Bach for Beginners: The Easiest Bach Pieces to Learn

Bach can look intimidating — fugues, counterpoint, four independent voices at once. But here's the thing most beginners don't know: Bach spent a lot of his life teaching, and he wrote short keyboard pieces specifically for students. Those pieces are still some of the best beginner material ever written, and the DoReDog library has more easy Bach than any other composer.

Johann Sebastian Bach (born 31 March 1685 in Eisenach; died 28 July 1750 in Leipzig) was a German composer of the late Baroque, celebrated above all for his mastery of counterpoint. (Wikipedia)

The Little Preludes — Bach's own teaching pieces

In January 1720 Bach began compiling a notebook for his eldest son, the Klavierbüchlein für Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. It opens with a preface explaining the clefs and a guide to playing ornaments, and its pieces are arranged by complexity, beginning with the simplest. (Wikipedia) Several of the "Little Preludes" come from that notebook, and collections of them have been republished ever since the 19th century as teaching material for beginning piano students. (Wikipedia)

In other words: these were designed for someone in exactly your position.

• Little Prelude in C (BWV 939) (easy) — the gentlest way in. Short, flowing, and immediately satisfying.
• Little Prelude in C (BWV 924) (easy) — from the 1720 notebook itself.
• Little Prelude in D minor (BWV 926) (easy) — a touch more momentum, still very approachable.
• Little Prelude in F (BWV 928) (easy)
• Little Prelude in C (BWV 933) (easy) · C minor (BWV 934) (easy) · D minor (BWV 935) (easy) · D minor (BWV 940) (easy)

Work through a few of these and you'll have absorbed more about how Baroque music moves than any explanation could teach you.

The famous one that's genuinely playable

Prelude in C (WTC I) (easy) The serene opening of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I — Bach's autograph is dated 1722. It's built almost entirely from gently rolling broken chords in a steady, unchanging pattern, which makes it hypnotic to play and far more approachable than its fame suggests. Charles Gounod later wrote a melody over these exact harmonies, creating the famous "Ave Maria." (Wikipedia)

If you learn one "real" Bach piece, make it this one.

Also easy, and beautiful

• Prelude in C minor (BWV 999) (easy) — flowing and moody, in the same broken-chord spirit.
• Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (easy) — a chorale prelude of remarkable stillness.
• In dulci jubilo (BWV 608) (easy) — a warm, festive melody.

The next step up

Air on the G String (medium) — endlessly loved, and worth the reach when you're ready. The music began as the "Air" from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3; the famous version is an 1871 arrangement by August Wilhelmj. (Wikipedia)

Minuet in G (easy) — one of the most-taught beginner pieces in the world, from the 1725 Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. Worth knowing: it was credited to Bach for centuries, but is now attributed to the Dresden composer Christian Petzold. (Wikipedia))

How to practise Bach

1. Hands separately — always. In Bach the two hands are often equal voices, each with its own melody. Learn them as two independent tunes. (See Hands‑Separate Practice.)
2. Keep a steady pulse. Baroque music lives on rhythmic evenness far more than on dramatic swells.
3. Play slowly enough to hear both voices. If you can't hear the left hand as a melody, you're going too fast.
4. Loop the crossing points — where the hands weave past each other — with the A–B loop.

A sensible Bach path

1. Little Prelude BWV 939 — your first Bach.
2. Little Prelude BWV 926 — add momentum.
3. Prelude in C (WTC I) — the famous, beautiful one.
4. Air on the G String — the reach.

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