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Comment by _jcrossley | Hacker News Reader

So happy to hear you’re giving CG a shot as well! That attitude and image of “Campfire Bach” is excellent, are you practicing BWV 999 Prelude in Dm yet? That was my first intro to Bach - such a wonderful tune, and a little easier than other Bach pieces for guitar.

I’ve heard really great things about Mearns’ arrangement of the Chaconne (which I’m tackling now, against my better judgment). I gave it a very brief read and thought it was interesting with campanella fingerings, but thought the change to E minor is a little too out there for me right now. I might take another look now, though! Thank you for the reminder :)

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BWV 999 was my first, it's such a pleasure, then 846 (wtc 1), and this year's project was 1007 and have it down as well, but after hearing Mearns' version with a whole bunch of the implied counterpoint filled in, it's almost embarrassing to play the original now. I'm thinking my next project is his bwv 847, and I have been warming up to it by slightly rearranging bwv 846 by adding an alberti bass note via a sort of travis picking technique, akin to what Mearns did with his bwv 1007 arrangement. Skill wise, the Chaconne is probably a decade away for me right now, but this winter I may get his wtc c minor prelude down, then go back to foundations with instruction again so I can tackle more serious pieces. To play CG well takes everything, and its been a long time since I gave that to something. Glad to see someone else take it up a bit later as well.

Happy trails! :)

Excellent!! I'll have to look into that Mearns arrangement of BWV 1007. I worked on that one for my RCM 8 exam - shameless plug, but a "final" recording from this time period is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpTm_J8p9eU It's far from perfect, but I'm proud of where I got it

Would love to connect over YT / Twitch / whatever and follow your journey! Happy trails to you too

That's fantastic. I don't do anything recorded and this HN account is the extent of my social media presence. Is that the RCM arrangement by McFadden? It has some additional cool ornamentation I didn't have in the version I got from the Wener edition. Yours has a few additional bars near the crescendo and the addition of some bass counterpoint on the low D that I am missing in my version. Mearns takes it to a totally different place to where it's a very different piece. I also really liked your glissando as it sustains and reveals the symmetry of the whole piece really well. Humbling and intriguing! Thank you for sharing it!

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