September 2010 \ Premier Clinic \ Rock \ Paganini Caprice No. 1, Part 1

Paganini Caprice No. 1, Part 1

Mike Campese

Mike Campese arranges a violin classic from Niccolo Paganini for guitar
Premier Guitar September 2010
This lesson I will be showing you Niccolo Paganini's Caprice No.1 from the 24th Caprices, which I always loved and always wanted to arrange for the guitar. This piece was originally nicknamed "L'Arpeggio" and uses chordal arpeggio playing with ricochet across all four strings on a violin. When I first heard this piece way back, I felt a little intimidated because the way it is originally played and I knew it would be tricky on guitar. The violin has a very small neck compared to a guitar and it would be easier to move around on that instrument. Recently, I sat down and started to tackle this piece for an arrangement on guitar, and figured out how to make it lay nicely on the fretboard. To get it to work on the guitar I had to move some notes around from the original, but the most important thing was to maintain all the harmonies. This piece opens in E major and quickly transitions into an E minor section, but I only will be showing you the first part for this lesson, so we will not get to the E minor section.

To play this piece I use sweep picking for the whole thing, which is a great workout if you want to develop your sweep picking technique. I listed the right hand picking pattern on the notation. For this first section, there are basically two different types of picking patterns. The first one is when you are not skipping a string and you are just playing the notes in a row, the other one you are skipping the B string when you are ascending. Be sure to take it slow and gradually build up speed and feel free to ask me any questions you may have.

Download Example Audio: Fast - Slow


Next lesson I will be showing you more of this great piece, so be sure to stop back.

     

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Comments

 (5 comments) display by
UsernameComment
Allen
on 09/24/2010 		I really wish you could make the graphic darker, when I print the music notation, is is so faded it is illegible.
Mike
on 09/18/2010 		To Jim: Yes, you do barre the same fret in most cases like that. The challenge is to kind of roll and release pressure with that finger so the notes don't sustain over each other, and you get the clarity of each individual note. Like guitar_dan, I like to alternate pick most of my arpeggios a la Steve Morse (just nowhere near as well), depending on the tempo. But with this Paganini piece, the tempo basically demands it to be swept. Experiment and take your time.
Jim
on 09/17/2010 		Guys can you help me with something? Do I barre all frets when fretting notes on the same fret on different strings (i.e in the 5 bar,the 11,9,9,9 pattern) thanks.
guitar_dan
on 09/17/2010 		Arpeggios are a lot of fun to play with alternate picking too. Hard to get up to speed, but worth the effort. And the notes don't have to be altered to fit the sweep pattern.
Mike
on 09/17/2010 		Nice arrangement, thanks for sharing. I would suggest adding chord tones on the B string instead of skipping it. For example, on beat two of measure two, you could play the D sharp on the 16th fret or even the F sharp at the 19th fret. Sorry to sound lazy, but I figure if you're already taking liberties with the piece, and at that tempo, use easy to finger chord tones that are on the way there anyway.



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