Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) c. 1730 D major 4/4 Intermediate 0:29 Both hands
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Bach's Air begins with a single high note held for more than a bar before the melody starts to move. This easy version gives you the whole first section, six bars, in D major, the key Bach wrote it in. The right hand is the first violin part as printed in the Bach-Gesellschaft score, with one short grace note left out and the other written as an eighth note. The left hand plays Bach's bass line one note per beat, stepping down the scale: the slow tread that holds the piece together. Play it very slowly and smoothly, count the long notes in full, and let the quick notes flow without hurry. Listen once, then learn it in Practice mode.
Bar 1 is one note, the F sharp on the top line of the treble staff, tied into bar 2. Then the high B, G, E D C sharp D, a long C sharp and B-A. Bar 3 holds a high A, then four quick notes A F sharp C natural B and four more, E D sharp A G; bar 4 is the same shape one step lower, from G. Bar 5: F sharp, G sharp A, D, a very quick D-E, F sharp, then F sharp E E D. Bar 6: C sharp B, a quick B-C sharp, D, then D C sharp B and a long A.
One bass note per beat, walking down: D C sharp B A (bar 1), G G sharp A G (bar 2), F sharp E D sharp B (bar 3), E D C sharp A (bar 4), D C sharp B E (bar 5). Bar 6 has four eighth notes, A D E and a low E, then a long A. In Bach's score the bass moves in eighth notes that leap up and down an octave; here each beat keeps one of the two.
The quick notes. Most of bars 2-6 moves in sixteenths, four to a beat, and bars 5 and 6 each have a pair of thirty-second notes, twice as fast: D-E in bar 5 and B-C sharp in bar 6. Count the beat as '1-e-and-a' and squeeze the pair into one of those syllables. Watch the accidentals too: C natural and D sharp in bar 3, G sharp in bar 5, and in the left hand G sharp then G natural in bar 2 and D sharp in bar 3.
Right hand: F sharp with 2, the high B with 5, G with 3, then E with 1; D C sharp D with 3-2-3, the long C sharp with 2, B with 1 and A with 2 crossed over. Bar 3: A F sharp C B with 5-4-2-1, E D sharp with 4-3, A G with 5-4; bar 4 uses the same fingering from G. Left hand: one finger per note, starting with 1 on the D of bar 1 and moving down with the line.
The right-hand melody of this version, bar by bar, in letter names and in Do Ré Mi. Sharps are written #, flats b; a note held across a bar line is written once.
Melody: F# B G E D C# D C# B A A F# C B E D# A G G E B A D C# …
| Bar | Notes | Do Ré Mi |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | F# | Fa# |
| 2 | B G E D C# D C# B A | Si Sol Mi Ré Do# Ré Do# Si La |
| 3 | A F# C B E D# A G | La Fa# Do Si Mi Ré# La Sol |
| 4 | G E B A D C# G F# | Sol Mi Si La Ré Do# Sol Fa# |
| 5 | F# G# A D D E F# E E D | Fa# Sol# La Ré Ré Mi Fa# Mi Mi Ré |
| 6 | C# B B C# D C# B A | Do# Si Si Do# Ré Do# Si La |
The Air is the second movement of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068, a set of dances for strings, oboes, trumpets and timpani; the Air itself is for strings alone, two violin parts, viola and continuo. The earliest surviving parts date from around 1730, when Bach was working in Leipzig, though the music may be older.
The nickname came much later. In 1871 the German violinist August Wilhelmj arranged the melody for violin and piano, transposed so that the violinist could play it entirely on the lowest string of the instrument, the G string. His arrangement was so popular that Air on the G String became the everyday name of Bach's original too.
This transcription: J. S. Bach, Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068 (c. 1730), Air, bars 1-6 (second ending): the first violin as printed (short grace note in bar 2 left out, the grace note before the A written as an eighth note), the continuo reduced to one note per beat: Bach-Gesellschaft edition, vol. XXXI (1), Orchesterwerke (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel), p. 54 - archive.org bach-gesellschaft-ausgabe, BGA Band 31, image 0073. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.
Easy Version, Opening · G major
Easy Version, Bars 1-19 · C major
Easy Version · G major
Theme A · A minorThe full piano studio opens this score with your MIDI keyboard and sustain pedal, records what you play and exports it as a MIDI file. It comes with the GOONS Studio subscription - start with the 7-day free trial, no card required.
In D major, as on this page: a long F sharp, then B G, E D C sharp D, C sharp, B A - in Do Ré Mi, Fa dièse, then Si Sol, Mi Ré Do dièse Ré, Do dièse, Si La. The bass walks down from D. Every bar is in the Notes section.
Bach simply called it Air. In 1871 the violinist August Wilhelmj arranged it for violin and piano, transposed so that the violin plays the whole melody on its lowest string, the G string, and the name stuck to the original as well.
This version is level 3 of 5: slow, with an easy left hand, but the right hand reads sixteenth and thirty-second notes and several accidentals. What makes the full Air demanding is the long singing line over a moving bass, which needs control rather than speed.
BWV is the catalogue of Bach's works. BWV 1068 is his Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major: an overture, the Air, two gavottes, a bourrée and a gigue.