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Prelude in C Major, BWV 846

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) · sheet music

  • Key C major
  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 3–10
  • Passages 19

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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Johann Sebastian Bach, German baroque (1685–1750). The reading release has 19 passages from this piece at levels 3–10; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 4–7 for the right hand alone.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 4–27 at level 10.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Prelude in C Major, BWV 846.

  1. Right hand alone · bars 4–7 level 3
  2. Hands together · bars 9–12 level 4
  3. The hardest bars · bars 4–27 level 10

How to play Prelude in C Major, BWV 846

  1. Keep the sixteenths even and unhurried, and let the dynamics rise and fall with the tension of each chord rather than adding accents.
  2. In Bach's notation the left hand's two notes are held while the right hand plays its pattern; keep them down and the voices will ring.
  3. Practice the piece first as block chords, one per bar, so your hand learns to grab each new shape in one motion.
  4. Slow down in practice at the closing bars, where the pattern changes, so the new figure doesn't catch you on autopilot.

Structure

The prelude is through-composed, with no repeated sections. The harmony moves toward G major, wanders through more chromatic chords, then settles over a long held G in the bass that builds expectation. The ending sits over a low C, where the figure finally changes before the last chord. It lasts about two minutes and is followed by a four-voice fugue.

About Prelude in C Major, BWV 846

Bach completed Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722, 24 preludes and fugues through every major and minor key. An earlier, shorter version of this prelude appears in the keyboard notebook he made for his eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann. In 1853 Charles Gounod laid a melody over it to create his Ave Maria, making it familiar far beyond pianists.

Why the first passage is level 3

That passage is level 3 rather than 2 because a hand covers more than one position, it leaps a fourth, the line roams across the staff, it leaves the five-finger position.

Every bar of this prelude repeats one broken-chord pattern, so the reading job is harmonic: spot the chord, then let the hands play the shape twice. The bass line moves slowly underneath and tells you where the harmony is heading. It is the opening piece of the Well-Tempered Clavier and a model of reading by pattern instead of by note.

Questions about Prelude in C Major, BWV 846

How hard is Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 to play?
Its passages grade from level 3 to level 10 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 4–27 at level 10.
Is there an easy part of Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 for beginners?
Yes. Start with bars 4–7 for the right hand alone, the level-3 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 3 because a hand covers more than one position and it leaps a fourth.
What key and time signature is Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 in?
Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 is in C major, no sharps or flats. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Prelude in C Major, BWV 846?
Johann Sebastian Bach, German baroque (1685–1750). Bach completed Book I of The Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722, 24 preludes and fugues through every major and minor key.
Can I practice Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 19 graded passages from Prelude in C Major, BWV 846 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 19 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 3
bars 4–7 right hand · bars 5–8 right hand · bars 9–12 right hand · bars 45–48 right hand
Level 4
bars 9–12 both hands · bars 45–48 both hands
Level 5
bars 4–11 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands
Level 6
bars 13–20 both hands · bars 13–20 right hand · bars 17–20 both hands
Level 8
bars 41–48 both hands · bars 41–44 both hands
Level 10
bars 4–27 right hand · bars 7–22 both hands · bars 33–44 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands · bars 33–40 both hands · bars 37–40 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261001-mutopia-ly reading release.

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