Young Niccolò studied violin from an early age, especially under his father Antonio Paganini. He was very strict with him: Niccolò had to train for up to seven hours a day, and when his father thought he was not training hard enough, he would beat him or would not give him food that day. When Niccolò was five years old, he began learning to play the guitar, giving regular concerts from the age of nine.
In 1801 he traveled to the music festival in Lucca, Tuscany, where he had great success. After the festival, he decided not to go back to Genoa, but to stay in Tuscany. Although he received high fees for his performances, he was very indebted because of gambling; nevertheless, he sent part of the money to his parents in Genoa. He even lost his violin, but learned from it and then stopped gambling altogether. His friend lent him his violin from Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri (also known as del Gesù), and after the concert, he was so enchanted by his playing that he dedicated the instrument to him. Paganini loved this violin ("Cannone Guarnerius").
He made a living from numerous concerts throughout Italy. He had his only permanent job between 1805 and 1809 with Princess Elisa Baciocchi of Lucca, Napoleon Bonaparte's sister. From 1828 he began to give concerts outside of Italy, visiting, among others, Germany, France, Poland, the Czech lands, England and Scotland.
Thanks to numerous concerts, he became very wealthy and had a valuable collection of violins from renowned violin masters - he owned, among others, violins by Antonio Stradivari, Niccola Amati, or Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù.
Paganini died in 1840 in Nice.
There are many stories about Paganini, but today it is impossible to find out if they are based on real foundations. He allegedly played so passionately at one concert that he broke three of the four strings, yet he managed to finish the concert on the lowest string G. According to another variant of this story, someone deliberately cut them before the concert.
Paganini performed with breathtaking bravura, easily mastered even extremely fast tempos, and used unusual techniques at that time (eg playing exclusively on a G string, using scordatura, and more).
Paganini also composed many musical compositions, his 24 caprices are so difficult that violinists were not able to play them until 50 years after his death.