Prelude in C Minor: Part 3

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman, and in this lesson we're going to learn the third and final page of "Prelude in C Minor BWV 999", by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Let's get started by checking out the score.

Here's the sheet music for the last page of "Prelude in C Minor."

Let's start off by analyzing some chords. On this page Bach is using a lot

of diminished chords so let's briefly review what a diminished chord is.

For example, this is a C diminished chord.

How do you recognize a diminished chord? Well,

one trick is to think of the minor chord, and just take that top note and lower it an extra half step, and now it turns into a diminished chord.

So remember, a major chord like this C major chord can lower this note down a half step to become minor,

and then you lower the fifth of the chord down a half step to become diminished.

So this is C diminished. Another trick I like to use for diminished chords is to notice

there's two half steps in between these bottom two notes. Two half steps in between these two notes as well, so if you're looking

at those in between notes, that will always tell you a diminished chord if you see two of a white key or a black key in between

the notes of the diminished chord. So let's be on the lookout for some diminished chords today.

I'm going to draw a box around some chords, I'd like you to pause the video and figure out what they are.

A couple things to watch out for, remember some of these chords may be in inversion,

and also remember to double check your key signature.

And if you'd like you can pause and circle any notes that are a B, E, or A

because those will be flat unless you see it canceled by a natural. Like this E would normally be flat because of our key signature,

but because of the natural, it becomes E natural.

So pause now and can you figure out these chords and write the chord symbol up above. Remember, the symbol for a diminished chord is d.i.m. So if it's like a C diminished chord you can write capital C, dim for diminished.

Pause and figure out these chords. Write the symbols up above, then press play and we'll check it out together.

Okay, let's check out this first chord. We have a G a B-flat from our key signature has to be flat, and E natural. Now I see that the B to the E natural is a fourth, which tells me I'm probably in an inversion,

and the trick is when you see that fourth, the top note is your root.

So I'm going to take this G and B-flat, put it up here, and now I can see from this two in between, two in between, that this must be an E diminished chord,

or the other way I could have known that is remember that this is my E minor chord, and I've taken that top note,

lowered it a half step.

That tells me this has to be E diminished.

You can recognize it by the sound as well. Diminished always has that very tense kind of dissonant sound.

What you get for this chord?

Looks like we have a G on the bottom, B-flat and D. Remember, B-flat because of the key signature always be watching out for those

key signature flats. That builds a G minor chord.

The symbol for minor is just a little m after the capital letter G minor.

What did you get for this chord?

Look carefully, we're three ledger lines down.

Remember, the first ledger line down is C then A, F is this third ledger line down, but it's a sharp, so we have F-sharp,

then A-natural, which cancels the key signature. A-flat becomes A-natural, C.

Aha, once again we have two in between two in between.

That tells us that this is an F-sharp diminished chord, which we could write this way F-sharp

d-i-m for diminished.

And here what do we have?

Hopefully you notice that's the same chord again F-sharp diminished.

Now that we've practiced with those few, I have a few more chords for you to analyze.

All right, will you analyze these next five chords on your own?

And remember to watch out for the key signature.

Remember to watch out for inversions, and pause to analyze those chords, then press play and we'll check them out together.

Here are the correct answers. Here we had an A, C, F-sharp, because of that fourth that tells us we're in an inversion so we can take these two notes, put it up here.

Look for the top note of the fourth to know your root. That gives us an F-sharp diminished chord.

Here we also have a C, F-sharp, A.

This fourth tells us we've got an inversion, so we'll put the C on top.

F-sharp diminished. Notice we've got F-sharp diminished, F-sharp diminished,

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