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.
Hello Everyone! Hopefully, you have a handle on part 1 of Niccolo Paganini's Caprice No. 1.
Let's tackle part 2 of this amazing piece.
In part 1, you might have found the string skipping sections a bit tricky, especially for the right
hand. There are similar sections in part 2. The violin has a much smaller neck than a guitar, so
the string skips are easier on violin. Keep with it though, it will get easier if you keep practicing.
When working on the arrangement, I really didn't want to stray away from the original piece so I
chose to keep the harmonies and rhythm like the original. However, I rearranged the notes in
the string skipping sections to make them a little more accessible for the guitar. Notice the
string skipping in bar 1 and bar 4. You could always add in an extra note on the B string to fill
in the space, but just remember, eight 32nd notes make up one beat and it would be a good
idea to keep the contour. Like I said, I wanted to keep this version as close to the original as
possible, so I didn't add extra notes.
You will see some repeated patterns in this section. Check out the diminished chord arpeggio
moving in minor thirds in bar 1, beat 2. Be sure to keep the same fingerings when you move
this pattern around. Beginning in bar 7, you will notice the next two bars of chordal shapes. I
use hybrid picking to play this section; my right hand middle and ring fingers pluck the B and E
string and I pick the A string.
Download Example Audio: Fast - Slow
Ok, this is it for now! let me know if you would like more of this Caprice and feel free to ask me
any questions you may have. Also, don't forget to visit www.mikecampese.com...
Welcome back! In this lesson I will be showing you the next section of Niccolo Paganini's
Caprice No. 1. If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2, be sure to check those out. This piece will
do wonders for your sweep picking technique and other areas of your playing. Also, be sure to
analyze the progression while you are going through this.
The techniques are similar to the previous sections, but this next section is in a minor key. This
piece originally was based on the E major scale (E–F#–G#–A–B–C#–D#) and then switches to
E minor (E–F#–G–A–B–C–D), the parallel key. For the first four measures, Paganini uses the
V chord (B major) derived from the E harmonic minor scale (E–F#–G–A–B–C–D#). The second
beat of the fifth measure is a little tricky because of the stretch for the C on the 1st string. We
can consider this a D7 arpeggio with an A in the bass and then to a regular D major arpeggio
with the A in the bass. I love the last few bars of this section. In measure six, the second beat
begins with a G major arpeggio (G–B–D) that continues to the end of this section, except the
top note changes on each arpeggio. The first G major arpeggio has a D on top on the first
string, the second one has a G on top, the third one has a B on top and the last one has a D on
top.
Download Example Audio: Fast - Slow
Ok, that is it for this section! If you would like more of this piece be sure to let me know. Also
make sure to check out my Christmas CD at mikecampese.com.
