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©2000 Ray DeTone


This Bach Partita came my way via a guitar student that had visited Jennifer Batton’s web site and discovered her two handed tapping arrangement of this violin piece. Since the tapping was way over his head  he started to learn the piece by flatpicking it but soon discovered that finding the appropriate and most efficient fingering was not always as simple as it may appear.

Thus I transcribed the following fingering and turned it into a lesson ( or quite a few lessons in the case of this student ) which is a great exercise for right hand picking as well as left hand fretting technique. And to keep the student thinking about theory instead of blindly playing patterns over and over again, I had him figure out the appropriate chords that Bach was arpeggiating in this melody.

Start real slow with this figure and take it measure by measure. Work your way up to a tempo of 84 bpm (and beyond if you dare).  Keep your picking strictly alternating.
(A down-pick always follows an up-pick and an up-pick always follows a down-pick. NO EXCEPTIONS!)

To make this exercise a valuable theory lesson you should know the basic chord construction of the following:
NAME
  
Major
Minor
Seventh
Minor 7th
Major 7th
Major 6th aka 6th
Minor 6th
Major 13th
  
Suspended (sus, sus4)
Suspended 2nd (sus2)
m7b5 (half-diminished)
Diminished  (dim)
Diminished 7th
7b9
add9
Augmented (aug, +)
Augmented 7th
  
   
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
  
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
 MAJOR SCALE INTERVALS
(all C root chords go with the C major scale,etc.)
1, 3, 5
1, b3, 5
1, 3 , 5, b7
1, b3, 5, b7
1, 3, 5, 7
1, 3, 5, 6
1, b3, 5, 6
1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13
     ( in this case 1, 3, 7,13  aka: 6/7 chord)
1, 4, 5
1, 2, 5
1, b3, b5, b7
1, b3, b5
1, b3, b5, bb7(6)
1, 3, 5, b7, b9
1, 3, 5, 9
1, 3, #5
1, 3, #5, b7


Please note that there is more than one way to name a chord (or arpeggio) depending on  where you choose the root or tonal center to be. While triads and sevenths may seem obvious, keep in mind that as you extend the harmonization of the major scale further (chords with 4 or more unique notes), add tensions to the chord (b9, #9, #11 etc.) and/or remove some of the intervals (i.e. C7 played in the open position has no 5th) you will find there will often be at least two different chord names that you could give a group of notes. Notice, in measure 4, I don’t try to name an arpeggio when the group of notes is more easily recognized as a natural minor scale (A Aeolian).

As you play thru each measure of this piece take a mental picture of the notes and patterns of the arpeggios. Relate them to each of the chord names I have placed  under the group of notes. And remember some of these shapes and arpeggios are not the most obvious but they can definitely be used to solo over the chord mentioned, in any song you play. Thank you, once again, Mr. Bach.


Ray DeTone Shredding Bach Lesson notation


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