Although I generally like most music, I have a preference on the acoustic sound. Guitars, basses, banjos, harps. I always try to improve my guitar and music skills. Over the last decade I am still trying to figure out how to improvise in the style of gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt. I may need few decades more…
In the near future I intend to make some proper recordings available in mp3 format. At the moment I’m placing here some of the few tracks I have available from old recordings.
| mrag.mp3 | 0.97MB |
| carolan.mp3 | 0.57MB |
| sleep1.mp3 sleep2.mp3 | 0.933MB 0.602MB |
I try to use everything I can to improve my technique and understanding. Books, cds, video lessons, software, even programming and ofcourse practice.
I have found the following programs very useful:
Band In a Box : allows you to create and play as a backing track a chart on a particular style.jazz.chansons.free.fr has made available two fake jazz books, volume 1 and volume 2 . The two files contain 1000s of standards in the bbox format.
Amazing Slowdowner: slows down mp3 & audio without loosing pitch.
AP Guitar Tuner: The best pc guitar tuner I’ve used.
Online Metronome.
Other useful resources:Extended Guitar Chords, Chord & Scales chart,
Theory Lessons at jazzprimer, A Jazz Improvisation Primer
by Marc Sabatella, Free online ear trainer. Mel Martin’s Jazz article.
Few years ago I’ve listened to Django Reinhardt playing and converted to the manouche style of music. You can see him play in this rare video clip of J’attendrai. About-Django.com has a whole page devoted to relatedvideos. Another good resource for online videos is djangobooks.com. Remember to try youtube too.
DjangoMontreal hosts a biography of Django by Alain Antonietto. hotclub.co.uk : Very useful portal with the best uk shop on django related merchandise
Now and again with few friends we jam for fun. For the curious here are some example tunes recorded on a tape recorder.
| 1.Dark eyes.mp3 | 0.97MB |
| 2.Minor swing.mp3 | 1.07MB |
| 3.I’ll see you in my dreams.mp3 | 0.57MB |
| 4.Swing’39.mp3 | 0.933MB |
For real gypsy jazz you’re better of checking the latest albums, or the gypsy jazz radio.
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I got a Gitane DG250M from hobgoblinand I installed a n4 Dupont bridge fromgypsyguitars The action was raised considerably but the improvement on the tone worths it. You can read various interesting reviews on the Gitane 250M at maartinallcock and atharmonycentral. I always use argentine 10s strings and I usually get them in bulk from djangobooks.com |
One of the most important things for getting into this music has been registering on the yahoo gypsy jazz forum. Also check out the available django transcriptions. Another site for transcriptions/tabs. Tab Software that you need to view/play these usually include:TablEdit, PowerTab and GuitarPro.
search ebay for manouche guitars.