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“Minuet in G” is one of the most well-known pieces of piano music in the world. It was originally written specifically for young learners, and it lives on to this day with exactly the same purpose. The melody covers one-and-a-half octaves with a lot of smooth movement up and down the scale and a few interesting jumps, making it a wonderful exercise for beginners.
I had always attributed the song to Bach, and in fact up until 1980, pretty much everyone did. However, the piece was actually written by Christian Petzold, a harpsichord player and composer who was Bach’s contemporary. Bach included the piece in a collection of works he assembled for his second wife, Anna Magdelena, some of which he wrote and some that he collected from others.
You can still find those collections in print today (Notebook for Anna Magdelena, in two volumes), but thanks to the work of music historians, the individual pieces within the collections are attributed to the correct composers.
“Minuet in G” Playing Tips
Note: This is only the first 16 measures (about half) of the full “Minuet in G,” and I’ve shifted the key to C to be able to play it in first position on ukulele.
“Minuet in G” sounds best when you can really nail the smooth movement up and down the scale and the contrasts in rhythm between the eighth note passages and the intervening quarter notes. The eighth notes flow smoothly, and the quarter notes are more punctuated to accentuate the 3/4 times.
Make sure you get all four fingers on your left hand involved. The piece stays in first position, meaning you don’t need to plan out any shifts up the neck. It’s tempting to stretch your ring finger up to grab the 4th fret in measures 8 and 15, but using your pinky is best to avoid pulling the rest of your hand out of position.
Using your pinky in these easy beginner pieces also builds strength and muscle memory that you will really need later. It’s like leg day. Skip it now, and you’ll regret it later.
Alternate Picking Practice
Another technique to work on here is alternate picking. Quarter notes can all get down strokes with the pick to give them extra oomph, but the eighth note runs should always get a down-up-down-up picking pattern. This is known as alternate picking, an essential technique both for a smooth sound and economy of movement.
To get this picking pattern in your head, you can sing the pick directions to the melody. Here’s the first two measures (capital letters indicate the slight emphasis of the downbeat):
Down, Down-up-Down-up, Down, Down
If you’re playing this piece with your fingers, the fingerstlye equivalent of alternate picking is to alternate between your thumb and index finger to get the same down-up-down-up emphasis.
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“Minuet in G” Sheet Music Download
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