Little Prelude in A minor (BWV 942)

Johann Sebastian Bach · Level 3 (Late beginner) · Baroque · Piano

One of the Five Little Preludes BWV 939–943: a line of eighth notes in 9/8 above a simple bass, ending with a rising sixteenth-note scale. One of the little preludes Bach wrote around 1720 for his pupils, handed down mainly in copies by his circle (Johann Peter Kellner): short pieces, ideal before tackling the Inventions. A minor, 9/8, 17 bars (about one minute), complete score.

▶ Play this piece with the interactive score

How to practise it

• Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
• Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
• Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
• Count three dotted beats per bar. In the final scale, the G sharp (suggested in brackets by the editor) leads up to the high A. No pedal: legato comes from the fingers. Practise hands separately in Wait mode, then put them together slowly. In 9/8, count the beats as groups of three eighths (dotted beats) to keep the lilt. Start hands separately in Wait mode, then put hands together at a slow tempo before speeding up gradually.

More pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach

• Partita 4 (BWV 828) — movement 6
• Aus meines Herzens Grunde (Chorale 1) (BWV 269)
• Two-Part Invention No. 1 in C major (BWV 772)
• Prelude No. 1 in C major, Well-Tempered Clavier I (BWV 846)
• Two-Part Invention No. 13 in A minor (BWV 784)
• Two-Part Invention No. 8 in F major (BWV 779)
• Little Prelude in F major (BWV 928)
• Two-Part Invention No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)

Source : Mutopia Project · CC BY-SA 3.0