The devil whispered in my ear while I was practising...

Lango-Django

I'll bet Django would be laughing his ass off right now if he could see how hard I'm working at this.

He'd probably say, "You shoulda just stayed in school, asshole."

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You know, if I ever DO manage to play this music properly.... nobody will really give a fuck anyway?

As the late John McGann observed, "Work real hard and you can earn hundreds of dollars a year at this."

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When I go to Django Camp this summer, wouldn't it be cool if there with somebody there with magic powder to sprinkle on my hands so they can play twice as fast?

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Trying my best to keep up with Daniel Givone at !00% speed, and suddenly my mouth decides to start doing spaz imitations..

WTF is THAT all about? How do I make it stop?

Jazzaferri

Will

When I was young one of the great musical influences on my life was my best friends dad who was a really great pro guitar player

He told me that for the first part of a musicians career they see how many toes they can put into a piece and for the latter part, once wisdom sets in, the see how many notes they can take out.

Far better IMO to play half a dozen really great notes than half a hundred that are technically correct but emotionally bereft. As has been said by many greats. The music isn't in the notes its in the spaces between the notes. Miles Davis used to say to Coltrane "take the horn put of your mouth man"

You will get this music, you have the passion for it. It's unlikely starting at your age you will be able to play long passages a la Angelo or some of the other speed merchants.. That's not necessarily a measure of artistry though, often its just a display of technical prowess.

Lango-Django

Thanks for your support, buddy, greatly appreciated.

Later on, I'll be worried about which notes to leave out... but right now I'm totally focused on being able to hit all eight eighth notes per bar at speeds > 220 bpm... which is sort of the minimum skill level needed to ever really play uptempo numbers like "After You've Gone", etc.

It's a humbling form of exercise, and unfortunately, yours truly is guilty of being a habitual non-exerciser... :oops:

Will

PS Any chance I'll be seeing you at Django Camp in Massachusetts this summer?

bbwood_98

Fellas,
I feel you on this one- my soloing needs a ton of work - however, we don't play this music because we want to make a lot of monay- or any music because we want to make a lot of money- but for love.
we play because we have no choice in the matter!

bbwood_98

Fellas,
I feel you on this one- my soloing needs a ton of work - however, we don't play this music because we want to make a lot of money- or any music because we want to make a lot of money- but for love.
we play because we have no choice in the matter!
Cheers,
b.

Lango-Django

"No choice in the matter"... yes, bbwood, I'm afraid that sounds about right; God help us.

Oh, well, my brother's hobby is golf and from what he tells me, it sounds about as frustrating as GJ.

He tells me that every spring, he starts going to the driving range to practise...

... and he practises and practises all season...and guess what?

By the end of the year, his golf scores are actually worse than they were at the beginning of the year... :!:

So I guess I shouldn't complain...

Yes, I do a lot of practising... and it's frustrating because I never quite get to the level I'm hoping for... but at least I'm not getting worse.

Will

Ahab

Saw your post and thought I'd put im my 2 cents (or pence, I'm English)

One thing you need to get out of your mind is this music being the guitar olympics. I think a lot of people who get into this style mistakenly believe that to be good at this they have to be able to play technincally fast. This is not the case!!! Of course it's one aspect of this style, but it's not what defines it. What really defines it is melodicism. You have to think melodically with every note you play. There are some gipsy guitarists who have the most incredible chops but little in the way of true artistry and there are non-gipsys who can make the music their own, with all the pathos in the world. But to take the sports analogy a little further, in football you can find a player who can do one thousand keepy-upy's in a row, but that doesn't make him a good player. The good player is the one who only needs one touch to make the ball his. And i think the same is true with music. It's the musician who makes a statement with every single note they play who are the greatest.

My Dad's a musician, he plays the saxaphone. He's a wonderful musician in a lot of ways. He's got a great tone, perfect intonation, he can spot whether a note is flat or sharp down to practically inaudible levels. He's got a great feel. He can blaze out stunning Charlie Parker licks. But he is so hard on himself it's untrue! And in my opinion that negativity has hindered his development because it stifles creativity. If you start to to resent your art you're in trouble basically. Constantly fighting against what you perceive to be your limitations is not the way you improve. So I try not to follow his example and make sure that even when I'm doing some serious practicing and get frustrated over some passage or lick I'm trying to learn I make sure I do something fun at the end because surely the root of all creativity is playfulness. And that playfulness was essential to Django's style.

Passacaglia

+1 for a fantastic post, Ahab. Cheers out to you.

Paul

Spalo

I second that: A great post.

Sp

spud

hey lango,
i really dont understand why you are killing yourself trying to match givone's speeds. i really do not see the point.
as you know i have been at this method for a while and after 4 years i am still not able to play them as fast as givone. maybe i am an exceptionally slow learner, but i do not think its the aim of this method.

like everyone has said, think about placing just a few notes VERY WELL, think about the spaces and the swing; if the tempo of the song you are playing is fast, try to find a way to play just small parts of the givone phrases and make them work for YOU.

also think about voice leading over the chord changes- which patterns can slide into other patterns, even if its just a few notes. you need to be able to "see" how these patterns interlace.

imagine that your guitar is singing, it needs time to breath, let notes resonate. dont strangle it because you are trying to go too fast for yourself

ahab is absolutely right- play , have fun.

Lango-Django

Yes, of course all you guys are right--- jazzaferri and ahab and spud... that's why I named this topic "the devil whispered in my ear".

Anyway, the truth is that if I work my ass off, I AM sometimes able to keep up--- just barely!--- with a few of the Givone exercises at full speed....I certainly couldn't improvise anything at that speed!

I know what you're saying, but let's be honest, speed is a big part of this style of music...

Yes, I am aware of the danger of empty guitar heroics... that's why I got tired of listening and/or playing bluegrass music, you get a lot of that!

The players I like the best are the guys like Django and Romane... they certainly have blinding speed when they choose to pull it out of their back pocket, but they don't feel it necessary to blind you with it all the time.

See, the thing with me is that I always worry about my ability to ever play fast enough because I am a lefthander who plays guitar the normal righthanded way.

So I guess for me there's always that worry at the back of my mind... is my right hand actually strong enough to really do the job?

So learning that my buddy Mr. Spud is still not playing the Givone stuff at full speed even after a few years is strangely comforting! And not because I don't want him to be successful, God knows!

Anyway, thanks for your support, everyone! I'll try to have a more positive attitude and just ignore that old devil when I am practising.

Will