Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin Arranged for Mandolin

[StefanWeigand]

I recently purchased the ebookversion of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin Arranged for Mandolin by Andrew Driscoll. I wanted to see whether the fingerings i have figured out for some of those pieces make sense. For that reason I was particularly interested in the tablature that is in the book. Sadly, I was very disappointed by it. It seems as if the tablature was computed by some software and blindly published in the book. In a lot of situations the tablature doesn't seem to make sense. Are there any other people around here who own this book and feel the same way? May be someone has suggestions for better books?
The good thing is that it motivated me to download notationsoftware and start making my own tablature to this music. Happy to share, if anyone is interested. Mainly working on the first partita in B minor.

[billykatzz]

I really like the Daniel Sellman transcriptions of Bach sonatas and partitas. There will always be fingerings that work for an individual and others that may work better for you, but by and large I think the books are great. I'm working through a number of the pieces; it's just about all of my mandolin playing these days: Bach!

[Bill Findley]

Mike Marshall’s book is very good.

[Jim Garber]

IMHO it is better to find an urtext version without any markings and figure out your own (as you have done already). As billykatzz noted above, it is a personal preference. Why would you need tab for fingerings at all if you can read notation? If there are no printed indications in the violin version it will work just as well for mandolin. I do not believe that Bach wrote these piece with fingerings. Most of the dynamics and fingerings for violin were added by later editors.

[jesserules]

If you're going to learn to play Bach on the mandolin, you might as well make this your motive to learn notation (if you don't already). Then you'll be able to go right on to Bartok & Beethoven & Biber & Bloch & Brahms & .....

[ukrobbiej]

Learn notation, then you can make your own decisions- much more satisfying

[CES]

He can read notation, since he’s doing his own transcriptions, but I agree that it’s nice to have fingering suggestions when there are multiple options. Took Bela Fleck, who doesn’t read notation fluidly, 2-3 years to get Perpetual Motion where he wanted it, for just this reason...

OP, sorry, I don’t have a better suggestion for you...good luck as you work through them!

[John Craton]

Then there's this: https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title...music/17471717

[Jim Garber]

He can read notation, since he’s doing his own transcriptions, but I agree that it’s nice to have fingering suggestions when there are multiple options.

Maybe so, but he has yet to show up here after posting the OP. Sometimes new folks post and then forget that they did and never come back. Also he said this:

The good thing is that it motivated me to download notation software and start making my own tablature to this music.

If he reads notation then why does he need to create tablature?

[StefanWeigand]

Yeah I am new, but didn't forget and read all your replies with great interest. Thanx!
I do read notation, but what I wanted to find out is how and in what positions, do people play these Bach-pieces. There are a lot of options, and while playing them from standard notation, i made choices that seem to work for me. Therefore I am curious what choices other people make, and tablature reveals those choices more than standard notation does.

[Jim Garber]

Many years ago I wanted to play those Beethoven mandolin pieces and got hold of an edition of the pieces by a recognized European mandolinist and teacher. The fingering indicated was quite awkward and I could not for the life of me figure out what he was thinking.

There are now a few more editions of classical mandolin pieces out there. Another source for alternate approaches to fingering are right here on the Café. Just ask some of us who have been playing these pieces. I am sure many of us have played through that particular one you are working on. Frankly, the best fingerings are probably the one that you are personally comfortable with but it si a good idea to see what others have come up with.

Fingering indications written into standard notation IMHO work just as well as tablature and though the violin approach to fingering and positions might differ from mandolin it is probably worthwhile to check the violin editions of these pieces since there are quite a few editions not specifically for mandolin. For instance, you can download quite a few at IMSLP.

[Bob A]

,Part of the fun of learning a new piece is figuring out how to finger it. Fascinating fun finding, figuring facile fingering, fighting frustration.

[bratsche]

Forsooth, may a fantastic, fabulous and fruitful foray into fully favorable and fumble-free fingerings forthwith be your forté.

bratsche