The Guitar Player's Resource
Welcome back! Now that you have the first part of Paganini's "Moto Perpetuo" completed, I will be giving you the second part in this lesson. Hopefully, you have been playing the first section very cleanly and evenly with a metronome. Also, you must have both hands working together, or it will sound sloppy. You have to play slowly first (in order to be able to play fast later) and then build up the speed.
As I did in the first "Moto Perpetuo" column, I included the harmonies so you can hear what Paganini was thinking harmonically when he composed the work. This piece is based in the key of C major, with the clever use of secondary dominants. More excitement can be added if you make some of the minor chords dominant, instead of strictly using the harmonies inside the key. Also, there are some nice chromatic passing tones, especially in bar 12 and a hint of the C Lydian scale in bar 14 over the C chord. This piece can be played in different positions on the neck once memorized, 5th and 7th position are comfortable positions, you also might want to try it in the 9th position.
MP3 - Moto Perpetuo Fast, Then Slow
That is it for now! Feel free to contact me if you would like to see more. Be sure to check out my CDs on this amazing site and visit mikecampese.com for more information.
Mike Campese is an all-around music performer, session artist and teacher competent in many musical styles, electric and acoustic. He has studied at G.I.T. (Honors Graduate), and with Paul Gilbert, Norman Brown, Stanley Jordan, Scott Henderson and Keith Wyatt.
