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Bach Partita No. 3, Part 3

The third part of Bach''s Partita No. 3 has a beautiful harmony and some very challenging spots.

Welcome back! Hopefully you are enjoying the J.S. Bach Partita No. 3 and have been doing well with part 1 and part 2 so far. Ready to move on to part 3? I love the next section of this piece, the harmony is beautiful throughout this whole section and throughout the whole tune. If you analyze this, it would be a great harmony and theory lesson as well as a technical piece that sounds great.

Let me offer a brief explanation of this section, and then you can dig in.

Bar 32 kicks off with a E7th arpeggio (E, G#, B, D) and then goes into the theme that continues from part 2, that modulates brilliantly through the first part of this section. There are some challenging spots for the right hand in this section, which is great for picking and your technique.

You will notice some wide interval skips beginning at bar 43, which are chords that are arpeggiated. It would be a good idea to analyze the progression, the first chord is a G# dom7th (G#, B#, D#, F#) to a E6th/G# with no 5th (E, G#, C#). The chord at Bar 47 is a E6th with no 5th with a added G/G# (E, G, G#, C#). Yikes! You can also think of this as a C#dim with a added natural 5/G#, you can think of it other ways as well.

Then it moves to a G#sus4 (G#, C#, D#) in bar 49 and then back to the G#7th and then it resolves into C#minor. I gave you some suggested fingerings, feel free to experiment and be sure to take this slow.

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That's it for this month's lesson! Be sure to visit me online at mikecampese.com.