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I am learning the Anna Magdalena Bach Menuet in G major from the Schirmer Performance edition. Can anyone tell me how to play bar 25, bass clef? There is a second voice which I understand but how does that translate to playing the keys? It's pretty confusing to me. It starts with a quarter rest over a half note, another half note and finally a quarter note yet the piece is 3/4 time.

voice 1 (bottom) - half note + quarter note = 3/4
voice 2 - quarter rest + half note = 3/4

beat 1 - play B with your third finger
beat 2 - play D with your thumb while holding B, don't release the B
beat 3 - release and play B with your third finger again while still holding D with your thumb

Thanks so much! This was of tremendous help! Just getting back to playing piano after way too long and starting almost from very beginner level but progressing nicely. Amazing how much you forget.

If you are referring to the Christian Petzold composition in the Anna Magdalena Notebook I'm learning the same piece!

If so, I assume the same technique is used in measure 26 as well with C and E?

Yes, it's the same one! And yes I assumed the same applied to the next measure. So true what they say about Bach. Relatively simple-looking pieces can be tricky.

This is the first confirmed grade 2 piece I have tried to learn. On paper, it looks relatively easy. Not so!

After two weeks of playing around with this (waiting for our teacher to return from vacation) I can play the left or right hand very well. Putting everything together is another story.

Still, it will be mastered and when that happens I'll feel that a small milestone has been reached.

Radar: "Aaaah, Bach!" (joke for Americans only I think)

Sorry, couldn't resist. Seems like everyone get to this piece sooner or later, including me

Well, in RCM it is a grade 3 piece. Guess it depends on the system.
I also find these "Bach" pieces to be deceptively easy at first glance.

That actually makes me feel a bit better!

It is starting to come around, maybe this weekend....

Bach teaches you patience. It's not virtuoso in terms of Liszt speed and jumps and huge chords and all that showoff technique, but it's incredibly hard for multiple reasons:
1) You are totally naked, one wrong note, sounds bad right away, two wrong notes and the performance is pretty much ruined.
You do need absolute certainty in your note, fingering and articulation.
2) Articulation makes the performance, you need to be able to play legato in one hand, staccato in the other and start the phrases pretty much at any point, not always on the beat or off the beat.. as you progress, you have to be able to do the same thing with the same hand or switching between hands or even more mind boggling.
3) Baroque fingering is hard and non pianistic in modern terms. passage of the thumb after the 5th finger, scales played only with the 3,4,5 finger. Ornamentation will become a second nature.
4) left and right pedaling, when done, has to be done with an absolute precision to don't get a muddy performance..

I love Bach <3

:-)

At least this piece doesn't have pedaling.

And you absolutely nailed the aspects of what makes pieces like this so hard.

think how nice will be when you'll start the real Bach and not Petzold :p :p :p :p :p