Score analysis: Minuet in G

Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114 — long credited to J.S. Bach, now attributed to Christian Petzold (c. 1725). It's in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach and is a standard early-intermediate piece. Below is the right-hand melody of the first 8 bars.

Key signature: one sharp → G major or E minor. It starts on D (part of the G chord) and the left hand begins on G, so: G major.

Time signature 3/4: three quarter-note beats per bar. Minuets are dances, so beat 1 is strong. Every bar adds to 3: bar 1 = quarter + four eighths = 1 + 2 = 3.

Bar 1: a leap down from D to G, then stepwise motion up (G A B C). Bar 2: D, then two repeated Gs. Bars 3–4 are the SAME pattern, a step higher (E, then stepwise up to G). This is a sequence — recognise it and you've read two bars for the price of one.

Bars 5–8 move mostly downward by step, ending on A (a half cadence: the phrase pauses on the V chord, D major). The phrase wants to continue — and in the full piece, it does.

F♯ in bars 3 and 7 comes from the key signature — no symbol is written next to the notes. If you play F natural here, it's a reading error, not a 'wrong note' of the composer.