|
![[Under Construction]](images/AnimatedGif/undercon.gif)
| |
 Rhythm Guitar
In his secondary but essential role as rhythm guitarist Nick Mellor is a tower of strength to enhance
Paul's ability to relax and deliver with a solid rhythm accompaniment. An unsung
but essential component of the soaring soloist's performance . He is the hard rock
strata foundation on which Paul strives for perfection. Albeit he looks so
intense and insignificant in this gargantuan and so important task of rhythm
guitar support
Rhythm guitar is like
vanilla extract in cake.
You can't taste it when it's there, but you know when it's left out.
The driving style pioneered by Django Reinhardt
and other Gypsy players became one of the dominant sounds in jazz during the
thirties and forties. Starting with basic four-to-the-bar comping and damping,
we take you through a variety of accompaniment ideas.
Gypsy Jazz, is a highly-evolved
style of music, based on the guitar playing of Django Reinhardt. It requires a
solid rhythmic foundation upon which a soloist may build his or her musical
statement. The challenge lies in learning how to produce this rhythmic
foundation, for Manouche rhythm can be both instantly recognizable to the
audience and, frustratingly subtle to the student.
Video of Nick in Action @ Concert Jazz
in Thame 14/03/07
Nick Mellor - Rhythm Guitar in Duo Format
Playing Rhythm
guitar accompaniment with a good player like Paul Vernon Chester is a bit like
good food. Savour the taste, rejoice in the presentation and never ever get your
fill.
Listen, Watch, Hear and actually Feel the music you are playing, don’t just play
along, make the going yourself, after all you are the mainstay and the
foundation for the music you are playing.
Good players complement each other.
The lead guitar sometimes follows the rhythm player and visa versa, neither
musician is there just to go it alone, two guitarist working together produce
the magic that makes a great performance
Vary the attack and style of rhythm, give the music tension, make the piece come
to life and as interesting as possible without creating confusion.
Listen to what you are playing as a team, make it good.
Always play your best, there’s
no one to fall back on
Watch what the lead guitar
plays; try to pre-empt a change in mood, change of pace or a pause.
Hear the song both in your head
and as the live performance you are producing
Feel the music you play, sense
the emotions aroused by the music.
Complement the lead guitarist
as he complements you with the music you play
Elements required for a good
rhythm guitar player.
Memory
Dexterity
Endurance
Concentration, focus on the tune you are
playing
A sense of timing
When playing a piece, carry
out and stick to the following important steps, it helps a lot.
Know the tune you are playing
Follow the tune all the way through in your head
whilst the lead guitar initially confirms the song melody then improvises, the
melody will be confirmed again later toward the end, be aware of this.
Make sure you know the changes, where and when they
occur
Ensure correct Chords & Inversions are used to complement the mood & feel of the
song
Think
in advance of the changes to see if you can offer anything special to the
performance
Listen
& check what you are playing is in the correct timing
Try
to imagine listening from the audience’s viewpoint; - do they like what they are
hearing?
Make
your playing fit with that of the lead guitar,
try to fill the ‘gaps’ in the
music as much as possible without losing track of what the rhythm player is
there for,
namely to keep a regular rhythm and create a percussive drive to the
song.
The
rhythm player is in effect a ‘Rhythm Section’ in his own right.
Understanding the theory of
music is not essential to good rhythm playing.
An understanding of the song
melody and the person you are playing with is, to my mind much more important.
You don’t have to know the
names for all of the different Chord shapes, the important thing is to know what
the chords sound like and where they can be fitted into a performance.
Triads help greatly, one basic
chord shape can represent many different sounds during a performance.
Get to know the basics, make
each chord sound crystal clear, no string buzzing.
Make chord changes smoothly –
relax, tension in yourself, your hands or arms makes for a poor performance.
Perfect a good left-hand
technique as well as the usual 'Bomp -Chick' for the right hand.
The left hand rocks as the
strings are struck with the pick to accentuate the beat.
Picks
Use the type of pick that is
suitable for the type of music you are playing as well as ‘man enough’ to
survive a good rendition of ‘After you’ve gone’ or ‘Black Eyes’.
A normal hard plastic pick
usually only survives one gig, for me at any rate and I wouldn’t say I was
particularly hard on Pick, Strings or Guitar.
Guitar choice
Manouche, Saga, Saga-Maccaferri, Hodson, Le Voi, etc. etc
You must play several guitars to find the one that is best suited to you.
Nick Mellor
The Art of Accompaniment”, this rhythmic
foundation is disassembled, piece-by-piece, by the instructor. With the aid of
three students, he clearly illustrates how to produce, not just “acceptable” but
“authentic” Manouche rhythm. his teaching methods follow the traditional
Manouche approach of oral training. Reliance on theory and printed instruction
is minimized as the student is encouraged to learn simply by watching, listening
and repeating. Dennis has had continued success with this approach with many of
his own students.
 Topics
covered include:
Rhythm Styles •
Straight Rhythm / Downstroke Style • The Right Hand • Outer String Exercise •
Right Hand Review • The Left Hand • Gm6 G#m6 Am6 Exercise • G G7 C Cm G D7
Exercise • Swing Rhythm / Upstroke Style • Tremelo • Tremelo Variation •
Upstroke Details • Upstroke & Downstroke Variations • Range of Motion • Subtle
Upstroke • First Strum, Bass Only • Subtle vs Power Strum • Wet vs Dry Sound •
Pick Preference • Timing • Metronome Exercises • Count Out a Rhythm Exercise •
How to Start With Correct Rhythm • Metronome Exercise #4 • Rhythm Effects •
Basic Effect • Triplet Roll • "Django" Effect • Triplet Exercise • "Exaggerated"
Upstroke Effect • 2nd & 4th Beat Accents • Advanced Effects • Use Effects
Tastefully • Waltz Rhythm • Bossa Rhythm • Bossa Variations • Bolero Rhythm •
Bolero Variation #1 • Rumba Rhythm • Rumba Variation • Funk Rhythms • Romanian &
Hungarian Rhythms • Chord Shapes • Major Chords • Minor Chords • 7th Chords •
Minor Swing Voicings • Django Voicings • Django C Major • Dm6 Chord • E7 Chord •
Bb7 Chord • Diminished Chords • 3 Note Chords • Dm G7 C Chord Progression • F Fm
C A7 Dm7 G7 C Chord Progression • Two Fret Chord Approach Effect • G D7
Progression Variations • Importance of Rhythmic Variations • Simplifying Chord
Progressions • Complicating a Simple Chord Progression • B7 E7 A7 D7 Chord
Progression • Chromatic Descent Chord Progression • Spicing Up a C7 Progression
• Song Endings • Intros • Minor Key Intros
So, you've purchased Michael Horowitz's
"Gypsy Picking Book," and meticulously learned the patterns and
burned rest-stroke picking into your muscle memory. You've purchased
Andreas Oberg's book, "Gypsy Fire," and memorized 80 pounds of cool
licks and riffs. Maybe you have even managed to find a rare copy of
Mandino Reinhardt's DVD, and memorized Django's 1938 Minor Swing
solo note-for-note. You've woodsheded and have become a blistering
technical wizard, ready to start a gypsy band.
So, you put an advertisement on
Craigslist to look for a fiddle player (maybe an accordionist!), a
bassist and two rhythm guitarists. You know you can't be a Gypsy
Band, unless you have a tight guy on rhythm who can chug-chug the
chords to "All of Me." You interview and jam with the available pool
of guitarists in your town. After a few "headhunting" jams, you
begin to think, "Okay, I'll settle for one guy on rhythm..." At
best, the rhythm achieves a corny doo-wacka-doo shuffle; at worst,
it sounds like three Nike jogging shoes bounding about in a laundry
dryer.
As Jack Brown wrote in his review of
Dennis Chang's new DVD, JAZZ MANOUCHE: The Art of Accompaniment,
nearly every Gypsy Jazz product out there focuses on soloing. In
fact, nearly EVERY guitar book out there, regardless of genre, seems
to favor soloing. Sure, there have been a couple video products
through the years that have addressed rhythm: at best they've been
too brief, and at worst, flat out wrong. There has been a real
vacuum in instructional materials that give the aspiring Gypsy
Guitarist a learned, comprehensive treatment of Gypsy Jazz Rhythm
technique based on direct experience playing with the best Manouche
practitioners of the genre in Europe. Until now.*
Taught in a small office setting,
with three students, Dennis Chang’s, JAZZ MANOUCHE: The Art of
Accompaniment is literally a master class in Gypsy Jazz rhythm. He
immediately dispels myths about guitar picks. Rather than present a
scholarly dissertation on the merits of Parisian versus Dutch
styles, he percolates rhythm styles into to basic camps: the
upstroke camp, and the all downstroke camp; more importantly he
leaves one with the feeling that both are fine and legit. He covers
basic chord shapes, again leaving folks who use modern 3 and 4 note
"jazz voicing's" and those who use folkie "thumb" chords, feeling
validated. He covers wrist position, and range of motion. While much
of the DVD focuses on 4/4 swing rhythm, Chang give adequate
treatment to Bossa's, Bolero's, Rhumba's and so forth. It's all
taught in an informal style that works well for advanced players as
well as those whose technical knowledge is very limited. What makes
this video unique is that he verbally explains a technique,
demonstrates it, and then asks his students to repeat it. There is
very little editing happening, and you get to hear the students when
they play well, and more importantly, when they play incorrectly.
When the student's make a mistake, Change jumps in and immediately
corrects it. So you get to hear the problem, why there is a problem,
and you get an explanation of how to fix it. As I mentioned earlier,
it's like a Master Class, or better yet, like a small private
lesson. Because it is a video, you can see and hear the lesson, and
replay it over and over.
Dennis Chang clearly has advanced
knowledge on the topic of Gypsy Jazz guitar, and guitar in general.
This is a result of his holding formal degrees in music, and from
having actually studied, played, performed and recorded with masters
of the genre like Ritary Gaguenetti, Andreas Oberg, Fapy Lafertin,
Lollo Meier and others. Despite his advanced knowledge, his teaching
style is very informal and intimate, and his language in
non-technical and almost too colloquial.
While I maintain that this is the
best and most comprehensive video product presently available, I do
have one criticism and one observation: he fails to pull all the
information together at the end by putting it to real world use. It
would have been helpful to see the techniques being applied to real
songs. Also, there are no written materials whatsoever - one only
learns what one can see and hear. While this approach works very
well for me, and I believe that this is the best way to learn this
music, these two items may prevent this product from being a "one
stop shop" for rhythm guitar.
Despite this, Dennis Chang's new DVD,
JAZZ MANOUCHE: The Art of Accompaniment is a MUST have for ALL Gypsy
Jazz guitarists. If you are new to the style, you will learn very
quickly what it has taken me 12 years to learn. If you are soloist,
you will benefit, because I feel that the best way to master soloing
and learn how to play meaningfully through jazz changes is to know
the rhythm and chords underneath the melody. Frankly, the best
soloists in this genre are also some of the most formidable rhythm
players, and many of the best rhythm players are monster soloists in
their own right. This is also a great product to have on hand if you
are in an established band, but you would like to bring backup
players and new band mates up to speed quickly. At almost $50.00,
the DVD is expensive, but is on par with the going rate for a master
class.
If you've been having problems with
your rhythm technique, and just can't seem to pinpoint what is
wrong, this video will help you solve it. If your rhythm playing is
excellent, your time is great, but you still sound more like Freddie
Green than Joseph Reinhardt, this video will point out what you need
to change. If you already have an extensive library of Gypsy Jazz
and Swing educational materials, this product will complement and
help complete your study. If you're totally new to the genre, and
want to know where to begin, I think it is a required first step.
It is the best, most comprehensive
and informative product pertaining to Jazz Manouche Accompaniment
presently on the market! I wish that I had this DVD 12 years ago
when I started my quest to become a Gypsy Jazz Rhythm guitarist.
Good job, Dennis!
http://www.hyperhipmedia.com/DCmovie2Sm.mo
http://www.hyperhipmedia.com/DC-Movie1webSmall.mov
Finally! For years now, the
world of Jazz Manouche tuition has been almost exclusively about
soloing-book after book arrived each promising to teach some of what
makes this great music sound the way it does. Yet book
after book gave short shrift to the most fundamental part of that
sound: the unique rhythm styles of the music. Long-suffering rhythm
guitarists finally have a corrective in Denis Chang's new
instructional DVD, which should be required viewing for anyone
interested in getting at the heart of the style. Denis has studied,
performed, and recorded with Fapy Lafertin, Lollo Meier, Ritary
Gaguenetti, and Andreas Öberg, among others, and brings a first hand
knowledge of the music's essentials to his teaching.
Eschewing any sort of written notation, the disc
is firmly rooted in the traditional learning methods of the gypsy
camps-Chang simply shows you what to do, forcing you to rely on your
ears more than a book in front of you. It's a presentation that
rewards (and even demands) repeated viewing-with only the video,
there's no chance of fooling yourself into thinking you've mastered
something. It's a startling change of pace from the majority of
tuition materials out there, and one I'm sure will disappoint some
players, but it's a bold and refreshing move, and one that should
result in a more self aware player. Chang, who holds a degree in
music from McGill University, does delve into theory a bit during
the presentation, but never allows it to overwhelm the musicality of
his examples. His section on simplifying (or complicating)
progressions is a great example of how he uses theory in service to
the music rather than an end unto itself.
The disc covers a LOT of ground (running time
is over two hours) beginning with the most basic la pompe rhythm,
moving through some of its subtleties and variations to 3/4 rhythms,
Latin styles, and even funk rhythm (something we'll see more and
more of among younger gypsy players.) While some of it will be
familiar to intermediate and advanced players, there are also plenty
of details to interest students of all levels-the look at Romanian
and Hungarian rhythms and the advanced rhythm effects section should
provide plenty of fodder for even the most dedicated player. The
extended sequence of introductions and endings is also a welcome
addition, and should help smooth out festival jam sessions
everywhere.
The disc also features three students of
varying skill levels, giving Chang an opportunity to point out and
correct some common mistakes. Unfortunately, the audio levels are
frequently imbalanced, meaning that the students questions and
playing are often too soft to be of real use (especially with one
using a nylon string guitar), but it's a minor quibble about an
otherwise outstanding effort.
 Future
Concerts
|
