My 30-Minute Paganini Routine

March 4, 2021, 5:36 AM · In general, I find that although I lack for talent in virtually every arena of life, I can compensate quite well by a kind of dogged perseverance coupled with an ability to withstand mind-numbing routine. Thus, I can go month after month on a particular technical routine before beginning to freak out and need change. The three main works I use in this late stage of my life, when I have no need or ability to perform anymore, are Simon Fischer’s Warming Up; Albert Sammons' The Secret of Technique in Violin Playing; and Dounis' An Artists’ Technique.

Of the three, ‘Warming Up is the most low-key. Very sensible basic exercises that with a minimal expenditure of time make incremental improvements in one’s playing that pay huge dividends in the long run. Dounis is superb, but I restrict its use because over the years I have concluded that, with all due respect, it’s a little too theoretical and rather hard on the hands. It’s like stretching if you have a bad back: feels good at the time, but later the pain comes back and the only solution is more of the same (of course it’s not that bad really...).

The Sammons is, for me, an ideal compromise between the two. I believe Sammons had an innate understanding of the real necessities of violin playing and, most of the time, came up with exercises that capture these. He’s kind of sneaky. For example, the short three part chord passage at the beginning, used as a basis for all the bowing exercises is also a disguised study in fifths which should, in my opinion be one of the most practiced intervals on the violin.

However, even the most anal retentive people, such as myself, do need a break from this kind of stuff every now and again. Further, if one is restricted to one hour a day of practice it really isn’t much fun to spend so much time on the process that one never even takes aim at the goal. Well, one of my favorite books on violin playing (you have to actively look for the extremely valuable technical gems in it...) is Leopold Auer’s book. In it he suggests that taking technical passages from all over the repertoire is an invaluable means of developing playing. This tends to be rather frowned upon these days. The criticism is usually that decontextualizing passages is a kind of un musical behavior. I can’t say I care too much about that.

For maximum efficiency I like to use the Paganini caprices for this purpose. After all, if I destroy them musically I still have the Bach Solo Sonatas don’t I?

Actually, I am not too fond of this kind of sarcasm directed at Paganini either because, like them or not, they are among the greatest works ever written for the violin. Many performances over the years have, in my opinion, over emphasized the virtuoso aspect, leading them to be somewhat trivialized. One player who has done a great job of demonstrating their -still- untapped potential is Ilya Gringolts. Listening to his caprice no1 for the first time some years back radically altered my thinking on these works literally overnight. Anyway I digress. When I am short of time and climbing up the wall I use what I call my ‘30 minute Paganini routine.’ Something like the following:

Caprice No. 8

• Bars 5 and 6: B flat major scale. Practice a few times slowly focusing like a hawk on intonation and preparing the fingers on the next string before the bow gets there.
• Bars 8-16: for left hand facility. Schradieck with a drone. Just start slowly and move the metronome up ten notches at a time.
• Bar 17: Scale in 6ths. Slow practice for intonation, one line bowed with both fingered. Focus on simultaneous finger placement. Practice each pair as a double stopped trill and with dotted rhythms.
• Bar 19: Scale in 3rds. Use practice methods from Simon Fischer’s Double Stop manual if required.

Caprice No. 9

• Opening section. Intonation practice. To start with, ignore the music and practice chunks of E major scales in thirds ascending and descending on the e string. Use other chunks of double stops in the same way. Every note is the same length as though it was just a double stop etude. Do any groups and pattern you like. Then play the section through.

Caprice No. 16

• A lot of players are so intimidated by the reputation of the caprices they never notice that the first 12 are fiendish and the latter half are relatively accessible. Paganini was no fool! No 16. is really not that hard. I treat this as a double stopping exercise. That is, I place the first two notes down simultaneously, then the 3rd and 4th, then the next four. In essence, I turn the opening into a blocking exercises done at very slow speed. Always practice really slowly and listen like crazy to the intonation. Then practice spiccatto with three notes to a bow so the left hand moves slowly and the bow fast. Any other kinds of bowing also useful. Play it at the heel....

That’s it. Half an hour’s worth of intensely focused practice on some of the best violin music ever written. Paganini’s stuff is sooooo good that one can make up this kind of routine from virtually anywhere in the book. Then it’s time for a coffee...

Cheers,
Buri

You might also like:

• Proofreading Paganini: Fixing Two Centuries of Errors in the 24 Caprices
• Kurt Sassmannshaus: Technique in Paganini Caprices
• Interview with Rachel Barton Pine: Paganini 24 Caprices
• Violinist.com interview with Ilya Gringolts: Paganini 24 Caprices

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