Gypsy Fingering

Elliot

There is an aspect to Gypsy fingering that I adopted once I saw it, and which is very useful (if not totally necessary) for these patterns. What I mean is on those occasions where there are two notes next to each other with a space before the next note (or two) to use the index finger to slide up or down, for example notes at 2,3, 5,6 to finger it as 1-1-2-3. It seems like just about all the Gypsies do this, esp Tchavolo (who may be the most noticeable just because his hands are so big.) To me it is easier and faster than to whip out the old pinky, everybody's least cooperative digit.

Perhaps others have noticed as well, but I also find this move to be very helpful in keeping my hand at the correct position, both physically and mentally. At the risk of being belaboring something that may be completely obvious/elementary to some (if so, sorry about that), I figure it is at least worth mentioning at this stage...

bopster

I do this with minor 9 arpeggios especially, Elliot. Root, 9, b3 on a string, 5th on the next, then begin again on the next string, etc. The shift to the first finger on the 9 allows your hand to be in the perfect position for a V7 chord arpeggio a fifth away. Anything else seems awkward, at least going between a i minor and V7. And no, it's not always obvious to even seasoned players.

klaatu

I do the same, Elliot. My pinky just doesn't want to do much in soloing, so I use slides a lot. Also, because my fingers are rather short, I find it nearly impossible to do two-note-to-a-string arpeggios with the index and middle fingers like Django did, I have to use 1 & 3. I've never paid much attention to what other people do in this regard, and now I'm curious. I'll have to watch some videos with that in mind.

Jazzaferri

Sliding gives a different attack than fingering the fret change. It's like slurring a phrase on horn as opposed to tonguing the two notes

IMO one should be good at both