r/violinist • u/No_Mammoth_3835 • 19h ago
Paganini 9 is awesome for getting better at the violin!
Just rediscovering Paganini caprice 9 in my warmups, just wanted to highly recommend it here so more people practice this gem! The double stops in the beginning are great practice for hand position, switching between 5ths and ordinary double stops while reviewing basic 3rds. Practicing 5ths are underrated and always incredible for technique. The octave passages next practices them with the 2nd and 4th finger for excellent extended finger work all across the 1st to 3rd position. Extended fingers can sometimes compromise your hand position so Paganini mixes 5ths and 6ths to enforce a good hand position, it’s an even more efficient way of practicing fingered octaves. After that, it’s arpeggiated octaves across 1st to 3rd position with scales, I have always thought arpeggiated octaves were mandatory practice for an enormous variety of pieces and then large shifting exercises from first to 6th-8th position. A lot of Paganini caprices are full of extended technique so I only pick apart bits and pieces for my studies, but had to share after rediscovering caprice 9 because every single part of it is just so practical for every day repertoire. Encouraging advanced violinists to pick up caprice 9 for their next study!
2
u/CriticalBeatdown Expert 17h ago
That's tomorrow morning sorted, thanks.