OK, if you want to learn how to play Bach on the guitar (or any other instrument ) chances are you have everything you need . ALREADY
I use Cakewalk by Bandlab for this type of learning I'm about to talk about .
In the past I used to use other versions of SONAR ..
First , all you need is to get some Bach Midi Flies
You can get them here ,
http://www.jsbach.net/midi/http://www.kunstderfuge.c./bach/organ.htm#PartitasBTW the second link is killer yet it may only limit your use since it is a subscription site
( it may limit it to 5 midi's a day as per non subscript )
If I want to a audition a midi file while you are at one of these sites you may choose open with Cakewalk as opposed to save as ...
Cakewalk will open the midi file and place the TTS 1 as the default synth ..
The only draw back to that is some of the sounds may sound cheesy but it is a good way to audition files .
If I hear something I may like I will download it
One trick I like to do is to use a piano or a guitar sound for all the parts of the midi .
I do this once I have decided that I want to learn how to play the parts .
The reason for doing that is I'm used to hearing the guitar so it is easier for me to pick up guitar parts using a guitar sound
Once a Bach midi is loaded into Cakewalk it may look like this
In both cases I'm using the Staff view pretty much unaltered ....the cool thing is I do read music
(yet not as good as I used to but good enough to at least be able to pick up the right notes and the timing )
On these next few Bach midi files I will open up the staff view editing function to set my individual track octaves to Treble 8 VA .
unedited notion will look like this ...the wrong clef for guitar
( i left to dialog box open i will get to that later )
To change the staff view property's for a traditional 8 va guitar clef you will need to go to where it says edit in the staff view area of the GUI
Using the drop down menu you will be able to change each tracks staff view property's to your preference
on the left you will see a list of the racks and on the right you will be able to set them individually..
to do you just select the track on the left and set it to what you want on the right
the image here has been set to the correct clef for being able to read it as a guitar part it is no longer in the bass clef as pictured above
here are a couple of shots of a Bach file set up for guitar practice with the correct clefs added ..
for those of you that do not read music I am not trying to alienate you ..the simple mater of the truth is you don't have to be able to read music . You can always still slow things down , loop things and chop up sections of Bach's music as a midi or audio and work your learning cafeteria style ..
The cool news is a few decades back if you wanted to learn Bach you had to study with a teacher privately or go to a music school ( BTW i did both back then )
Since we all have a powerful DAW and access to thousands of midi files it is possible to stay in the loop and learn at one's own pace ...
In closing I hope I may have helped somebody here . Although I like to joke around in The Coffee House a lot I am serious about trying to add to a topic I am interested in ...
For those of you that may try what I have put forth and say hey Bach sounds crappy and lifeless as a midi file using the bundled GM synth that comes with Cakewalk by BandLab .
To you I say Yes I agree with you . Here is my promise to you . When you take the time to learn as little or as much as you can grab on your instrument you will notice that Bach does sound very good after all ...
I don't care if the songs tempos is 123 and you can only play it at 50 BPM what you play on your instrument is always more important than how it sounds as a midi file ..unless you happen to be a Midi Master and you have all the chops it takes to breath new life into a midi file ..
all the best
Kenny