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PAUL VERNON CHESTER

Manouche Maestro
 


[Under Construction]

 

Rhythm Guitar
Masterclass 1
Masterclass 2
Masterclass 3
Masterclass 4

Paul's Manouche Masterclass - Gypsy Jazz Guitar Workshop

Paul holds regular Tuition schools in Walsall in the West Midlands and it is a great opportunity to receive first class instruction from this world respected guitarist and an opportunity download from him a deal of his personal recollections and anecdotes regarding the music he loves and promotes.
His dexterity, musicianship, intricate skills, historical interest and enthusiasm are a joy to absorb.  If you are a serious student you could have no finer teacher than Maestro Paul Vernon Chester in the demanding and delicate delights of Manouche Swing Jazz.


Paul's Next Scheduled Workshop is on - Saturday 5th July 2008
@
St. Martin’s Church Hall
Daffodil Road
Walsall
West Midlands
WS5  3DQ

Times - 10.30am till 4.30pm

Book early to avoid disappointment - attendance numbers are limited.

Contact 01922 612456 or Paul Vernon Chester by email

The influence of music reaches into all areas of our lives. Both a science and an art it has been shown to increase mental ability and stimulate our emotions. The teaching of both listening and playing skills enhances all our lives.

Paul's Workshops are set up to help educate and inspire a new generation of musicians and audiences though lectures, performances and workshops in schools, colleges and youth centres. The projects provide insight into Manouche Swing Jazz  and demonstrates how jazz improvisation is performed.  The workshop is structured as follows and Paul's aim is to keep the presentation informal:

The cost of the day is reasonable for such quality Tution and includes a booklet, chord charts, lunchtime snack and lots of interesting additional material. 

The Workshop is usually divided into two sessions within the day, Rhythm and Solo. Nick Mellor assists throughout the day and all areas covered are clearly demonstrated. The abilities of students are quickly established in order to focus on individual improvement agendas. Activities are designed to enable you to work in group, duo and individual formats. Tuition provided is designed to challenge and will cover all of the key elements of Gypsy Jazz.  The day is not heavily theoretical and employs the 'Gypsy Tradition' of demonstration and assimilation.
Essential elements however, are enthusiasm, love of the music, fun, and a real desire to improve your personal best!  The whole programme is  based on Paul's own route to this music, which he invites you to follow!  Paul and Nick will perform a set during the lunch break. The workshops are a regular feature of Paul's year and are gaining in popularity to the point where he is running additional sessions. The day is overseen by Karen, Paul's wife, who welcomes you and ensures the day runs smoothly.
For students without a 'Gypsy Guitar' there will be instruments available for you to play.            

      Rhythm Guitar Techniques - Nick Mellor

  • Chord Knowledge
  • Triads
  • Chord Substitution
  • Voicing
  • Comping
  • Right Hand - technique/stroke variation
  • Building Tension
  • De-cluttering
  • Chord Rolls

Solo Guitar Techniques - Paul Vernon Chester

  • Octaves

  • Vibrato

  • Harmonics

  • Note Bending

  • Harmony

  • Runs

  • Arpeggios

  • Damping

  • Pauses

  • Attack

  • Restraint

Other Considerations
Starts and Endings
Tags
Mood
Contrast
Repertoire Construction
Energy Waste
Performance Confidence
Building a Solo.
Pick Technique.
The Guitar.

 The Setting!
Chosen for its fine live acoustics that add to the ambience.

^The Workshop of June 2007

Student Comments:-
The Walsall Workshop was excellent, worth every penny. Paul is not only a superb musician but an excellent teacher (that is his day job of course), Nick was brilliant also. I've plenty of chord theory homework to do.  Warren.

This is just a quick note to let you know how much I enjoyed Saturday's workshop.  I'm really enjoying
the new CD - Duets for Django'.  Thanks to Paul, Nick and Karen for a good day. - Malcolm.

Thanks for a wonderful Saturday. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I learned a lot again from yourself and Nick, but it’s more than just that, it’s about being in the company of people who share my massive interest in Gypsy Jazz and being able to talk with them about the subject.  I look forward to the next workshop and hope to reflect more improvement.  Thanks to Karen for doing the food and looking after us.  - John

  


Django's Playing
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.

Video Link - Django Playing in 1939 J'attandrais
A tireless worker, he endlessly developed a trailblazing right hand technique, as well. Django was the first to frequently utilize what is now called sweep picking, where a run is played with the pick pushing through three or more strings sequentially with either a down or upstroke. His tremolo rivalled that of the great Italian mandolin virtuosi, a skill that he utilized on full chords and well as individual notes to great effect. Django preferred the thickest, stiffest picks he could find, generally using natural tortoise shell. But he never let his equipment dominate his creative skills. Delauney's book, for instance, cites one example where he showed up for a gig without a pick and proceeded to break off the tooth of a comb and used that as a substitute plectrum for the night! - Some Comb, Some tooth  eh - was a nit comb or poetic licence.

Django's Rhythm Techniques
Listen to this finger busting tirade from Django - Mystery Pacific (Mystery Train - long before Presley) this was recorded on 26th April 1937 and appears to end abruptly when Django hits the buffers - due to finger fatigue perhaps rather than a loss of invention..  So you wanted to lay down a rhythmic pulse just like a train on the tracks eh - try emulating this...........................

Mystery Pacific - MP3 - 4.46Mb


The Fellowship of the Fret

Have you ever stopped to think what being a fretted instrumentalist can mean? Have you ever considered your instrument as an exclusive membership token to what is, perhaps, one of the most exclusive groups in existence? .The name of the Fellowship – well it has no name except for one word frequently heard; “The Fret’’ It is a brotherhood (and sisterhood, too) despite its unofficial nature, It has its conflicts and disagreements and will continue to have them as long as fretted instruments and their owners are in being.  In no other section of the musical world exists this parallel and if proof be needed one has only to attend a Fellowship Gathering.

I do not remember reading exactly what constitutes a Gathering. To the uninitiated the word Fellowship may conjure up images of strange rituals and mysticisms, at best, an exclusive meeting of some nebulous body known vaguely as “The Fellowship” whose activities are not for the average musician.  Until one has attended such an event one cannot fully realise the meaning of this phrase; “The Fellowship of the Fret”

The Fellowship is not noted for its numerical strength in fraternity. Perhaps because of the small numbers, the majority of fretted instrument players are known to each other without the existence of a National Body.  Outside this comparatively small circle it can be difficult to understand how universal membership of the Fellowship is. 


Let us take a look inside the hallowed space where a fraternity of the fret is in full swing.  Everyone present is the owner of (or is associated with) a fretted instrument.  Here you may talk freely of nuts, bridges, machine heads, wire wounds, guts and nylons and be fully understood for some 6 hours.  One may listen to or ignore the many contests which are the often reason (not to mention the excuse) for this gathering beneath one roof of more players of the “Round Hole, Petite Bouche, Archtop Guitars and other kindred Instruments than one hitherto imagined.

In the tuning area we may see a fantastic collection of oddly shaped cases ancient and modern and—with the popularity of the electric instrument still on the increase - a variety of ancient and modern amplifiers. One feels free to talk, without introduction to other instrumentalists.

There may, perhaps, be a small, hardy minority able to sit through the entire proceedings without becoming bored but constant repetition of some of the test pieces makes this unlikely.  Despite this there is something for everyone, if taken in not-too-large doses, and one does not need to remain in the performance zone the whole of the time.   I well remember the impact of my first gathering three years ago. At that time I knew but few of “The Fellowship” and it is true to say that on arrival I knew only one person present. On leaving, however, I had increased the number of my acquaintances and have continued to do so at each successive event.  For me this is the part I look forward to most of all; the regular meeting with friends.
Friends who, I know, will not be bored by constant talk of things associated with music—from players to performances; instruments to amplifiers.   

So many feel compelled to re-attend the “Fellowship of the Fret”

Acknowledgements to Jeffrey Pocock for this article. Frodo of the Fret


 


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Last modified: 25/04/2008