Comments

• noahfuture ✭✭✭

  September 2011 Posts: 61

  Yeah... I've gotta say, I signed up for a month... and WOW! Gonna need more than a month for sure! Kind of an amazing resource!

  One writes music because winter is eternal and if one didn't, the wolves and the blizzards would be at one's throat all the sooner.
  -David Mitchell
• Jim Kaznosky Prodigy Bumgarner Derecho;AJL XO

  September 2011 Posts: 1,231

  It's a good one. I spent three months over there and I learned quite a bit.
• Kalebima New

  October 2011 Posts: 39

  Would this be a good site for an absolute beginner to gypsy jazz? I've played for about 3 years without much direction, mostly just noodling around on blues riffs, and have decided to go all out with Gypsy Jazz now that I'm in Montreal. I'll be starting lessons in about a month, but in the meantime I might want to pick up a month of Rosenberg Academy.
  
  Also, how does it hold up to other online sites? Compares to Gypsy Jazz Academy or School, it seems to look the best and has the best price.
• GJFAN New

  October 2011 Posts: 20

  There is some really advanced stuff on the Rosenberg site but for me a newbie to the style there is certainly a lot at my level. Sections on Technique and Rhythm are great for any level and the tunes more of which are posted and transcribed every month all have great licks in them some advanced some easier but all great licks. There is also a section on improv. which was really helpful to me and a gypsy jazz fake book for chords to a lot of tunes. I would say it's a great course for any level and having tried some other online ones this one worked for me far better than anything else.
• Kalebima New

  October 2011 Posts: 39

  Thanks for the quick response! I'll probably go off your advice and give it a try sometime this week. Maybe I'll write up a quick review after a month, since there doesn't seem to be many floating around.
• NorwayGadjo New

  December 2011 Posts: 8

  I highly recommend the Rosenberg Academy to anyone who wants to learn to play Gypsy Jazz authentically. You'll get Stochelo's exact fingerings, pick directions and other techniques. I've been there since the site opened, and I can finally play Gypsy Jazz. Nowhere close to Stochelo's level, but I'm learning more each practice session. There is no shortcut, but if you practice hard every single day, Stochelo will certainly help you play the music the real way.
  Every month is exciting because there are new songs coming.
  This is the best learning resource in my opinion. Coupled with Hono Wintersteins rhythm guitar lessons from Denis Changs site, you'll be prepared for anything!
  
  My honest opinion on the matter. You have the chance to learn from the best. There is no better option, unless Bireli starts doing the same thing. That wouldn't be better however, just different.
  
  I signed up the moment it opened and haven't regretted. I'll stay until the day it closes.
  Maybe too enthusiastic opinion for some people, but I've got my moneys worth and more than I could dream of.
• J-D. Sauser ✭

  July 2012 Posts: 12

  I just joined too.
  It's interesting and challenging but it's somehow missing a chance to help further beyond just simply showing a genius' approach. Incidentally, they will show you how to hold a pick, how to do some very basic things, but then when you migrate to the pieces, there is no explaining, there is no "etude".
  I would like to see a format where they'd start with a simplified version of the "improvisation" and then, step by step, raise the stakes by adding notes in between, doing alternate fingerings, more embellishments.
  I have observed the "old" showing to the very young, and that's exactly as it happens; they take a piece and start with the essential notes of the solo, THAT alone can sound pretty good and it gives the "student" an idea of the patterns that will repeat over and over again later in all the music to follow, as dexterity, technique and memory develops they embellish further.
  
  All in all, in a style where good information is scarce, the Rosenberg Academy is a nice source and well worth the money. But it lacks a true LEARNING format to call itself an "Academy" in my honest opinion.
  
  Playing like Stochelo does is ART, and so is teaching... but they are two separate arts.
  
  ... J-D.
• kevorkazito Winnipeg Manitoba Canada✭✭

  November 2012 Posts: 178

  I enrolled at RA a few days after beginning with Denis Chang's DVDs.
  
  My plan was to to work on technique with Denis and try to get some repertoire with Stochelo since I like a lot of his songs.
  
  I find that going at both resources is a great way for me to learn. It's like one is a physics class and another is math. In the physics you can see how the math works and get a different perspective of it. There's a feeling that this gives me as a beginner a robust introduction to the material, having both perspectives being laid out by two masters. It's costly, but still cheaper and more convenient than going to class, if you can find a teacher.
  
  I like the forum at RA and look forward to the opportunity to post videos of my playing and have me peers critique it. Heisenberg says that observing alters the outcome, and I know that preparing a video to be critiqued will bring out the best performance I can muster.
  
  I'm so grateful for these learning resources. In 1982 I picked up some Django sheet music and couldn't do anything with it. In a few days, I've started laying a foundation and have the confidence that after hard work and dedication I'll totally be able to get off while playing such gratifying guitar music.