J.S.Bach’s Invention 8 BWV 779 arranged for electric & bass guitar. One of the most popular of the two part inventions with scale runs and chord shapes to master. A sheet music score with both staff notation and TAB is available from the website. Accompaniments are also in place. This is an updated version of an earlier music score. An uplifting and appealing invention with many scale runs and chord shapes that make this an appropriate movement for guitarists to play to improve technique. There are some octave transpositions in the parts to keep to the range of the instruments. The guitar is an instrument where the same note can be played in different positions on the fretboard and whilst the TAB scores available maybe helpful in locating notes they do not provide the only solution. Acoustic instruments can be substituted for the electric. The realisation plays back at a reasonable 84 quarter note or crotchet beats to the minute. Many musicians play this invention faster and interestingly it is a movement usually played without ornaments. Guitar players need to choose a tempo at which the whole movement can be played consistently. It is a good test piece for players because this piece can very easily run away with itself requiring a tempo adjustment in the challenging sixteenth /semi-quaver sections. Remember that music cannot be played quickly until it can be played slowly. The electric guitar and bass guitar are both transposing instruments and sound an octave lower than written enabling the space between the contrapuntal lines to be retained. There are some octave transpositions in the parts to keep to each instrument’s range. Scores are available in both staff notation and TAB. The TAB scores are limited in that they are literal translations of the notated score and guitar players may well wish to review some of the note positions suggested in these scores. Ornaments are not generally featured in this movement whilst the realisation plays back at 84 quarter note or crotchet beats to the minute. Accompaniments are in place allowing guitar and bass players to participate in ensemble activities as part of their practice routines. The electric guitar sounds on one side of the stereo channel and the bass guitar on the other. The accompaniment tracks play back at 80, 84, 88, 92, 96, and for the very brave 100 quarter note (crotchet) beats per minute. This reflects the fact that this particular invention can be played at many different tempi. Accompaniment backing tracks are recorded with a dry acoustic to encourage accuracy in playing. There is a two bar count in /click track for each of the accompaniment tracks. Again it is wise for players to listen to performances of this invention on streaming media to understand the different approaches that players have when performing this movement especially with regard to articulation. The Bach Inventions are generally considered to be intermediate level movements when played on a keyboard instrument. They are possibly more challenging works when played on other instruments. The principle behind J. S. Bach’s two part inventions is to take a musical idea or motive and then process it following the rules of good contrapuntal writing using the compositional processes of the baroque and at the same time referencing the closely related keys in the harmonic journey. Inversion, repetition, sequence, transposition, rhythmic augmentation/diminution amongst other compositional processes and techniques are evident as in most other music of the baroque period. J. S. Bach composed 15 Inventions in a collection dating from 1723 intended to introduce keyboard players to composition techniques of the baroque. They are excellent pieces for developing ensemble playing in the duo format.
