J.S. Bach - Presto BWV 1001 - Guitar Tab

Bach: Complete Sonatas & Partitas for Violin Solo

2016 4:01

Listen on Spotify

About Presto BWV 1001

Few pieces will expose weaknesses in your fretting hand quite like the Presto from J.S. Bach's Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001. Originally written for solo violin, this movement translates to guitar as a relentless stream of sixteenth notes that must flow evenly and cleanly at tempo. The challenge is not just speed: Bach's implied counterpoint and voice leading demand that you think about which notes belong to a melodic line and which form a harmonic layer beneath it, even when your fingers are moving fast. In Classical repertoire, evenness of tone across all four fingers is everything, and any weakness in your ring or pinky finger will show up immediately here. Start well below performance tempo, using the Practice Toolbar to loop the trickiest sequential passages slowed down, and only push the speed once every note speaks with equal weight and clarity. Fingering choices matter enormously, so settle on a consistent set before drilling.

• The piece is in G minor and sits in E Standard tuning, so no retuning is needed, but position shifts across the neck require careful planning.
• The core technical demand is right-hand consistency: every note in the rapid sixteenth-note runs must be struck with equal attack to preserve Bach's melodic lines.
• Isolating four-bar segments and looping them at 50 to 60 percent speed before building up is the most reliable way to develop clean, even runs.