Video lesson/G harmonic minor scale

Video lesson/D dominant seventh arpeggio shapes

Video lesson/C minor arpeggio shapes

Video/Angelo Debarre

Video lessons/Tunes in G major

I'll soon be posting some short video lessons made with my laptop's built-in webcam (sorry for the less than perfect sound and video quality). The focus of the first several lessons will be four Django standards in the key of G major: Dinah, Confessin', Nuages, and Sweet Sue. In addition to showing the basic chord progression and melody for each tune, I'll also be focusing on various arpeggio shapes and licks you can use to navigate these changes. I hope you find the lessons beneficial, and please feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think about these lessons. Thanks a lot.

Video/Bireli Lagrene

Quick improv lesson-"Minor Blues"

"Minor Blues" is one of the most harmonically simple songs in the Gypsy Jazz repertoire. Written in the key of G minor, it consists of three chords: G minor, C minor and D dominant seventh. Of course, we could dress up this basic harmony by using passing chords and substitutions, but the basic song is only three chords. To begin improvising on this tune, you only need to familiarize yourself with thee different arpeggio shapes in various "zones" of the neck: G minor, C minor and D dominant seventh. If you want to take a simpler approach to this song, you could familiarize yourself with just one position for each of the song's three chords (i.e., learn one G minor shape, one C minor shape and one D dominant seventh shape). Actually, we could simplify matters even further by learning only a few positions for a G harmonic minor scale and a few positions for C minor arpeggios. When playing songs in a minor key, a harmonic minor scale based on the root of the tune will work over both the root chord of the tune (in this case, G minor) and its dominant chord (in this case, D dominant seventh). First, let's examine the notes of a G harmonic minor scale:

G/A/Bb/C/D/Eb/F#/G

Now, let's take a look at the notes of a D dominant seventh arpeggio:

D/F#/A/C/D

As you can see, all of the notes of the D dominant arpeggio are contained in the G harmonic minor scale. What's even better is that the G harmonic minor scale contains some nice color tones for our D dominant arpeggio:

G-the root of G harmonic minor/the fourth of D dominant seventh
Bb-the third of G harmonic minor/the major sixth of D dominant seventh
Eb-the sixth of G harmonic minor/the flat ninth of D dominant seventh (The flat ninth in a dominant chord is common in minor key tunes. Typically, when a rhythm player plays a dominant seventh chord in a minor key tune, they will play one that contains a flat ninth. You could use a dominant seventh chord with a flat ninth in a major key song as well, but they are more common in minor key songs. There's something very satisfying about that flat ninth going down a half step to the fifth of the root chord.

Tip: Whenever you have a few measures of a root minor chord and its dominant seventh (A minor/E dominant seventh, C minor/G dominant seventh, etc.), you can simply play various positions of a harmonic minor scale based on the root of the tune. I don't mean simply going up and down the scale mechanically like a robot (that will more often than not sound like crap), but using balanced phrasing, trills, and whatever else will make your lines more musical.

I'll soon be posting some video lessons showing licks and arpeggio shapes in G minor, C minor, G harmonic miner, and D dominant seventh, so keep checking back.

Video/Jimmy Rosenberg

Videos/Rosenberg Trio

My guitar

I play a grande bouche model made by A.L.D. (Gérald Alonso et Fabian Le Dosseur), luthiers working in Rouen, France. I bought it about a year ago through djangobooks (http://www.djangobooks.com/). It cost me a pretty penny, but I'm very satisfied with it. I originally wanted to buy the petit bouche model, but I was told by a few people in the know that it's somewhat easier to play the grande bouche since it has a shorter neck length. Since buying this guitar, I've twice had the action lowered just a bit by Paul Hostetter, a luthier and stringed-instrument repairman/restorer located near San Francisco, California. His website (http://www.lutherie.net/) is full of interesting information and deserves a visit. I've tried various gauges of strings from different makers (John Pearse, D'Addario, Argentine, Galli, Guadalupe), but thus far I've found the John Pearse and Guadalupe strings the most satisfying. If you are not familiar with the Guadalupe company, their website address is http://www.guadalupecustomstrings.com/.

Links to other Gypsy Jazz websites

Gypsy Jazz Guitarists

http://www.therosenbergtrio.eu/ (The Rosenberg Tro. This site has free mp3s of live songs.)

http://www.robinnolan.com/ (Robin Nolan)

http://www.jimmyrosenberg.nl/ (Jimmy Rosenberg)

http://www.gonzalobergara.com/ (Gonzalo Bergara)

http://pages.infinit.net/michto/biography.htm (Angelo Debarre)

http://www.myspace.com/angelodebarre(Angelo Debarre)

http://dorado.schmitt.free.fr/anglais/biography.html (Dorado Schmitt)

http://joscho-stephan.de/ (Josco Stephan-in German)

http://www.myspace.com/joschostephan(Josco Stephan)

http://www.hotclub.nl/ (Fapy Lafertin)

http://www.stephanewrembel.com/(Stephane Wrembel)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=11844539 (Stephane Wrembel)

Books/instruments/information/etc.

http://www.djangobooks.com/

http://www.hotclub.co.uk/

http://www.gypsyjazz.net/

Chords for Gypsy Jazz Songs

http://www.djangopedia.com/

http://www.hotclub.co.uk/

http://emicad.altervista.org/ (Requires PowerTab software)

http://www.rosestreetguitars.com/ (Not a Gypsy Jazz guitar dealer, but this shop has a lot of good vintage acoustic and electric guitars.)

http://www.manoucheries.com/grilles.php

Strings

http://www.guadalupecustomstrings.com/

Gypsy picking technique

Some players who attempt to learn the Gypsy Jazz style balk when it comes to learning the standard Gypsy approach to picking: a judicious use of downward rest strokes (especially when changing strings) and lots of sweep picking (especially on ascending arpeggios). These players argue that technique really doesn't matter that much if one just plays stylistically appropriate arpeggios and licks. YouTube has numerous videos of aspiring players doing just this. The notes and the phrasing they use are OK, but their sound is incredibly limp and weak, and this is due to the fact that they use a strict up/down picking technique throughout their songs. There's simply no way around it: Gypsy Jazz requires an agressive and sometimes fierce style of playing that can only be achieved with the downward rest stroke technique. This music is played on acoustic instruments, and the only way to make them bark is to dig in with some emphatic picking. Moreover, it is very difficult to play those lightning fast ascending arpeggios using the up/down approach.

An excellent book on this topic is Michael Horowitz's "Gypsy Picking" (available at http://www.djangobooks.com/), which contains an in-depth exploration of the rest stroke technique and numerous exercises to help a player get this approach down. It takes a little time at first (in my case, a little over a month), but once you get it in your muscle memory, you'll find that it's so much more logical and requires less of an expenditure of energy. As Michael mentions in his book, both Joe Pass and Tuck Andress used/use the downstroke approach, and we all know of their jaw dropping mastery of the guitar. Once you get the technique down, strict up/down picking will likely seem downright weird and awkward.

I personally find that the thicker the pick, the easier it is to play. The weight of a heavy pick, working in tandem with the force of gravity, makes sweeping and playing rest strokes much simpler. Simply put, I have to expend very little energy to get the pick through the string. In addition, I feel a thicker pick produces a warmer and more attractive tone. I currently use a Wegen pick (purchased from Michael's website), but I can't recall the thickness of it off the top of my head.

Tip: When working out licks, try to arrange them so you get two notes per string. This will not only allow you to use alternate up/down picking (which means you can play faster more easily), but it will also guarantee that you use a downward rest stroke each time you change strings.

Recommended contemporary Gypsy Jazz guitarists

Dorado Schmitt

Bireli Lagrene

Rosenberg Trio

Joscho Stephan

Angelo Debarre

Tchvalo Schmitt

Jimmy Rosenberg

Common Django tunes listed by key

The following lists are arranged in order of decreasing number. As you can see, Django really favored the keys of G major and G minor. You can find the chords for these songs at http://www.djangopedia.com/ and the free play along tracks at Stephane Wrembel's website (http://www.stephanewrembel.com/). Simply save the songs in your media player, burn them to a CD, and you have yourself an instant rhythm section. Please note that I have only listed the songs that are available at both websites.

Major Keys

G major (11 songs): Confessin', Dinah, Djangology, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Lady Be Good, Limehouse Blues, Micro, Nuages, Sweet Sue, Sweet Georgia Brown, Stompin' at Decca, Hungaria, Some Of These Days

C major (6 songs): After You've Gone, All of Me, Blues Claire, Exactly Like You, Shine, Swing 42

F major (5 songs): Avalon, China Boy, Honeysuckle Rose, Rose Room, What Is This Thing Called Love?, I'll See You In My Dreams

Bb major (5 songs): Hot Lips, Charleston, Sheik of Araby, Tiger Rag

D major (4 songs): Manoir de mes Reves (Django's Castle), Daphne, Melodie du Crepuscule, Twelfth Year, Coquette

A major (2 songs): Django's Tiger, Blues for Ike


Minor Keys

G minor (4 songs): Blues, Bouncin' Around, Douce Ambience, It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

A minor (4 songs): Anniversary Song, Minor Swing, Ou Es-tu Mon Amour, Swing de Bellevue

D minor (4 songs): Anouman, Claire de Lune, I've Found A New Baby, Dark Eyes

C minor (3 songs): Si Tu Savais, Tears, Topsy

Guitar friendly keys

What is a guitar friendly key? A guitar friendly key is one that allows a player to do two things. First, it lets him or her use lots of open strings, something which can make playing a bit easier. If you look at the diatonic notes in the keys of G major, D major, and C major, you can see that every open string (top to bottom: E/A/D/G/B/E) is a diatonic note in these keys.

A guitar friendly key is also one that is easy to recognize at various postions on the neck, since important notes of the key (root/tonic/etc.) fall on a guitar's marked frets. The marked frets on a guitar, with their corresponding notes, are:

Fifth fret, bottom to top string: A/D/G/C/E/A

Seventh fret, bottom to top string: B/E/A/D/F#/B

Ninth fret, bottom to top string: C#/F#/B/E/G#/C#

Tenth fret (if you have a European made guitar), bottom to top string: D/G/C/F/A/D

Twelfth fret, bottom to top string: E/A/D/G/B/E

If we examine the key of D major, we can see that three (or possibly four) of these fret positions have the root note "D", and three (or possibly four) have D major's dominant tone "A." If we look at the key of G major, we can see that two (or possibly three) of these positions have the root note "G", and three (or possibly four) have G major's dominant tone "D." These marked frets provide visual cues which allow a player to navigate more quickly and confidently on the neck when switching positions. A large number of the tunes Django played were in the key of G major, a very guitar friendly key. A partial list of these tunes includes Sweet Sue, Lady Be Good, Hungaria, Nuages, Dinah, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, and Confessin'.

An approach to learning improvisation

As you may already know, Stephane Wrembel has numerous free play-along tracks at his website (http://www.stephanewrembel.com/). Besides being a wicked guitarist, he is the author of the very useful book "Getting into Gypsy Jazz Guitar", which is published by Mel Bay. One day I was slightly bored, so I decided to make a list of all the tracks his site offers and then check Wikipedia's site of Django tunes (http://www.djangopedia.com/) to see if it has the chord changes for all of Wrembel's tracks. I then hit upon the idea of organizing these songs by key just to see which keys Django favored. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming majority of the keys were guitar friendly ones such as G, C, D, and so on. After studying this list for a little while, I had the realization that when you learn one song, you're really learning several (or, at the very least, large sections of several). For example, if you look at the changes for "Confessin'" and "Dinah" (both in G major), you'll see that the chords for both are pretty similar, the only major difference being the little E minor section in "Dinah." This idea of "learning one song means you are really learning several" makes improvisation more manageable and much less daunting. Once I realized this, Wrembel's book really started making sense to me. He lists five neck positions for the various types of arpeggios (minor/major/dominant, along with their color tones), as well as diminished runs and harmonic minor scale positions. If you start learning how to improvise on tunes that do not have many chord changes ("Minor Swing", "Blues", "Douce Ambience", etc), you'll quickly see that you only have to get three to five arpeggio types/positions (one for each chord in the tune) under your fingers in order to begin improvising. You can simplify this approach even further by not trying to get all five positions for each type of arpeggio under your fingers before you attempt to improvise. You can simply learn one or two for each chord in a tune and start with that. Of course, you will be limited in your note choices, but you have to start somewhere, and this is much more manageable than waiting until you have all five positions down for each chord in a song.

Summary: Being able to improvise means knowing all the "zones" on the guitar's neck and how they correspond with the various chord types. For example, if you think "G dominant seventh chord", you should ideally be able to play this shape in five different positions on the neck without hesitation. It's all about visual recognition and muscle memory.