Waltz better for technique

[bryanology]

I've heard this before. I'm not sure why though. Is it beacuse note timing/placement is so critical? someone want to help me break it down?

[Jon]

Just because they're hard really. They often have challenging arpeggio passages that are tough to do properly with the rest stroke...they have some fast bits...and, as opposed to practising, for instance, classical violin pieces or other time honoured "technique builders", they feature idiomatic harmonic and melodic vocabulary that you can immediately steal for use in gypsy jazz. They are also excellent memory builders, as they can be quite long and involved, with lots of sections and variations to memorise.

Lots of them are also very pretty.

Jon

[bopster]

Lines jump between triplets and eighth notes, requiring great picking technique with 2, 3 and 4 notes per string.

[bryanology]

Thanks Jon and Bobster. And yes, I've never thought of that but, the complexity, the waltzes are so 'classical' as opposed to your regular GJ standard that fits on a page. Also they are indeed beautiful, and usually provide a prefect medium for a good guitar player to show some chops. Working on 'Passion' right now from the Romane recording, really beautiful and with all the technical stuff too. Thanks for the input guys.

[PiedViper]

I play the accordion. I often play waltz musette pieces for practice. I find them to be amazing for building technique. You can play them very stiffly and classically like a minuet or you can swing the notes as was common during Django's time. The melodies of the tunes really force me to play in a way that I would never play in jazz, and when I improvise over them, I feel like I have to pay more attention to playing melodically. In general, they're great tunes to insert into the middle of a show in that they tend to break up the sameness of the "Pompe" rhythms.