My Progress in Jazz Manouche

AmundLauritzen · October 2015

Thank you for the insight, Dave. Fast twitch is a good way to describe it. When I analyze how Stochelo plays those triplets, it looks to me that that's exactly what happens. His hand just "snaps" back into position from each downstroke to be ready for the next.

In some ways it's good to slow down, but at the same time, the right hand generally moves a lot more for slow tempos, because that liberty can be taken. It doesn't seem to be consistent as tempo increases. For the really fast tempos it has to move more and more economically, and players seem to adjust this accordingly.

When practising a solo, I start at a tempo where I can play everything with good technique. Then I increase the tempo in the slow down software by 2% each playthrough. I might start a song at 80% and then increase to 82% the next playthrough. To reach 100% speed that's 10 playthroughs. I will adjust the increments according to the tempo and difficulty. When a passage appears, like those triplets, I take a break from the solo at the tempo where I crash, then I isolate it as a technical exercise and work on that with a metronome, and then come back and attempt again. Usually that makes sure I can push forward a little bit every day.

It also helps that Stochelos technique is very standardized, meaning I've been playing the first exact part of that triplet configuration for E7 for four years on and off as it has appeared in different solos. In the beginning it sounded horrible, but it has started to sound a bit better as time has passed by and I have had enough repetitions of it.

NylonDave · October 2015

Hi, I hope you get round to trying the approach as I described it, it is great fun, and of course it gives you the flexibility to use the same fingerings in different rhythmic contexts. The key is the twitch. And it is not slow practice if you are practicing a phrase in triplet with this systematic fingering DUD and you decide to repeat the second note it becomes DUUD and those two ups after ten minutes practice might be the fastest upstrokes you have ever played (say at mm114). You are personally completely in control of the amplitude of your strokes. Have fun with that concept, how loud can you make a tiny stroke. If you focus on playing a real choppy stacatto with the right hand mostly in contact with the string then you will be using a lot of the twitch stuff that lets stochelo descend on a three note per string pattern picking every note.

Weirdly I have been trying to do the opposite with my metronome practice, I start at a tempo where I am comfortable and then start to push the tempo down one click at a time. If I persevere then sometimes I get to a level where I really know what is happening. And if that really happens (and it doesn't every time) then I can pretty much play it at my max speed straight away and it feels slow because I am never compensating for any faux pas.

Anyway the inspiration for the three notes into four was the paradiddle. I thought what if a paradiddle is defined as a three note pattern alternating hand to hand with one note repeated. Pretty much this is the only thing I ever do to solve technical problems now and it has yet to fail. Things that stumped me for years kinda dissolve.

D.

AmundLauritzen · May 2016

I haven't been around much for a long time, but I thought I'd post a video here to let you know I am still playing, even though I am not very active on the internet at all anymore.

richter4208 · May 2016

nice work Amund! I've been following your progress and it helped sway me to join the RA. Really nice to see you mixing up the licks from other solos, that is easier said than done. Thanks for the inspiration Amund, you are really getting it together.

What guitar are you playing in the video?

Bones · May 2016

Nice Amund, thanks!

AmundLauritzen · May 2016

Thank you! The guitar is an Eimers Antique which I bought from Leo Eimers in 2013. It's the same model as Stochelo plays in the Live at Samois DVD and on the "In the Style of Stochelo Rosenberg" DVD. The sound of that guitar really appealed to me so I saved up for one.

I did a take on two other tunes that I have used as workhorses during practice.

How High The Moon:

Yours and Mine:

What I concentrate on now is to work on improving the flow in my playing to sound more relaxed and natural and less like I struggle so hard to make it through the tune.