Minuet In G Minor, By J.S. Bach

Minuet In G Minor, by Bach, provides a fantastic piece for the mid-to-late elementary piano player to continue working on learning and memorize piano pieces.  For many of my piano students, this is one of the first of the standard "classical" piano repertoire they learn (having already learned many pieces not of that genre.)  Including this piece as a part of your piano journey will only add strength and confidence to your piano-playing foundation. Plus, it's a fun piece to learn and to play.

As with most of Bach's Minuets, the music divides nicely into 2 and 4 measure links.  On the video, you will see me chop the music up into those links, which provides a good visual guide for practicing.  You should do the same with your music.  You will also see how to work 2 & 4 measures at a time to learn the whole piece. 

As you practice the Minuet In G Minor, make sure you go slow.  Work with each 2 measure link until you have the right hand part memorized... then the left hand memorized... then both hands.  Play each link until you have done it at least 3 times, perfectly (3P).  If you find yourself with more than 10 attempts but no "perfects", you are either going too fast, or the piece is at a level that is too high for you at the moment.  (If this is the case, drop down and learn a few more pieces at lower levels, and then come back to the Minuet In G later.)

Once you have the entire piece learned and memorized, use the metronome to work up to higher tempos.  Start at a tempo that is easy, and work up from there. Towards the end of the video tutorial, I'll show you the first two phrases at 42bpm, and then 60bpm, and then 96bpm.   This is just to demonstrate how to use your metronome to work a piece up to a performable tempo.

If you want to keep developing this skill (learning & memorizing piano music), follow this Minuet with many other pieces (classical, or other) at the same level.  Gradually, over time, your abilities at the keys will grow and strengthen enough to take on pieces of higher and higher difficulty.  Regardless of what level the music is at, the process will always remain the same: 2 (or less) & 4 measures at a time, right hand, left hand, both 3P.  It's a very effective and efficient way  to learn music and build your skills.

A performance of the whole piece:

Watch this video to see if you like the piece and want to work on it.  Also, it's good to watch it again after you have learned the piece, to get some ideas on how to perform it.

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The Music

-click here for the music notation-

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Minuet In G Minor Video Tutorial

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More Information

For some of the background information/history on this piece, click here.