Examples

Bourrée in E minor

Johann Sebastian Bach · guitar tab

The first lines of Bourrée in E minor as guitar tab in TabCraft
The opening bars, as TabCraft shows them. Open it to hear it played, follow along, slow it down or change it.

The best-known Bach piece on guitar, from his Lute Suite No. 1 (BWV 996): a lively dance in E minor where a bouncing melody is answered by a moving bass line, so it's really two voices in conversation. It lies naturally on the guitar, with the open low E for a bass. Both halves are played twice, as marked, about two minutes. A good piece for learning to keep two lines independent.

  • Standard tuning
  • 4/4 (written 2/2)
  • 120 BPM
  • With both repeats
  • Two voices

Open Bourrée in E minor in TabCraft

Arranged from the Mutopia Project's public-domain edition for lute, maintained by Rudy Matela, from Compositionen für die Laute (Zwißler, 1921).

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