PlaysoloistStringsViolinSongsJesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
violin song · Strings
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring Violin Sheet Music & Notes
- 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 violin
The full melody, rendered as engraved treble-clef staff you can read on screen or print for the stand — free, and never truncated.
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1723 (BWV 147) — public domain, simplified setting.
How to practise this on violin
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is written in D and opens on D4, so tune that string true before you draw a bow — on a fretless fingerboard the whole piece rides on where your first finger lands. Play the opening phrase slowly, one clean bow-stroke per note, and watch the pitch feedback rather than your hand: the app hears which notes drifted sharp or flat, which is the one thing a mirror can never show you.
Keep the bow parallel to the bridge and draw from the middle third for an even tone. Set the metronome well under around 144 BPM and don't raise it until you've been graded clean on two takes in a row. When a bar comes back red, loop just that bar — intonation improves fastest on the phrase you keep missing, not on replaying the whole piece from the top. 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.
Keep exploring
Free on the App Store
Play Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring — and hear every note graded.
Soloist Violin reads this engraved treble-clef staff under the notation and grades your take on-device, note by note — free on iPhone, no ads, no account.
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