PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro

Gypsy Jazz Tuition

Rhythm
Rhythm guitar in gypsy jazz uses a special form of strumming known as "la pompe". This form of percussive rhythm is similar to the "boom-chick" in bluegrass styles; it is what gives the music its fast swinging feeling. The strumming hand, which never touches the top of the guitar, must make a quick up-down strum followed by a down strum. The up-down part of la pompe must be done extremely fast, regardless of the tempo of the music. It is very similar to a grace note in classical music, albeit the fact that an entire chord is used. This pattern is usually played in unison by two or more guitarists in the rhythm section.

Harmony
Another important aspect of this style of playing is based on the chord shapes Django was forced to use due to his injury. Standard barre chords are not an acceptable form in gypsy jazz, and these are instead replaced with chords that use just two or three fingers, often with one or more guitar strings muted by the left hand. Standard major and minor chords are almost never played, and are instead replaced by major 7th chords, major 6th chords, and 6/9 chords. Gypsy re-harmonisation is often aimed at giving a minor feel even where a song is in a major key, for instance the substitution of a minor 6th chord for a Dominant 7th. Dominant seventh chords are also altered by lowering the 9th and 13th scale degree.

Lead
Lead playing in this style has been summarised as ornamented or decorated arpeggio. Decorations often introduce chromatics — for instance, mordents and trills. Particularly characteristic is a figure where successive notes of an arpeggio are each preceded by an appoggiatura-like grace note one semitone below. Other decorations include tremelo and string bends on the guitar, staccato, ghost notes, harmonics, octaves, double stops etc. Arpeggios on the guitar are typically executed as patterns running diagonally from the lower frets on the lower strings to the upper frets on the upper strings. Such patterns tend to have no more than two stopped notes per string, relating to the fact that Django could only articulate two fingers on his fretting hand. Commonly used scales, in addition to arpeggios, include the chromatic scale, melodic minor scale, dorian mode and diminished scale.

Chromatic runs are often executed very quickly over more than one octave. A particularly characteristic technique is the glissando, in which the guitar player slides a finger along a string, with a precisely timed tremolo picking out individual notes, in order to get a fast, virtuosic sound. Diminished runs, in which the shape of a Diminished 7th chord is played in all inversions, one after the other, is a another widespread gypsy jazz technique. Diminished 7th arpeggios are also used over Dominant 7th chords. (Example: If an A7 is being played, a diminished run starting on C# would be played, creating an A7b9 sound over the dominant chord.) Guitarists often intersperse melodic playing with flamenco-esque percussive series of chords to create a varied solo .

On - Line Stuff and PDF Downloads

A leading Scottish jazz guitarist Dave Rattray is turning his love of Django Reinhardt into a new worldwide guitar academy. Crossgates-based Dave Rattray, is launching Gypsy Jazz Academy to provide a new online academy dedicated to teaching gypsy jazz guitar to enable guitarists - from Django Reinhardt wannabees to experienced players- to learn from one of the world’s leading masters – Lollo Meier.

Using professionally produced film lessons and background guidance, instruction and tips, Gypsy Jazz Academy makes use of on-line teaching. Students can watch the lessons and upload film of their progress with Lollo able to go on line and give instructive comments and answer questions from the academy members.

The inspiration and driving force is Academy Director Dave Rattray, himself recognised as both player and authority on Django’s music. Well known on the Scottish Jazz and Music scene Dave is a lifelong fan of Django and spends his time performing Gypsy Jazz with various bands on the Edinburgh scene. Various levels of Membership period subscription charges.

Gypsy Jazz Academy

www.britishguitaracademy.com
The British Guitar Academy is run by a team of professional musicians and industry experts and specialists, (some with Gold and Platinum albums on their wall), some who are house-hold names, and all, who are very respected artists, musicians, and professionals within their field. The aim of the British Guitar Academy is to provide an opportunity for guitarists of all ages and abilities, to LEARN new skills, DISCOVER & DEVELOP their knowledge about the guitar and the Music Industry as a whole, CREATE opportunities and INSPIRE a new generation of guitarists, musicians, songwriters and studio personnel to be successful in their chosen careers.

Tony Oreshko - Jazz Guitar

Des McHugh - gypsy jazz

Trish Elphinstone on Gypsy Jazz Trish has been playing the saxophone for about fourteen years now. She started playing the sax because she liked the sound and it was a useful way to relieve examination stress! She joined the Oxford Polytechnic (now Brookes University) big band, mostly played "air sax", and became the band driver as a means to avoid being kicked out. After being a hard rockin' chick for a while, she went on to play in an African King Crimson/Gong 'experimental' jazz-flavoured hip-hop band. Being in these bands gave room for improvisation and she wanted to know more. She attended a beginners' jazz course at Ruskin College, Oxford. At the end, she and some colleagues from the course formed a small jazz band and ended up gigging. She found out about summer jazz workshops, including the Jamie Abersold and Glamorgan courses. Dissatisfied with waiting for the summer, she enrolled and completed the City Lit course, and unexpectedly is now happily doing a jazz degree at Middlesex. Catch her at the Half Moon Pub Oxford and visit her Django's Music Analysis Site above.

Jazz Theory (150 Pages)

Jazz Guitar Lessons

Emicad Altervista

Minor Swing Arpeggios

Scales for Minor Swing
You can use an A harmonic minor over the whole thing but it sounds a bit bland.
Or
Am use the A dorian- A,B,C,D,E,F#,G
Dm use the D dorian- D,E,F,G,A,B,C
E7 use the altered- E,F,G,G#,Bb,C,D or Spanish scale- E,F,G#,A,B,C,D
Bb use the Bb Lydian- Bb,C,D,E,F,G,A
if you use a balance of scales and the arpeggios written out on the pdf download you'll sound great

Birelli Lesson

Djangoism Tuition Page
Djangoism Techniques

Tablatures

Deciphering

Manouche Swing Advice

Ivor Mairants Arpeggio Ex1

Manouche & Minor Pentatonic Scales

Django Solos

http://chordfind.com/

Djangopedia

www.gypsyjazz.de
Useful site for those on tour of Europe or the World in Search of Manouche Jam Sessions. Here is an overview of all gypsy jazz jam sessions that this site knows of. If yours is missing then contact them and send them your info or Chord Charts. On this site are some chord charts of popular session tunes for study purpose. There is also a Bb-version for horn or reed players. You can also find 'play-alongs' here.

GypsyJazz Guitar

http://nuagesdeswing.free.fr/jouer/jouer_index2b.html

http://www.manoucheries.com/grilles.php

Gypsy Jazz Melody Book for violin (also suitable for other treble instuments) with guitar chords by Bert Niblett. Contains 25 swing tunes.

http://www.myspace.com/bertniblett

Bert Niblett - Founder of Club Django 1955-2000,

Tribute site is maintained by Bert’s daughter, Pam

Engineer, guitarist and maker of Selmer Macaferri style guitar Bert was founder and leader of "Club Django" which was featured in the 1990 Channel 4 documentary "The Django Legacy."

The club ran from 1955-2000 in North London for the enjoyment of its members. During his lifetime Bert trancribed the chords to over 200 Django Reinhardt compositions and swing standards, in 3 hardback books with some transcriptions of Django solos.

'The Gypsy Jazz Melody Book' for violin by Pam with guitar chords by Bert is now available with a CD.

Tuition Videos

http://www.youtube.com/user/davidrattray
Dave Rattray
A self-taught musician Dave has studied the guitar with the Gypsy Masters Fapy Lafertin and Lollo Meier in the Netherlands. Dave was inspired by a 'lesson' from the great Martin Taylor when Dave was 13 yrs old to learn finger style jazz guitar. Dave plays in a duo with the acclaimed Scots musician Guitarist Sandy Wright.
Mirror images - he is not a Southpaw! Check out those adjacent demos

Stochelo Rosenberg

Gypsy Jazz Guitar 150 Videos

Romane - Lessons

http://www.hyperhipmedia.com/

D'Addario Lesson Room

Tuition Web Sites

http://www.jazzguitar.be/django_reinhardt.html

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=410

http://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=11040

http://gypsyguitar.wordpress.com/

http://news.guitarojam.com/artists/gypsy-jazz-guitar-a-one-man-genre-372/

http://www.djangobooks.com/

http://www.catwhisperer.co.uk/django/