I just got my copy of the "25 pieces" book at last months Django in June 2012... therefore, I've only had a chance to learn about 10 percent of the stuff in this book.
But I like it a lot, and I think you will, too.
!) You DO NOT need to have worked with Givone's first book, the "Guitare Manouche Methode"... though users of that book will recognize a lot of fingering patterns.
2) The book is very much like the musical examples found at the back of book one... you'll find some swingy stuff, some minor key traditional gypsy-sounding stuff including several waltzes, and some Latin-sounding stuff... there's even one piece written for solo guitar a la Django's famous improvisations.
3) Givone has a very smart way with chords, so quite a few of the musical examples sound quite modern and "advanced" even though they use mostly just garden-variety chords... eg, no "bebop" chords
4) Let's be brutally honest--- a lot of these various GJ methods that guys here purchase tend to wind up on a shelf...
Which may even be true of this one, who knows? But I think even guys who just buy the book to cherry-pick some good licks out of it... (and here I'm looking at a certain western Canadian saxophonist/guitarist you may know)... are going to feel that they got their money's worth on this book. I find each of the 25 pieces seems to take at least a week or two to master... so learning everything in the book would probably keep you busy for 6- 12 months.
5) FYI--- as leader of the Givone Guitar Group, I've gotta say that people who buy this book won't really NEED any support to work their way through it, so I'm still trying to figure out if we should invite them to join our group of guys who are struggling to use the info in book one and get it into our playing... so we'll have to talk about that!
Will Wilson
Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON
Submitted by: lango-django on 07/18/2012 01:08:49 PM