how would django have picked tiger rag?

wim

i'm finding the start bit of tiger rag quite difficult to play at that speed and am wondering what fingerings django may have used. if i play it in 1 position then the gypsy picking feels awkward and seems to put accents in strange places, also i need to use a lot of fingers so i guess django would not have played it in one position. if i try to play it two notes per string , and moving horizontally, then the gypsy picking feels natural (actually same as alternate picking) without consecutive downstrokes , but it also feels a bit awkard to be shifting up the neck on a descending line. trying 3 notes per string gives DUD DUD picking pattern which feels good but doesn't sound right

i guess because it's basically running down the Bb major scale , rather than arpeggio-based, it doesn't suit the gypsy style very naturally !

rob.cuellari

are you just looking for the main theme of the song?

G string, 3,2,0
D string, 3,1,0
A string, 3,1,0,1,3
D string, 0,1,3
G string, 0,2,3,2,3
B string, 1,3

works with regular gypsy picking. i hope that's what you're looking for.
-rob

wim

oh right, i was trying to play it up an octave. and now that i think about it, django probably played the harmony line and it would have been grapelli that was starting at the Bb ...