Daniel Givone Manouche Guitare Method Users Group — DjangoBooks Forum

Groupings of tunes?

blfeguitar — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:54:55 +0000

Hello everyone

In one of Duved's DC music school lessons, he talked about "groupings of tunes," meaning there are countless individuals tunes, but there are only around 20 totally different types of chord progressions (with some variations of course). Is there a resource that lays these different chord progressions? Or suggestions for quickly figuring this out on one's own?

Rocky Gresset: am I the last to know about him?

Lango-Django — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 10:36:25 +0000

While visiting Paris last month, I was given a copy of a 5-CD sampler containing tunes of dozens of great European GJ players.

They're all great, but one track in particular just knocks me out, "The Way You Look Tonight" by a player I'd never before heard of named Rocky Gresset. It's sort of a hybrid of GJ and mainstream-ish North American swing... played on acoustic guitar, as I personally prefer.

I googled "Rocky Gresset" and found lots of hits, including a guy who'd posted a video of himself playing Rocky's arrangement of that very song. Anyway, you can check Rocky Gresset out for yourself at YouTube and also find his CD on iTunes which includes "The Way You Look Tonight".

To judge his playing from just this one tune, Rocky's not one of these shredder-type guys that end up just wearing you out. His playing is very intelligent and musical and swings like ten thousand mofos. When the tune ends, you want to hear it all over again.

So thus I say, "If this is the sort of thing you like, then I think you'll really like it..."

Oscar Aleman "Blue Skies"

Lango-Django — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:40:26 +0000

Pulling together comments from several threads... I've always loved the simplicity, sparseness and swing of Oscar's playing on this Irving Berlin classic tune, so today I decided to mess around with it a little bit and see if I could learn a few things from it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HWqVzTtBKw

It seems to be real easy to play, except the recording is right in the middle between E minor and F minor.

I'm guessing Em is the right key...? Has anybody ever worked on this? please tell me if I'm wrong...

Will

Daniel Givone at Django in June 2019

AndrewLawrence — Sat, 29 Dec 2018 17:44:50 +0000

Hi Folks:
The website has not been updated yet for next year (working on it! working on it!) but I just stumbled upon this corner of the forum and thought I'd let folks know that Daniel Givone will be joining us for the first time at DiJ in 2019. He'll do a two-part workshop on Tuesday afternoon (before Django Camp gets officially underway.) That will be oriented toward players who plan to attend lead guitar classes at Level 1 or 2. Then for the remainder of the week he'll be teaching at Level 3.
Happy New Year to all...hope you can join us come June! Dates are June 10/11 - 16.
~Andrew

Calling all Givone method users for a little retrospection

Lango-Django — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 21:50:29 +0000

I imagine that many members of the Givone Guitar Group, if you are anything like me, have by now moved on to other approaches to learning gypsy jazz?

In my case, and I hope in yours as well, Givone's approach was very helpful in learning arps in every possible fingerboard position.

But what I've found in using that knowledge is that I've gradually made those positions sound more like me and less like Givone.

Now that's not entirely bad, because I always planned to use the method that way. I'm more a trad jazz/ swing kind of player than a real GJ guy. So although I do like having a certain element of GJ in my playing, it's not a real problem for me that my phrasing has gradually become sort of a half assed version of the true style.

But for some reason, the other day I got thinking of some of the really musical licks to be found in the Givone book, especially his tasty 2-5-1 licks, which I really liked.

So now what I've been doing lately when I practice is I keep a sheet out in front of me with a bunch of those tasty licks all tabbed out just to remind myself to try to incorporate them into my improvisations.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but for me, some licks just seem to really stick with me...

Meanwhile, other licks, no matter how many times I go over them, just never quite make it into my natural vocabulary and somehow feel "foreign"... maybe that's just me?

Anyway, that's where I'm at and I'd welcome the responses of everyone else around here who's used the Givone method.

Will

Question about bridges

Lango-Django — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 15:06:14 +0000

What kind of bridge makes a GJ guitar sound best?

I just finished lowering and installing a bridge which I moved from one guitar to another. it does make the guitar sound better (the previous bridge was one of those adjustable archtop type bridges) especially boosting the midrange.

My new bridge is made of rosewood, which I presume is a desirable wood?

Its inside has been hollowed out... Is that good?

it sits atop the guitar on two feet... Is that the best way, or is it better if the whole bridge contacts the guitar's top?

The strings sit in rather shallow indentations, to the point where some of them will come out of the groove if picked too hard...?

comments from everyone are welcome, but I'm especially interested in hearing opinions of luthiers and repairmen...

Will

Anybody working on Rino van H's mini lesson?

Lango-Django — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 22:46:46 +0000

Let me begin by saying again THANK YOU!!!!!! Dennis Chang for putting this together for us... and thanks to Rino of course! I'm very happy, because this is EXACTLY what I was hoping for after falling in love with Rino's playing at DiJ.

I've just had a chance to get started on his arrangement of "All of Me" and some of the licks were familiar to me from Rino's workshops at DiJ, but I was/am knocked out by bars 17-18, where he uses what I'm going to call a criss-cross arp...instead of the usual up-one-side-down-the-other, he goes down a little, then back up a little, then down again, up again, etc. it really sparkles! and almost reminds me of a bluegrass banjo.

This was new to me, was it to you?

and needless to say, I plan to work on using this approach on all my arps.

Will

Rino van Hooijdonk

Lango-Django — Sat, 06 Jul 2013 13:15:45 +0000

Those of you out there who attended Django in June last month may, like me, have fallen under the spell of a lovely "old school" player named Rino van Hooijdonk. (His first name is pronounced "Reno", but I haven't got a clue how to pronounce his last name!)

Rino is a Dutch fella in his fifties who learned his GJ as a teenager from the gypsies on his area. He's played with many top players, including Stochelo, Lulu R, and Fapy, but says that the last few years have been pretty lean gig-wise, not just for him but for most of the guys he plays with.

I mentioned to him the last day of DiJ that I'd be interested in paying him to write out some of his cool stuff for me, and he seemed to like the idea.

so I've just e-mailed him to try to set up something, and I wonder if anybody else might be interested in joining the Rino lessons club?

I'll let you know once I have a better idea about the cost, etc. but if this sounds interesting to you, please PM me.

Thanks,

Will

Johnny Smith

Lango-Django — Thu, 05 Sep 2013 19:21:04 +0000

Back in the 50's one of the foremost US jazz guitarists was a cat called Johnny Smith.

somehow I missed ever hearing him, he usually played one of those electric archto ps that I never really dug the sound of... but he had an instruction manual for two bucks that showed you how to play jazz chords and that's why I still play those old two dollar chords instead of the official GJ pompe chords.

Anyway...

I was surprised today to learn that Johnny Smith wrote the 1960's hit by the Ventures "Walk Don't Run" which I did dig when I was a lad back in the day... Check out his version, it's pretty cool...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HwQxdrmwY8

Wonder if Johnny ever met Django?

New Jimi Hendrix biopic "All is by my side"

Lango-Django — Sat, 14 Sep 2013 19:28:02 +0000

Just saw the film this afternoon at the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival)... Initial reactions:

- Andre 3000 was totally believable as Hendrix, whatever else you want to say about this film. Even his left-handed guitar playing was totally believable, though it seems some other guitarists provided the actual music... mainly a guy named Woody Wachtel whom Id never heard of.

- Because the Hendrix estate wouldn't co-operate with the filmmakers, no actual Hendrix music could be used.

- Most of the film covers Hendrix' 1966-67 time in England.

- Several scenes seem to be less than factual: today there was a comment on the Guardian website by Kathy Etchingham, Hendrix' real life girlfriend at the time, who denies that Hendrix ever assaulted her, as was depicted in the film.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/se ... ew-toronto

- I also wonder about the scene where Jimi meets Eric Clapton and joins his 60's band Cream onstage for a jam session... Clapton is depicted as being so threatened by Jimi's great playing that he runs off the stage and hides. I have a feeling this probably never happened, as by all reports Clapton and Hendrix got along well and were both in awe of the other's talents.

- I've read somewhere that Hendrix was very proud of his military service, bringing into question the scene in which a bunch of English bobbies hassle him for wearing a military jacket which he'd bought at a second hand store and he responds by taking off the jacket and throwing it on the ground.

- Full disclosure- I was never a big Hendrix fan back in the day and in fact preferred Django even back then. That being said, I enjoyed this film greatly and I think most GJ guitarists will enjoy it too.

Even though the filmmakers were forced to use a facsimile version of his music, the movie is pretty damn good... or at least, it will have to do until somebody makes a biopic about Django!

Will

"There are no stupid questions"... well, maybe this one?

Lango-Django — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 20:45:57 +0000

In a previous thread I wrote a bit about a jazz cruise I went on last week featuring guitarist Howard Alden, perhaps best known around here for his work in Woody Allen's "Sweet and Lowdown", though he does not generally play in the GJ style.

I took a lesson from Howard and am learning a bit about his chordal style, which mainly involves two note chords on strings 3 and 4.

I like the way this minimalistic approach allows for cool countermelodies (well at least when Howard uses it) but then on the other hand, it's not very rhythmic and has a kind of empty feeling.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that such is my ignorance that I did not realize until today! thanks to Mr. Google, that this style, which I first encountered through Howard Alden and thought he had invented, has a pedigree that goes all the way back to Freddie Greens playing with the Count Basie Orchestra in the thirties, and is used by most modern jazz players to this day.

So my stupid question is addressed to all those mainstream players lurking out there who are experienced in this "comping" style...what, if any, relevance does it have to acoustic guitar and GJ? is it something worth studying or just a blind alley leading nowhere?

Thanks,

Will

Bad news! Good news!

Lango-Django — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 12:59:11 +0000

It's my birthday on Friday and at about 4am my wife and I are flying off to Miami for a one week jazz cruise…

The bad news is that Bucky Pizzarelli was supposed to come, but his wife has some medical issues.

The good news is that Howard Alden will be aboard!

http://howardalden.com/ha4/

If you ever saw Woody Allen's jazz guitarist movie "Sweet and Lowdown", Howard Alden is the guitarist who did the music for the film… hope I can get a lesson with him for my birthday!

GJers in NC Outer Banks March 2014?

Lango-Django — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 12:21:09 +0000

(original posting deleted as we've changed our plans and we won't be going to the Outer Banks this winter...)

Will

Breaking my silk & steel G string: is it just me?

Lango-Django — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 13:52:59 +0000

Calling all silk and steel string users!

On the recommendation of some wise old heads around here, I recently switched to silk and steel strings and a BlueChip pick. I'm loving the mellow sound, but in about one week I've broken two G strings. Full disclosure--- I do like to bend the old strings a fair bit.

The gauge I've been using is 11; maybe I should drop down to 10s? or is this just something random?

Will

Chord substitution questions...

Lango-Django — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 11:03:03 +0000

1) Some smart person once posted a message I've been searching for unsuccessfully… it went something like this:

"If it's major, play minor! If it's minor, play major!…"

I should have bookmarked it or made a copy, can anyone tell me the rest?

2) Has anyone ever done an analysis about "busy" songs with a lot of chords and how to determine which changes can simply be ignored?

I play with a clarinet player who, believe it or not, enjoys playing, and can actually wail on, crazy old 1920's songs like "Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me". (Perhaps you are old enough to remember the crazy falsetto singer/ukulele player Tiny Tim's big hit in the 1960's?)

It is my job to solo on tunes like this with no rhythm guitar, since I am the trio's rhythm guitarist… and I find that trying to spell out all them chords ain't really workin' for me… ?

Any ideas would be gratefully accepted... :?

"Sleepy Time Down South"

Lango-Django — Sat, 26 Oct 2013 14:52:23 +0000

Here's a backing track if you want to give this great old swing standard a try... perhaps with a bit of practice, you can sound just like Rino or Tcha!

Full disclosure: I haven't quite managed that yet... but as Louis Armstrong once replied to the Pope when asked if he and Mrs. Armstrong had any children...

"No, your honor, but we're havin' a lot of fun tryin'!"

I'll try to post a lead sheet for this later on.

Will

GJ and the blues

Lango-Django — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:45:37 +0000

I've recently had an unpleasant realization: I really, really suck at playing the blues 'GJ style'.

Anybody else been there?

What Id like to be able to do is jam along with my friendly local 3-chord guitar player in whatever easy keys he is able to play in.

Theoretically, I should be able to make him sound better.

However, in real life, he just makes me sound worse.

:?: :?: :?: :?:

Will

Will

"In the Mood"

Lango-Django — Tue, 08 Oct 2013 11:50:58 +0000

I've just started messing around with this one because I'm quite fond of the Oscar Aleman version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGBK187y-8A

Anybody else ever try this?

I'd think that all you former rock players out there might find its blues-ish chord structure good for pentatonic licks and tricks?

Anyway, I'm finding it a bit challenging as its got a bluesier feel than most of the stuff I usually play... so its very simplicity is what makes it a challenge for me.

Will

"Struttin with some barbecue"

Lango-Django — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 11:24:09 +0000

If you've ever played in a dixieland band, chances are you've played this number. Written by Louis Armstong's first wife, Lil Hardin, it swings like the proverbial ten thousand, um, "Mother Tuckers"... Louis played it and recorded it extensively, but check out this fun version on YouTube [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSbRs2TjVKs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSbRs2TjVKs[/url] Anyway, I'm here to tell all my GJ brothers that this number makes a wonderful vehicle; once you get started playing it you'll find it hard to stop. While it may sound real peppy, the tempo is actually pretty moderate, and you'll find those chords will come floating over home plate so sweetly that you can hit the ball out of the park pretty much every time... I'm enclosing a lead sheet and backing track, and I hope you have as much fun with this as I've been having... jamming on this thing is pretty much right up there with wine, women, and good food. Will PS BTW, re: the previous thread, "Fooling around with a Django shape"... during the final part where the chords go like this Bb6/// Bbm6/// F6/// D7/// Gm7/// C7/// ...try these crazy three note shapes for fun Bb6 (actually Bb maj7) ------------------ ------------------ -------------7---- --------7---------- ----5-------------- ------------------ Bbm6 ------------------ ------------------ -------------6---- ---------5-------- ----4------------- ------------------ F6 (actually Fmaj9) ------------------- ------------------- -------------5----- --------5---------- ----3-------------- -------------------- D7 ------------------ ------------------ -----------5------- -------4--------- ----3------------- ------------------ Gm7 ------------------ ------------------ -----------3------- -------3----------- ---1--------------- ------------------- C7 ------------------ ------------------ ----------3-------- ------2----------- ---1--------------- ------------------

Fooling around with a Django shape

Lango-Django — Sun, 22 Sep 2013 07:49:10 +0000

I've always loved the part of "Honeysuckle Rose" where Django plays some cool stuff based on this Bb-E-Bb C7 shape: -------------------------- -------------------------- ----------3-------------- -------2----------------- ---1--------------------- -------------------------- One of my musical goals is to learn from Django's brilliance and not just parrot his licks...as I once heard Stephane Wrembel say, "You can choose to live in Django's shadow, or by his light." So anyway, I got to thinking... what else could I do with this somewhat unusual shape? I've been moving it around the fretboard and trying it on different combinations of strings... to my ears, it still sounds best on strings 5, 4 and 3, even when the same exact notes could be played on strings 6, 5 and 4... ? But perhaps I'm just crazy, as has been long suspected...? Anyway, I'd like to officially throw this concept out to the international brain trust at djangobooks.com... One of the things I've done with it is to use it as the basis for an A7 lick (C#-G-C#) -------------------------- -------------------------- -----------6------------- -------5----------------- ---4--------------------- -------------------------- and then move it down one fret to use it as the basis for a D7 lick (C-F#-C) -------------------------- -------------------------- -----------5------------- -------4----------------- ---3--------------------- -------------------------- So you can see it's a nice easy one to use when the chords go through the "cycle of fifths" aka "marche harmonique"... Check it out for yourself and let us know what you can come up with! Will PS Note that this shape would also work over diminished chords...

Lester Young "Tickle Toe"

Lango-Django — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 08:39:11 +0000

Regular readers will know that although I'm fond of Django and gypsy jazz, my musical enthusiasms are somewhat flaky and prone to range from Johnny Smith to Jimi Hendrix to forgotten tin pan alley jazz classics.

I guess I'm sort of an odd duck at this website, but who knows? My postings occasionally ring a bell with the commentariat. (Full disclosure: you'll find my name at the top or bottom of an awful lot of dead threads around here... :oops: )

Anyway... I play in a trio featuring a kick-ass clarinetist and sax player, and this is one of his favourite tunes to play. Written by jazz legend Lester Young, this a toughie for me on guitar for several reasons:

- the sax player likes it a painfully slow tempo, approx 80 bpm
- the key is a pretty tough one: Bbm
- there's no rhythm guitar, so when it's my turn to solo, I'm accompanied only by the bass and my left foot.

FWIW, I'm enclosing a lead sheet and a BIAB track of this tune. It's the kind of tune that would probably be pretty cool for GJ bands that feature a sax. Unfortunately, I could only get BIAB to play the melody with a synthesized "vibe" sound, so you'll have to imagine it's being played by a sax....

Will

"You stepped out of a dream"

Lango-Django — Sun, 18 Aug 2013 11:14:06 +0000

From a different thread:

I think Denis says somewhere among his DVDs, don't play something because you read somewhere this is what you "should" play if (starting out, wanting to move to another plateau, etc.). Play what you like.

For me, rather than GJ standards, what I really like to play are American Songbook standards... and at DiJ I noticed that even Tcha Limburger is into these, too, as evidenced by his concert in which he sang and played another of my faves, "When Your Lover Has Gone".

"You stepped out of a dream" goes back to 1940, and a legion of pop and jazz stars have recorded it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Stepped_Out_of_a_Dream

...but for me the classic version will always be the one by Nat King Cole, who in my humble opinion was fully as uber-cool as Django...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0pMTwwMMDM

"You stepped out of a dream" has great chords for improvising; if you play it at about 140 - 160 bpm, the constant parade of interesting chords to work through is like you're in a batting cage getting pitches lobbed at exactly the right speed and location, and it's almost impossible not to wallop the ball every time!

Attached please find lead sheet and backing track, hope you like this tune...

As my now-deceased father used to say, "If this is the kind of thing you like, then I think you'll really, really like it..."

Will

Facebook.com vs. djangobooks.com

Lango-Django — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 06:40:30 +0000

New study reveals--- Facebook does not make users happier!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 191910.htm

:idea: :idea: :idea: :idea:

...perhaps Facebook.com users should switch to djangobooks.com..!

"You're Getting to be a Habit with Me"

Lango-Django — Tue, 30 Jul 2013 07:31:54 +0000

My wife and I just celebrated our 40th anniversary with a big party Saturday night. She wanted to sing this song with my band, and it turned out pretty well except for the fact that my face is totally blocked by a music stand...

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GdyiFIaGpN ... 3Dyoutu.be

(Remember Tim Allen's semi-visible next door neighbour on the TV show "Home Improvents"? He, too, was a "Wilson".)

Anyway, this is the kind of music I like to play, which is at least sort of in the same ball park as gypsy jazz...

Will

three cheers for Andrew Lawrence!

Lango-Django — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 13:42:58 +0000

OK, it's Monday, I'm just back from Django in June and trying to get my sleep cycle and blood alcohol level back to the "normal" range.

But during my long solo car ride back home, listening to some magnificent music by Fapy and Oscar Aleman, I got to thinking about the difference that just one person can make in making the world a better place... in this case a wiry, charming gentleman from Northampton MA.

During my teaching career, I was often struck by how much influence over the entire school our principal made... if that one person was a good leader, all sorts of wonderful things seemed to happen, apparently all by themselves! But if that one person was a not-so-good leader, all sorts of not-so-good things seemed to happen.

Andrew obviously has the kind of leadership that has led to the creation of something very special that has been appreciated by participants ranging on the scale from "North American total newbie" to "European virtuoso", and all the rest of us who fall somewhere between those extremes.

He has created a friendly supportive community of players/enthusiasts, an atmosphere I would call a "douce ambiance"... and having listened to his introduction of one of the evening concerts, I was struck to learn that this philosophy of "community of learners" is the exact concept he has always based his efforts on, both for his own "community guitar" day gig as well as "Django in June".

As the wonderful Dutch "old school" player Rino van something told me, "I knew I was going to have a good time here, I just didn't know HOW good!"

Andrew, this is a little embarrassing, but it's got to be said... "I LOVE YOU, MAN!"

Thank you, Andrew.

Tennis while at DiJ, anyone?

Lango-Django — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 07:34:52 +0000

Any Django Campers out there who might be up for a bit of tennis when our fingers get too sore to play the guitar anymore? if so, please contact me via PM...

I'm in my early sixties and play in a regular foursome with a bunch of fellas my age or older. I don't claim to be great, but as one of my buddies once said, "It's not about winning, it's about losing weight." And somehow tennis is one of the few forms of exercise I can tolerate...

Will

BTW, I've got some extra racquets around here I could bring so you wouldn't have to bring your own if you are flying in.

Distilled Study Trajectory for Givone Newbie...

kevorkazito — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:33:14 +0000

This is just a distillation of the what I found to be the most salient advice for a Givone newbie (as I myself am). This is the advice 'at a glance'. You still want to see all the viewpoints from the posts here. I was just a bit lost/confused (nothing new) so I made this posting if you find yourself in the same condition. I am better now, I really am :lol: [quote]Re: Translations to English? (#p62660) by Lango-Django » Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:27 am Good luck with your Givone studies, kevorkazito. I'm no longer taking any formal responsibility for the former support group, but I can offer you this advice--- as far as I'm aware, nobody in our group managed to do Givone's "linked" version of the forms, but just learned them separately. additionally, I would suggest learning the forms in the following order: 1) major tonic (page 20)  2) major dominant (page 24) 3) minor tonic (page 22)  4) minor dominant (page 26) since Givone provides all the fingerings as "G" chords (G, Gm, G7, G7b9) I would suggest transposing either the tonic to C or the dominant to D7 so that you can learn matching tonic and dominant fingerings for the same fingerboard location at the same time. Anyway, have fun, and I think you'll really enjoy this and benefit from it... The big challenge is to internalize it to the point where you don't even consciously think about it as you use it in your playing. Will ------------------------------------------------- Re: my experience with this method (#p54714) by spud » Tue Apr 17, 2012 5:40 pm here's my advice: -keep working on the 5 forms for major, minor , Dominant to major and dominant to minor . -also learn by heart givone's 2-5-1 sequences in all the keys -start applying as much as you can to relatively standard jam session tunes (because lets face it, to play with others is the aim of the game, not to do excersises at home alone):  cant give you coquette  minor swing  blues minor  les yeux noir  all of me  take your time start slowly, even concentrating to small sections. in these songs you will find lots of standard chord changes that you need to learn asap. -learn some licks or concepts for the standard progressions that change quicky. givone doesnt give enough ammunition for these changes that are in many songs and are often one bar per chord:  christoph (i dont know the name in english- the progression at the end of cant give you, all of me, it had to be you, djangos tiger etc)  rhythm changes  djangology (same as night and day, all the things you are etc) its also good to see how a minor sequence works in relation to its relative major. for example in the followings tunes:  dinah/dinette  sweet georgia brown anniversary song  it had to be you  ive found a new baby  it dont mean a thing  what is this thing called love (here givone's phrases are very easily applied and its a good excersise and the perfect example of the relation minor and relative major progressions) this last point is ony something that i recently got my head and fingers around. even though i have spent a lot of time on the givone forms, i often go back and revise the forms because when you play around you get stuck in certains patterns and you forget some details.  but i really believe in applying as much as you can to the actual songs played in jams because its when you are under a bit of pressure and you have to be able to react quickly and calmly that you need to be able to fall back on something. hope this helps! [/quote]

Report from Paris: Django exhibition

Lango-Django — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 12:59:58 +0000

OK, I've just got back from the Cite de la Musique Django exhibition and I'm totally wiped out, but anyone who's interested and/or crazy enough to read my trivial drivel, I'm happy to tell you ALL about it.

OK, first of all: if you're a serious Django-worshipper like me, you've probably seen and heard about 80 percent of the stuff in the exhibit, but there WERE a few surprises. And I'm keeping my favourite one for the end so don't give up halfway through!

So, here we go, in no particular order

- Admission price is 9 euros, pretty reasonable I guess.

-Don't bother getting the customary museum headphones upon entering. Even though they offer an English narration, it is totally worthless; perhaps it was designed for school children? The narrator didn't even mention Django but offered a bunch of BS about cavemen beating on drums, etc. etc.

- As you'd expect, the exhibit goes through Django's life chronologically, so it starts with some information about the shantytown area outside Paris called "the zone" where Django and Joseph grew up.

- Next is a display about the musette dances where Django began playing professionally, with pictures of some of the leading accordionists of the time, a small six-string banjo in a glass case which Django is supposed to have played occasionally, borrowing it from another gypsy kid when he needed it.

-This section has some headphones and you can listen to young Django playing his banjo in a trio with an accordionist and a slide whistle player... tunes are "Parisette" and "Ma Reguliere"... this is stuff I've already heard elsewhere but if you haven't heard it, it's quite charming and Django sounds great, of course!

- There are a lot of guitars in glass cases to look at throughout the exhibit, mostly Selmers of course but some other ones as well... I was suprised to learn that the Gibson-style F-hole guitar with the block pearl inlays which Django was photographed with in the US, was not a guitar that Django ever actually used in concert. He just borrowed it for the photo session from the Ellington Orchestra's guitar-banjoist Freddy Guy. It has a weird-shaped head, sort of like a Gibson L-model mandolin and the brand name is a "Levin" which I'd never heard of before.

-Apparently in the US, Django played an archtop Epiphone with a single pickup known as a "Zephyr". They had an example of such a guitar on display, but it was not the one that Django actually used.

-Also on display was a Ramirez guitar owned by "Baro" Ferret, one of Django's accompanists, colleagues and competitors. This looked a lot like the one played by Stephane Wrembel's rhythm guitarist Pierre "Kamlo" Barre with the two diamond-shaped soundholes.

- In another glass case were a whole bunch of vintage sheet music of Django compositions, and I was surprised to see that these all came complete with lyrics that French tin pan alley type lyricists had created especially for the sheet music. They had a copy of "Crepuscule", "Nuages", and "Fleur d'Ennui", and much to my surprise, "Swing 39" which had the alternate title "Je t'aime" and "Swing 42" which had the alternate title "Swing Reverie". Who knew?

- Film clips--- this was good news! I'd always thought that "J'attendrai" was the only film extant of Django playing, but the exhibit had a couple of others. These were films of live concerts... the first one was of the HCQ playing a gig at La Haye (France?) in 1937, but unfortunately it had no sound.

-But the second one was a real treasure. Shot at a gig Tabarin (France?) in 1944, it seemed to have been filmed in a nightclub where a lot of people were dancing...also, there's brief shot of Marlene Dietrich smiling in the audience. Django is fronting an unidentified big band of some sort, and you can clearly see Joseph is sitting right behind him playing rhythm. The music has been cleaned up really well without any of the usual scratchiness.

Django is playing a really beat-up Selmer acoustic into a microphone, but you can hear him really well. I watched the clip several times, and as best as I could tell, the soundtrack actually matched what Django was doing with his fingers. It was wonderful to see how he seemed to be barely moving his hands, and yet all this amazing music is just pouring out! I hope somebody posts this clip on the internet so one of our many transcription wizards here at djangobooks.com can work their magic on it.

- Anyway, I've saved the best for last, because there was a strange bit of synchronicity. Unfortunately, it'll take a bit of explaining to set up.

My wife and I volunteer to go feed homeless people at a church basement on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Well, this year, it just so happened that our duty date fell on Christmas Day.

In November when we learned this, my wife volunteered me to play some Christmas carols for the occasion on my guitar and banjo.

I play these kind of solo gigs using backing tracks, and as I was getting them ready, she insisted that I learn that song "Charlie Brown Christmas", perhaps you know it? I find it kind of boring and mildly depressing, but she insisted, so okay.

Anyway, it turned out she was right... it was not only real easy to play on the guitar, but it also sounds good and you can actually play some jazz over the changes.

It's in C, and the first chord is Cmaj7. The second chord is some kind of crazy "tormented" chord that I can't actually name. You could either call it some kind of screwed-up Fm6/maj7 or perhaps a Bb9b5?

Anyway, it turned out to sound best when fingered like this on the guitar.

F Bb D Ab C E
1 1 0 1 1 0

The only way I could figure out how to play that inversion was to use two fingers because there's so little room for your fingers down there at the very bottom of the fingerboard.

Okay, that was just the set-up, sorry it took so long! Here's the synchronicity part---

I'll be damned if the exhibit didn't include a picture of Django which I'd never seen before. There he is, sitting by himself, contentedly playing his guitar--- and guess what chord you can clearly see that he's fingering?

If you guessed "The Charlie Brown chord", congratulations! You win the keys to a new car!

Not the car itself, just the keys! But actually, you deserve a prize just for reading all the way down to the bottom of this novel-length posting!

Ain't life funny?

Will

PS Oh yeah, I'll just bore you with one more thing if you've managed to make it all the way this far... it was totally amazing for me to see the general public at large looking at the exhibit and obviously loving it... from young couples with kids in strollers to grandparently-types who perhaps even remembered listening to Django in their youth!

But best of all, there were a LOT of attractive young Francaises to ogle while listening to Django's wonderful music.. and so I ask in all sincerity, does life really get any better than this?

(Well, ok, maybe some of you smooth-talkin' young cats could actually pick these beautiful young girls up and take 'em home, but for us old geezers that ain't never gonna happen!)

************

PPS On Friday and Saturday nights the museum offers concerts by various musicians... I don't know their name, but the group that performed tonight shoulda been called "Grandma's Old Hoover"... because they really sucked!

Unless you really like drum solos, in which case, wellllllll... chacun a son gout.

Not to worry, they have a different group every Friday and Saturday night, so it's bound to be better next week.

Therfore, I'm going to close this with a short prayer:

"Please, God. As you know, I'm an atheist myself. But doesn't DJANGO deserve some good gypsy jazz to be played at his museum exhibition--- even if I don't?

DiJ 2013: lick exchange Monday June 17...?

Lango-Django — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:26:54 +0000

OK, I don't know how much longer this forum is going to be around here, I actually thought it would be gone by now, but what the hey, as long as it's here, then I'll use it just one more time.

Anthony Parker, you are a really good nag, and you finally got to me, so just now I mailed off my registration to "Django in June" 2013--- June 17-23 in Northampton MA.

http://www.djangoinjune.com/

(Note: If you've never before attended DiJ--- GO! and if you've attended before--- GO AGAIN!)

Now as you may know if you've been to DiJ before, Monday is a day with a blank agenda, because all the workshops start on Tuesday... but this where my cunning plan comes into play.

'And just how cunning is your plan, Wilson?', you ask...?

To which I can only echo the immortal Blackadder in replying, "So cunning you could pin a tail on it and call it a weasel."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp5St7hORyw

The deal is that your ticket to admission to the Lick Exchange are some photocopies of a nicely written out tabbed version of a lick you like and are willing to share: major, minor, dominant, ii-V-I, augmented, whatever. Not a long lick either, just a bar or two--- let's say four bars absolute max.

I haven't yet looked at what tunes Andrew has selected for campers to concentrate on this year, but it would be ideal if our licks were compatible with at least one of those tunes. Best of all would be the kind of lick that is open ended, and encourages further mutation and creativity.

Your responsibility is to teach the rest of the group your lick. We'll spend enough time on each one to hopefully take it from "learning" mode right up to a tempo as close as possible to actual performance speed.

The idea here is "boot camp", guys. No jamming, no fooling around, just a bunch of cats working our asses off to learn some cool licks from each other. The kind of thing those great Parisian guitar players can do every day of the week, but us Sad Sacks here in North America can rarely do.

I picture this working best in a group of 3 to 10 guitarists.

If anybody else is up for this, please add a little posting to this forum with your name and just a little bit about your lick, eg, "You can play this over an X chord and I swiped it from Y"

If you are one of the first ten to respond, you are welcome in the Monday group. If more people than ten are interested, we'll try and figure out how to schedule a second session for later in the week and at least, hopefully, everybody can get a tab of everybody else's lick.

Regards,

Will

Translations to English?

kevorkazito — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:34:39 +0000

Hi,

I've just opened my Givone Method book.

Has anyone translated the preambles to the exercises to english or is it necessary?

I guess I could always hit up Google Translator but I was wondering if anyone beat me to it and could help out

TIA, Carlos