Bach on bass

[Brad Maestas]

I have a transcription of the Cello suite for Viola, and the common practice for certain open string is to play the open string _and_ the stoped one on the string below, it gives more power, and that's the way I play it.

There are instances where Bach notates this doubling as a unison. Where possible, I play them as a unison with an open string. Sometimes it's not possible to play the unison so in those cases I either play just one of the notes or I play an octave.

Great point to touch on. The Inventions don't have much in the way of written unisons but they certainly abound in the solo pieces. Dave, that's a great suggestion for those times when unisons are either impractical or impossible: just play one of the notes or play one up an octave. These pieces weren't written in stone, after all!

 

[jadesmar]

I generally play the suites in the octave they were intended to be played in.. except for the small bits of the 6th that I can actually do.

I have a 22 fret instrument so high F# is a harmonic as is the high G.

Double/Triple stops are played as a two-handed hammer on.

Suites are here:
http://icking-music-archive.org/scores/bach/cello_suites/vc100712.pdf