"Paganini's One Scale"

Hi there, today we will be exploring what I believe is the "one scale" that the greatest virtuoso, Nicolo Paganini, believed was the one scale necessary for the left hand technique....

The Chromatic Scale!

The chromatic scale is an often overlooked scale in practice sessions yet the benefits of it are truly huge.

Benefits

The ability to accurately measure and feel the distance between one semitone and the other

The ability to feel how the distances change as you go up the fingerboard

The lack of a tonality focuses the intonation and removes confusion as to what is in tune and what is out of tune - sharpens your ears.

How to Practice

The absolutely best way to practice the chromatic scale, and it seems scary at first, is with one finger!

Start with first finger playing the note A flat on the G string (the very first note) and start ascending in semitones on that string until you reach the A flat one octave higher.

This promotes the ability to move your hand from note to note by small slides rather than big shifts.  The benefit of this is a much higher degree of accuracy in determining where you are on the finger board and how far you have to go.

Next try with the second finger and so forth, on all the strings and you will find that you are more in tune and also have the ability to identify and correct out of tune notes faster.

Next Steps

Once these one finger on one string chromatic scales are mastered, a gateway of new scales and exercises are opened up that can lead to true mastery of all places on the fingerboard.  You can try a major scale on one string with one finger, arpeggios, anything that takes your fancy, all of which will provide you with full knowledge and comfort with all places on the fingerboard.

The Yost Scale System is an excellent place to see just how thorough the principle of scales on one string with one finger can be stretched - highly recommended

Paganini was onto something with this one!

Good practice and see you soon!

Florian