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Django's Fret Hand and Fingerboard Technique
 
Django devised a highly
efficient system of three note chord shapes, each of which encompassed
inversions of several different chords. He developed unorthodox techniques
to play these, including the use of his left thumb to fret the lower one or
two strings, one fingered "double stops" - where two strings are fretted
simultaneously by placing the tip of one finger midway between both strings
- and employed his contracted ring and little fingers on the upper strings,
where they acted like a single finger. The last technique particularly
suited ninth or minor sixth chords rather than the more conventional major
or minor chords of the time, and introduced his audience to a new range of
tonal colours.
 It
is difficult to play standard scales with just index and middle fingers, so
Django adopted an arpeggio-based rather than modal approach to soloing. He
adapted arpeggios so that they could be played with two notes per string
patterns which ran horizontally up and down the fret board instead of the
usual vertical "box" patterns, enabling him to move around the fret board
with great speed and fluidity. Influenced by his childhood violin lessons,
he often oriented his left hand so that these fingers were almost parallel
to the strings instead of perpendicular to the fret board. His injuries also
defined his phrasing and ornamentation - he often incorporated open strings
into his solos, along with his trademark chromatic glissando runs, for which
he used his middle finger braced by the index finger - and the considerable
strength that he had to develop in these fingers enabled him to achieve wide
string bending and vibrato effects."
As a result of the relative
immobility of his hand, Django often moved fixed shapes up and down the fret
board which produced intervallic cycling of melodic motifs and chords, and
played octave runs with the index and middle or ring fingers—a technique
subsequently popularised by Wes Montgomery.
Django’s technique was only
possible because of the remarkable length and span of his index and middle
fingers. Photographs show that he could play a "barre" across the full width
of the fret board using just the distal two phalanges of his index finger,
and a half barre with the distal phalanx of his middle finger and analysis
of film footage shows that he could effortlessly span a distance of at least
120mm [4.7 inches] between the tips of his index and middle fingers.
David J Williams,
consultant anaesthetist and senior clinical tutor1,
Tom S Potokar, consultant plastic, reconstructive
and burns surgeon, and senior clinical tutor2
1 Department of Burns and Plastic
Surgery, Morrison Hospital, Swansea SA6 6NL, 2 Swansea University
Medical School, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8P
Williams and Potokar anlaysed the few minutes
of surviving film footage of Django’s playing. Their analysis of this gives
us some insight into the innovative techniques that he developed to overcome
the limitations imposed by his injuries
Dr
D.J. Williams and T.S. Potokar, "Django's Hand". BMJ 2009;339:b5348
Doctors David Williams
Lecture @ Brecon 20009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiT_6XvyrdY&feature=related
The instinctive response when threatened by
assault or fire is to protect the face by raising the arms, which
exposes the dorsum of the hands to injury. The thin subcutaneous
tissue and superficial tendons in this region make it vulnerable
to subsequent deformity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5kUZbOATTI&feature=player_embedded#!
The ability to play a musical
instrument also requires an intact nervous system to provide
motor fibres and sensory feedback from cutaneous touch receptors
and joint proprioceptors. Nerve damage was unlikely in Django’s
case—the burn injury was on the dorsum of his hand: the digital
nerves run deep on the volar aspect. The motor supply to his hand
was unaffected and any sensory disturbance would have been
confined to the dorsal aspect of his fingers, which would not
have interfered with his ability to play the guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUpAHZqiUgE&feature=related
Disaster can also be a
positive catalyst for innovation. Modern reconstructive surgery
would have dramatically improved the function and cosmetic
appearance of Django’s hand, but would have perhaps changed the
course of jazz music forever. The enduring popularity of Django’s
music is testament to his innate genius and determination.
Computer model of Django’s
hand illustrating the deformity and effect of contractures
Django's
Playing
From the people most
influential to the development of Django's distinctive
playing style, two have been considered to rise above
others: Poulette Castro and Gusti Malha.
Poulette Castro, player of banduria and other stringed
instruments, performed mainly waltzes and the more
traditional Gypsy repertoire with his guitar playing
brother Laro. Django at his early teens would watch them
attentively for hours.
Poulette Castro was probably the primary model for
Django's famous picking hand technique so distinct from
the American jazz guitarists: very fast, strong and
accurate wrist movement with the hand and arm loose at
all times from the top of the instrument, thus allowing
freer movement with greater power.
Some writers have argued that Django's physical handicap
actually made him a better guitarist than had he the use
of all four fingers on his fretting hand. Unable to play
the linear, scale-driven lines that fall all too easily
under the fingers of most guitarists, Django's limited
mobility forced him to view the fingerboard more
vertically than horizontally. Blessed with exceptionally
large hands and long fingers (one famous photo shows him
fretting the high E through A strings of his guitar at
the 14th fret with his middle finger from the second
knuckle down), he had the strength and stretch to make
wide intervals with just his first two fingers. He
invented the use of octave runs as a soloing device on
guitar, another example of taking his two-fingered
limitation and making it a musical asset. Moving beyond
that, he frequently used double stop runs in colourful
intervals to generate tonal tension and resolution in
his solos. Django literally developed a new vocabulary
for lead guitar, making wide interval jumps across the
strings as often as he moved up and down the strings
individually. When he did remain on one string, it was
typically for a blistering chromatic run that might
start on the first fret and run all the way up to the
13th fret. Always aware of the slightest nuance of tone,
Django honed each note perfectly, often incorporating a
beautifully modulated finger vibrato or a skilfully
executed blues bend or slur to add emotional strength to
his playing. As the Django repertoire books written by
guitarist Robin Nolan show clearly, most of Django's
chord positions were simple three note chords, but his
musical genius enabled him to create diminished,
suspended and augmented chords that beautifully fit the
melodies he played by adding open string notes as
needed. Although a total illiterate musically who
couldn't name any chords, he always knew what chord
formation he needed to create the musical effect he
desired, either a sweet, lush chord or a jarring,
angular punctuation chord, to set the mood.
 Django
taught his left fingers to fret a guitar anew. His two small fingers were
largely paralyzed, the tendons and nerves damaged, the digits near-useless.
His index and middle fingers still functioned, however, and limited now in the
number of digits he could employ to fret the guitar, he forced himself to
rethink his approach to the fretboard. Instead of playing scales and arpeggios
horizontally across the fretboard as was the norm, he searched out fingerings
that ran vertically up and down the frets as they were easier to play with just
two fingers.
He created new chord forms that utilized a minimum of notes—often just triads
made with his two good fingers on the bass strings. He pushed his two paralysed
fingers to grip the guitar as well, his smallest digit on the high E string, his
ring finger on the B, and sometimes barring his index finger to fashion chords
of four to five notes.
He then slid his hand up and down the fretboard, employing these chord forms to
craft a fluent new vocabulary.
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PAUL
VERNON CHESTER