Jaganini, Paganini

Some of you might say ‘shame on you,’ after reading this. After all, ‘What’s a man in your condition think your doing runnin’ all over old Paganini like that.’

And you’d probably be right. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow when the violin reaches my shoulder.

But here’s what happened today, and I think you’ll want to pay close attention ‘cause it’s interesting.

After spending some time with Mister Kreisler this morning, listening to and identifying harmonies as I played, I moved over to Paganini #5. Now, most days lately it would hurt just thinking about roping this old finger-buster.

But for after my violin-ringing Kreisler tune-up, not today.

My Kreisler warm-up had done me a great service. ‘Playing the harmonies,’ as Milstein would have said it, worked some gently magic on my hands. By thinking about the music in an unfamiliar way – I’ve done it before with this piece, but not for a while – I opened up new channels from my brain right down to my fingers.

That then spilled over into Paganini – with an added development. Not only did I visualize the notes and analyze the harmonies as I played, I also began playing with all the possible bowings – i.e. 1+3. 2+2, 3+1. 4+4 – even carrying 2 beats in the flying spiccato strokes.

But again, seeing/hearing every note, not allowing any to escape unnoticed; which meant, incidentally, that there were some periods when I was playing extremely slowly whilst sweating bullets.

Pretty soon, however, it didn’t matter which bowing I wanted to use with any given beat. With my body and mind ‘juiced up’ on a clear draft of mental clarity it was easy to see why Milstein observed, ‘Anything is possible.’

What a concept. But you DO have to put something behind it. It doesn’t just happen by itself. And yes, you can get it to the point of being ‘automatic,’ if you happened to learn before the age of 8. But, barring that, you can expect to practice DOING if you want to KEEP IT, GET IT.

By the way, I like ‘Jaganini with Paganini,’ it’s kind of an onomatopoeia of the first two beats of the Presto. And I’d also say the jag in Jaganini is a good description of the right forearm movements needed to get the bow jumping. And these are quite horizontal jags of the arm.

At the moment I only have 1 volume out on the Paganini Caprices, and there are some VERY useful practice tools to be had in it, speaking of ‘getting it.’ Maybe I’ll have to start the ball rolling on volume 2.