Notalo › Piano songs with letters › Prelude in C major, BWV 846
Prelude in C major, BWV 846 — piano notes with letters
The first eight bars of the prelude that opens The Well-Tempered Clavier, written as one broken chord per bar. Each bar is eight eighth notes: the two lowest notes, then the top three played twice. All white keys except the F♯ in bar 6.
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1722 · C major · 4/4 · public domain · arranged and labeled by Notalo
Hear it. A MIDI file of exactly these notes at 66 BPM — open it in any music app, or slow it down to practice.
Download MIDIAbout the song
Bach finished the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722, a set of preludes and fugues in all 24 keys to show that a keyboard tuned in the new “well-tempered” way could play in any of them. The Prelude in C that opens it has no melody at all: it is a chain of broken chords, one per bar, whose slowly shifting harmonies do all the work. Gounod later wrote his own Ave Maria as a tune to sit on top of it.
How to play it, phrase by phrase
Each bar is one chord spread from bottom to top: the two lowest notes once, then the top three notes twice. Bar 1 is C E G C E. Bar 2 is C D A D F — the same C, then D minor above it. Bar 3 is B D G D F, a G seventh. Bar 4 returns to C. Bar 5 is C E A E A, bar 6 C D F♯ A D — the only black key — bar 7 B D G D G, and bar 8 B C E G C. Play every note evenly and softly, and let the chord symbols above the staff tell you where the harmony is going.
Letter notes, bar by bar (right hand)
Read left to right; a | is a bar line. Chord symbols are for the left hand or a guitar.
| Bar | Chord | Right-hand letters |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | C E G C E G C E |
| 2 | Dm7 | C D A D F A D F |
| 3 | G7 | B D G D F G D F |
| 4 | C | C E G C E G C E |
| 5 | Am | C E A E A A E A |
| 6 | D7 | C D F♯ A D F♯ A D |
| 7 | G | B D G D G G D G |
| 8 | Cmaj7 | B C E G C E G C |
Three things to watch
- Every bar is one chord, spread out — read the chord symbol first, then the letters fall into place.
- The first two notes of each bar are the left hand's notes in Bach's original; we give them to the right hand so you can hear the whole pattern.
- Keep the eighth notes perfectly even; nothing should be accented.
Have a different version, or a different song? Upload your own sheet music — a photo or PDF — and Notalo writes the letters under every note the same way, plus chords and a MIDI file.
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Frequently asked questions
Is this sheet music free to print and use?
Yes. Prelude in C major, BWV 846 is in the public domain and this arrangement was written and rendered by Notalo. Print it, share it, use it in lessons.
What do the colors mean?
Red letters are the right hand (treble clef), blue letters are the left hand (bass clef), green is the chord for the bar. This is the same output Notalo gives for any sheet music you upload.
Can I get it with Do Re Mi or numbers instead of letters?
Yes — download the image above, upload it to Notalo, and pick solfège (Do Re Mi), German letters, or numbers (1 2 3) as the label style.