Bach’s Prelude BWV 998 Analysis by CCG Member Kevin Toller

The members of CCG are an inspirational and hard working bunch! Here is Kevin’s very in-depth analysis of Bach’s Prelude BWV 998. Kevin put together all the knowledge he’s learned about chords, modulations, passing tones and more.

Analysis helps you understand the music, much like understanding a language. Many guitarists are familiar with reading notes and know about some concepts like tonic, dominant, major, minor, etc. But seeing how it all works in a piece is a whole other level of understanding, much like the transition of moving from reading individual words to reading words and sentences.

This helps you sight read, learn and memorize pieces much faster. It also informs your musical interpretation. Every single observation you make should be able to inform how you play something. The form, phrase structure, harmonic progressions, passing tones, types of chords, inversions, etc. can all contribute to creating a sensitive and nuanced interpretation.