Variation 6.

 Okay, in an exchange about Paganini's Caprice No. 24, Robert said,

"Anyway back to the subject if you had studied Caprice 18 a little, as I have, you will find variation 6 in Caprice 24 a breeze."

It is not my intention to take the piss in this post, only to look at the variation in question and see what I can see. Then, hopefully, Robert can shine a light on things from his perspective.

Here it is, Variation no.6...

I have not attempted to play this variation yet - today is the start of the second week (8 days nearly down) in my planned 4 month endeavour to play this Caprice pretty well.

I can see that the chord progression remains the same as what I have encountered so far...

Am  E7  Am  E7  (repeat those first four bars)   A  Dm  G  C  E7(hinting at G# (or D) Dim.)  Am  E7  Am.

The first 4 bars are in 3rds and the next 6 bars are in 10ths. The second to last bar has a bit of varied harmony and the last bar has just the root note played in two octaves.

I guess that the anchor point to start things off is that the first double stop contains an harmonic E. The first four double stops are minor thirds but then we hit a major third. I guess the first concern in those first 4 bars is to get to know the pattern of the major and minor thirds. (M m m m M M m M m m m m m M m m m M M) (m = minor, M = Major) 

The next thing is to decide where they will be replaced on the fingerboard. Then it'll be time to study the suggested fingering and find some 'intonation checkpoints'. It'll be very important to check the movement distance (tone or semitone) between each double stop. Maybe I'll practise one note at a time first.

My next job will be to study the 10ths and perhaps get used to playing them away from the variation.

This is all future work for me at the moment. Though, I think I'll make a start tonight.

I am sincerely interested to hear Robert's take on this and his thoughts.

Robert - violinist.

I am less interested in the thoughts of any relative who has never played (nor attempted to play) the violin but is a self proclaimed expert.

Of course, Peter might have some good ideas.