There are several urban legends surrounding Paganini, such as the legend that he sold his soul to the devil so that he would be able to play the violin with such fiery virtuosity. Having learned a few of his pieces I can certainly see how such a transaction might have led to the devilishly difficult pieces for which he is known. Caprice 16 is one such piece. My personal favorite of his famous 24 Caprices, Caprice 16 is tour de force of scalar passages, arpeggios, string skipping and rapid position shifting.
You may have noticed that I did a lesson a while back on this piece. I have since re-learned it and arrived at fingerings that I think work better compared to those I used in my previous Caprice 16 lesson.
Playing With The Devil - Paganini Caprice 16, Part 3
I hope you have toughened out the past 2 exercises. The end is almost in sight! Much like athletes don't always appreciate the relentless efforts of their couch until after they taste a sweet victory, I think you will have a full appreciation for these guitar lessons after you sit down and play this piece straight through from start to end. I am sure you will notice vast improvements in a variety of techniques which will hopefully inspire in you a desire to continue pursuing guitar excellence!
Above is the tab for measures 23-40. Here are some tips:
Even though the piece is written out in straight 16th notes, do not play
this piece with metronome precision. Find some recordings of violinists and
notice how they let the piece breath. Insert pauses to your liking.
Do not try and play this piece at ludicrous speed. It simply does not lend
itself to16th notes at 220 BPM. Most violinists play it around 130-140 BPM
and my recording is done at tempos similar to those played by violinists.
Experiment with fingerings! There is tab available online for this piece
but so far I have yet to come across a version with fingerings I like. I had
to go through a lot of trial and error before I came across fingerings that
worked well for me. You may not like my fingerings (especially the string
skipping parts) so do what works for you!
Note: My audio recording (as well as the MIDI) contains the
entire piece. Measure 23 comes in around 1 minute 10 seconds into the recording.
Lessons
