Daniel Givone La Guitare Manouche

Pros: great etudes

This is fun book. Givone adapts arrpeggios to the CAGED system. However, instead of playing straight on arpegs in positions he demonstates them as licks, then shows how they can be linked together. This is pretty great for players of any level particularly newbies that are trying to figure out how to make use of arrpegios. The book is in French, which is cool for me. I enjoy using google translate to decipher it. (Learning french and Gypsy Jazz! LOL). This shouldn't be an issue the etudes are straight forward. I always mention this, (because it matters!) Djangobooks was quick to deliver and Michael was great with his customer service.

Submitted by: Jlander9 on 09/19/2012 09:08:27 AM

This is a terrific resource for learning Gypsy Jazz! It has different approaches to arpeggios that, I would say, stimulate creativity and definitely improve my playing and composition skills. Everything comes with tablatures and the concepts are very easy to understand, even though they are in French and I am not proficient in French. Thank you very much Daniel! Christian Flores (Ottawa)

Submitted by: Christian on 08/15/2012 06:45:05 PM

Pros: I think I fit all the pros into the main review.

Cons: The only con is the book is all in french. I've found, however, that the book is so intuitive that it doesn't matter much, AND if you join the support group on the forum, you can get help on where to

I bought this book because someone on the forum saw a posted comment I wrote about how I wanted a GJ curriculum that presented licks or phrases ALL in the context of the CHORD SHAPES used (which I find helps in trying them in different keys, which I find is the key to getting them down). So, I purchased this book about 3 weeks ago, and BANG !! Exactly what I've been looking for ! Basically, this book breaks up everything into 5 forms - E shape, A shape, D shape, C shape, and G shape. It shows you a nice long authentic gypsy Jazz phrase over each shape's MAJOR, MINOR, Dominant 7, AND Dominant 7 in a minor key. This layout makes it SUPER EASY to transpose the licks from one key to another, AND it basically gives you a great NOTE map for each shape/form. As a result, when you work out these forms, and get them into your fingers, you're not just provided with a series of licks , but rather a long phrase which you can then NOODLE over and CREATE your own licks and phrases. Honestly, I've NEVER gotten even close to THIS MUCH out of a guitar instruction book. I always buy them, learn a few bits out of them, and then never really use them. The ONLY book that is close to this one in my view is Gonzalo's 'how I learned'.

Submitted by: anthony on 05/31/2012 10:59:55 AM

Having read with interest the recent comments about this book on the django books forum i decided to purchase it.Like any form of music gypsy swing has its own dialect and nuances which must be learned if you want to speak this language.Like country music with its major pentatonic and blues with its minor pentatonic the forms that m givone lays out in this book if internalised will have you well on your way to speaking this language.A welcome addition and highly recomended.

Submitted by: moose on 03/16/2012 12:31:13 PM

1) Daniel Givone’s “La Guitare Manouche Methode” is entirely in French--- not a word of English, which may be a problem for some… 2) It mentions RH technique only in passing, so it’s not a good beginner’s manual. 3) But it’s packed with an incredible amount of cool ideas; almost an encylopedia of GJ technique. 4) I’d guess that to learn everything in this book would take several years of study, so the price is definitely reasonable! 5) Givone’s “five positions”: So logical! So obvious! Why hadn’t I ever thought of this? 6) OK, here’s the negative: the accompanying CD is just not very user friendly: the passages are just played too fast for learning; so it’s going to require a major waste of time re-recording every single one of these 70+ cuts with a “slowdown” program. This is annoying when A) all the user wants to do is learn the musical material, and B) today's sophisticated user is well aware that 21st century technology exists to make this problem needless! 7) But there are some lovely examples here of chord-melody style, something I’ve not seen in any other manual. 8) Likewise, at the end of the book there are cool tabbed solos in various styles: bossa, rhumba, ragtime, samba, and blues. 9) Daniel Givone is a gifted player, but you know what I’d like to see? A gifted teacher like Michael Horowitz reworking this manual and publishing it in English in a more user-friendly format. 10) If that were to ever happen, I’d give it five stars! But as it is, I’m giving it four stars, and I’ll tell you why: I’m hoping that if enough djangobooks.com members were to buy this book and help each other by communally sharing slow-downable recorded files privately, we could, without breaking copywright, make learning Givone’s excellent material a much happier experience. 11) Now THAT would make this book a five-star method! Will Wilson aka 'lango-django' jazzbug2@gmail.com I’m an intermediate GJ player and retired teacher living in Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, Canada; I'd love to hear from other purchasers.

Submitted by: lango-django on 02/07/2012 06:33:35 AM