Bach — Musette in D · From Zero to Mozart

A musette is a piece that imitates a small bagpipe — a drone humming underneath a lively tune. This one, from the notebook Bach kept for his wife Anna Magdalena in 1725, is the Foundation‑gate piece: play its main strain well and you've shown you can do everything the first half of the course was for — read it, count it, tune it, and bow it with control.

First position, D major, 2/4. Descending scale runs, string crossings, an even détaché, and a calm held note at the end. Nothing fancy — just everything, at once.

First half

72 bpm

How to play it

Middle of the bow. Hold the A steady, then the run is four quick even down-up-down-up strokes — small, from the forearm, rolling to the A string for the last D. Keep the run light so it doesn't scramble.

A held high A (3rd finger, E string), then a quick run down the D-major scale — E string to A string. Twice. Then a lower answer on the D and A strings. The held A is your son filé; the fast four notes are light even détaché.

Second half

72 bpm

How to play it

Same as before. End with a full, calm bow on the held D — your son filé again. A clean, settled arrival is what a gate piece is testing.

The same, but this time it comes to rest — E, A, then a held D on the open D string. That's the whole strain. It repeats — play it twice.

The whole strain — playthrough

84 bpm

Bach's Musette in D, the main strain, complete — the part everyone knows. Light, dancing, a drone humming under it. (Fingering is in the phrases above.) When you can play this in tune, in time, with an even bow, you've reached the Foundation gate.

The middle section — for later

The full Musette has a middle section (a B strain) before this one returns. It wanders into chromatic notes — D♯ and G♯ — and leaps down by octaves, which is very natural on a keyboard (where the piece was written) and awkward on the violin. It's a Phase‑2 piece to play in full, once you've started shifting. For the gate, the strain above is the test.

The usual mistake

Playing the fast four-note runs heavy and scrambled — digging in with the bow so they lose their evenness. They're light, small, quick détaché, from the forearm, not the whole arm. The other mistake: rushing the held A and held D. They're the calm points — full, steady bows.