Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin Arranged for Mandolin

Book excerpt: This book contains the first three of J.S. Bach's solo violin Sonatas and Partitas arranged for mandolin. The goal of the material is to make learning these challenging pieces easier. Mandolin tablature is included throughout the book. Mandolinists who have little or no experience reading standard notation will find this to be an essential learning tool. For good reason, there has been widespread interest in learning these pieces in the mandolin community. The pieces were originally written for violin. As a result, Bach's use of string crossing patterns and open-string pedals work brilliantly on the mandolin. Also, as solo works they are a useful addition to anyone's performing repertoire. Lastly, even if never performed, learning all or some of these is wonderful for building mandolin technique. Violinists often say that if you can play the Bach Solo Sonatas and Partitas you can play anything-the same is certainly true for mandolinists