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Minuet in G - Piano Sheet Music (Easy Version)

Christian Petzold (1677-1733) c. 1725 G major 3/4 Easy 0:27 Both hands

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The Minuet in G is the classic first baroque piece: a graceful dance in 3/4 whose right hand runs up and down in even eighth notes, in G major, a key with a single sharp, F#. This page gives you the first half - the sixteen bars everyone recognises - with the melody as it appears in the 1725 notebook and a simplified left hand that plays one long bass note per bar. Count three beats in every bar, keep the eighth notes even, and lift the hand slightly before each new phrase. Once it flows at full tempo, the original left hand, a second melodic line, is the natural next step.

How to play it

How to play Minuet in G on the piano

Right hand

Start with the thumb on the G above middle C. The opening D, G A B C, D is a jump down and a walk back up: play D with 5, G A B C with 1-2-3-4, and land on D with 5 again.

Left hand

One dotted half note per bar - three beats - on G, B, C, A and D around middle C. Move to the next note during the third beat so that it arrives on time.

Tricky passages

Bars 3 and 7 shift the hand: E C D E F# and F# G A B G. Learn them alone with the loop. Every F in the piece is F#, set by the key signature, not written in front of the note.

Fingering

Bar 1: 5-1-2-3-4, bar 2: 5-1-1. Bar 3: E with 5, then C D E F# with 1-2-3-4; bar 4: the high G with 5 and the two low Gs with 1.

Notes

Minuet in G piano notes

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: D G A B C D G G E C D E F# G G G C D C B A B C B …

BarNotesDo Ré Mi
1 D G A B C Ré Sol La Si Do
2 D G G Ré Sol Sol
3 E C D E F# Mi Do Ré Mi Fa#
4 G G G Sol Sol Sol
5 C D C B A Do Ré Do Si La
6 B C B A G Si Do Si La Sol
7 F# G A B G Fa# Sol La Si Sol
8 A La
9 D G A B C Ré Sol La Si Do
10 D G G Ré Sol Sol
11 E C D E F# Mi Do Ré Mi Fa#
12 G G G Sol Sol Sol
13 C D C B A Do Ré Do Si La
14 B C B A G Si Do Si La Sol
15 A B A G F# La Si La Sol Fa#
16 G Sol
Chords

Chords in Minuet in G

The chords this arrangement holds for at least two bars, read from the score with the root in the bass. Each one opens its page: the notes, every inversion and the fingering, playable on a piano.

The piece is in G major: all the chords of the key

About the piece

About Minuet in G

For two centuries this minuet was credited to Johann Sebastian Bach, because it was copied into the notebook that Bach and his wife, the singer Anna Magdalena Bach, filled from 1725 with music for the family. In the 1970s scholars showed that it and its companion, the Minuet in G minor, come from a harpsichord suite by Christian Petzold, an organist in Dresden - which is why the Bach catalogue lists it only in its appendix, as BWV Anh. 114.

Its melody became a pop hit in 1965 as A Lover's Concerto by the American group The Toys, and it has been a staple of beginners' piano books ever since the notebook was printed in the 19th century.

This transcription: Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach (1725), BWV Anh. 114, by Christian Petzold: the right hand of bars 1-16; left hand simplified by GOONS Studio. Transcribed by GOONS Studio from the original work, which is in the public domain.

Ornate gilded Baroque harpsichord with candelabra, quill and notebook in a dark panelled drawing room
Minuet in G, as imagined by GOONS Studio (AI illustration)
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In the studio

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Questions

Minuet in G on piano: frequently asked

Did Bach write the Minuet in G?

No. It was copied into the 1725 notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach, which is why it was credited to him for so long, but in the 1970s it was identified as the work of Christian Petzold, a Dresden organist. The Bach catalogue keeps it in its appendix as BWV Anh. 114.

What are the notes of the Minuet in G?

Right hand: D G A B C D G G, E C D E F# G G G, C D C B A B C B A G, F# G A B G A. Every bar is listed in the Notes section, in letters and in Do Ré Mi.

Is the Minuet in G hard?

It is an easy piece, level 2 of 5 here, once you can play even eighth notes. The right hand is the original; the left hand on this page is reduced to one note per bar, which removes the main difficulty for beginners.