There are some Scarlatti pieces I want to play too. I need more hours in the day. :smiley:

Thanks Troy,
I really enjoy the site.

Chris

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#7

Thanks Tommo,

It’s really fun and interesting sorting these pieces out. Some are almost all straight alternating and others work better with economy and hybrid picking. I use some techniques akin to when I play my Classical Guitar. For example, stopping bass notes with my thumb. I think it’s probably easier to do it on the Classical Guitar but what I taught myself is to bury the pick a little bit deeper in between the strings and use the top of my thumb to make an open bass note stop. A bit tricky when I first tried it but it became easier once I got used to it. There’s also times when it’s easier to stop notes with the left hand. I use a lot of full plants with my right hand so if I’ve got a pinch and a higher melody note on another string right after it, the pick, m and a are all planted at once. There’s sequential planting going a fair bit too. I only use my pinky as an anchor, usually below the bridge pickup, which is a huge no no on the Classical Guitar but very helpful on the electric.

Thanks for listening,
Chris

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you.

4 Likes
#8

Really polished adaption I must say. I liked the other vids to. I would definitely buy some tabs of yours if you make them available one day.

For a critique, I would say that the angle focusing on the fretting-hand is quite frustrating considering the fact that the picking-hand approach is quite unusual. Also, framing the picking-hand alone is not the same thing as we have the fret informations by sound :wink:

#9

Thanks SylvSylv, I’m glad you enjoyed the videos and thanks for the feedback. It’s great to get input on how I can make my videos better.

Chris