PlaysoloistStringsGuitarSongsJesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

guitar song · Strings

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Guitar Tab

Composer
Johann Sebastian Bach
Year
1723
Key
D
Time
9/8
Tempo
144 BPM
Difficulty
Easy · ★★
First note
D4

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring on guitar

The full melody, rendered as six-string guitar tab in standard tuning you can read on screen or print for the stand — free, and never truncated.

Tuning: E A D G B e (standard) · Strum: D - - D - - D - -

eBGDAED79111012121210D1010910101112011eBGDAEGD1210121087077A7670760870eBGDAEBmG77071012121210D1010910101112011eBGDAEEmA70108707776D7710101011121110D10

Johann Sebastian Bach, 1723 (BWV 147) — public domain, simplified setting.

How to practise this on guitar

Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is in D and the tab opens on D4 — find that fret, settle your hand there, and notice how little it has to move: the arrangement is worked out with a fret-hand position economy, so consecutive notes stay under your fingers instead of leaping up and down the neck. Read the numbers, not the note names: string line plus fret is the whole instruction, and an open string costs you nothing.

Play it well under around 144 BPM with a metronome and let each note ring into the next — the tails under the numbers show you how long. When your take review marks a bar, loop just that bar until the fret-hand shift inside it feels automatic, then rejoin the line. Speed is the last thing you add, never the first. By the numbers, this setting runs 72 notes across 9 bars, from A3 up to D5 in 9/8 time.

Also playable on

The same melody is graded across 6 Playsoloist instruments. See every version, with difficulty and provenance, on the Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring cross-instrument hub.

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