Learn to read music · Air on the G String
Practice chart
Air on the G String
A week of practice for Air on the G String, step by step: each hand alone, then both, then with the metronome at 60 %, 80 % and 100 % of full tempo, with each step's speed worked out from the score.
- Piece
- Air on the G String
- Composer
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Bars
- 36
- Full tempo
- =40
- Week of
| Step number | Step | Speed | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Passed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Right handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 2 | Left handAlone, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 3 | Hands togetherBoth at once, no metronome: find each note before you play it | no metronome | ||||||||
| 4 | Steady 60 %Both hands, metronome at 60 % of full tempo | =24 | ||||||||
| 5 | Steady 80 %Both hands, metronome at 80 % of full tempo | =32 | ||||||||
| 6 | Steady 100 %Both hands at full tempo, with the metronome | =40 | ||||||||
| Minutes played | ||||||||||
The score prints no metronome mark: these are the speeds Clefsight's metronome uses for it. If full tempo feels wrong for the music, cross it out and write your own.
Version: Right-hand melody (282 notes)Melody and left-hand roots (318 notes)As written (565 notes)
How to use it
- Each day, start at the top step you haven't passed yet. Play it a few times and tick that day's box.
- The first three steps have no metronome: find each note before you play it, however long that takes. One passes when nine notes in ten come out right and you didn't have to look up a note's name.
- On the three Steady steps, set a metronome to the step's speed and keep going through slips, to the end. One passes when nine notes in ten are right without stopping.
- When a step passes, write the date in its last box. Tomorrow, start on the next step.
- If the same bar goes wrong two times running, play that bar alone: 20 % of full tempo under the step (at 60 % on the 80 % step), 5 % faster each time it comes out clean.
- Stuck on one step all week? Step down to an easier version (right-hand melody or melody and left-hand roots) and climb the steps with that first.
Practice chart for Air on the G String, from clefsight.com/learn/piano-practice-chart?piece=bach-air-on-the-g-string-fa9ab3. Play it there at a MIDI keyboard and Clefsight marks each step for you.
Why in this order
Reading the notes, finding the keys and keeping time are three jobs. Each hand alone, with no clock, lets you do the first two for half the notes at a time. Hands together, still without a clock, adds the hard part: two lines of music read at once. Only then does the metronome come in, below full tempo, so that keeping going is the one new thing. Each step changes one thing, which is why a step that won't come is a sign to go back one, not to push on.
The 6 rows are the same steps Clefsight uses when you practise a library piece at a MIDI keyboard: it plays the other hand while you learn one, waits for you in the first three, counts you in for the rest and marks every note.
Another piece
Choose a piece from the library and the chart comes back with its title, composer and length written in, and the speed of each step worked out from the score's metronome mark.
Or play the steps at your keyboard. Clefsight waits for you in the first three, plays the other hand while you learn one, and marks each step passed as you go.
Practise itIts page: Air on the G String, with every version to print. What the tempo word means: tempo markings.