Bike Ride Travel Guitar

Yesterday, I went for my weekly bike ride to a secluded spot on the Don river, here in Toronto. I go there to play guitar. This summer I have been memorizing a collection of Bach pieces for solo violin, and improvising with a new style of playing I call kacapi-guitar.

Bach

I have always enjoyed listening to Bach but found his pieces difficult to sight read, especially many of the guitar transcriptions. This summer I tried an experiment: to see what would happen if I memorized a Bach piece that was not a transcription. I started with Violin Partita Number 2.

Partita Number 2 for Solo Violin

Violin is capable of playing two to four-note chords but the second Partita is predominantly melodic. It is mostly a flow of sixteenth notes that outline a series of chords in D minor.

Once I recognized the chord progression (and the scales from which they came) it was easier to imagine the piece and translate it to my fingers. My ears became more melodically focused because Bach refers to chromatic pitches from related scales. I found it useful to sing what I was playing, to connect the music to my instrument. The process became an interplay of mind, ear, voice, and guitar.

I realize now that this is how I approach music in general. But, obviously for me, I had to take a different route to arrive at the same place. And now I have found a way into playing Bach.