Second Givone book "25 pieces"

Lango-Django

Michael Horowitz brought along several copies of the second Givone book to Django Camp at my request, and I bought one and of course it was like Christmas morning and I couldn't resist trying out my new toy, even though I haven't really worked my way all the way through the first book.

I've just worked my way through the first piece, which is based on the chord progression of "Minor Swing" and it's really cool. I can almost play it at almost full speed but for now I'm safer around three-quarter speed.

I listened a lot to the CD during the long drive home from Django Camp and am looking forward to working on a lot of cool stuff... there are some really interesting chord progressions in there.

Will

andmer

interesting, do you see any of the forms at all in the pieces? or is it a departure from that method.

Lango-Django

Oh, yes, Andre, I've looked through most the tabs and there are a lot of familiar-looking patterns in there.

As far as I can tell by listening, the only tune that uses a chord progression directly "borrowed" from another tune's is the very first piece, the one modeled on "Minor Swing"... Actually, it might've been kind of cool from our point of view if he'd done a little bit more of that kind of "borrowing"...? Oh, well, in any case, he didn't do that.

But the good thing is that a lot of the tunes in there use the five forms in one-bar segments instead of three- or four-.... which makes them a lot easier for vandals like us to rip off and use in other places.

Lango-Django

In another thread, Jazzaferri wrote:

... most musicians spend the first part of their careers seeing how many notes they can put in a song, and the last part seing how many notes they can take out.

Jay, with that in mind, I think you'd appreciate the number two piece in the Givone "25 Pieces" book. It's slow, sultry piece, but the first chorus, while very sparse, is full of the kind of little touches that made Django's ballad playing so beautiful... slurs, slides, unusual note choices, and more.

If you're one of those players like yours truly who is trying to give your playing a more authentic and spicy gypsy-ish sound, I think you would also appreciate this piece. I hope to be able to apply these techniques to slower tunes I like to play like "Embraceable You" etc.

Will

PS I hadn't actually planned to go through the book working on the tunes in order, but it just happened that way...

Jim Kaznosky

I'm glad you like this book. I feel like I sort of urged you to pick it up, but I find the pieces much more musical and fodder for mining than the method book. If you are even somewhat familiar with the "forms," Givone's phrases here will take it to the next level. It is somewhat different than the Gonzalo series as the phrases are allowed to breathe a bit more.

Lango-Django

Yes, Jim, I remember saying something to you at Django Camp like, "I don't know if I'm ready for the second book" and you replying something like, "You may be more ready than you think you are."... which turned out to be totally true.

So now at this point, I'm sort of bouncing back and forth between the two books, but that's okay, it's all good!

Jim Kaznosky

I think it is a much more musical way to see his phrases in practice. Plus, there are many Django like solos there. I've got to pick up some Givone. MH did not have any at DiJ.

Jazzaferri

Now you have me intrigued. Book 2 is the 25 tunes one??

Is it ll originals songs or transcriptions of DG's playing?

Do you think it would make for fun practice on sax? Serious question. I rip grappelli licks as i can for sax. I am currently learning phrases of 1-2 bars that i like that are all in one key and then putting on biab and playing several times through all 12 keys. Great exercise.

Lango-Django

Book two is the 25 pieces, and it's all original etudes written by Givone. I don't know if he's recorded any of these commercially or not.

I think you'd like these, Jay, Givone's chord progressions are very hip and smart without sounding too overtly "modern" for the genre... eg, no bebop chords. He's a hell of a musician!

Will

Jazzaferri

I have ordered from Michael. When i get it then maybe i can be part of the group

Lango-Django

Jay, we'd love to have you, and you'd be a real asset to our group... for one thing, you sax players have a totally different and probably saner perspective on music than us fretboard-obsessed guitarists.

Bu seriously, I have found your contributions to the djangobooks.com forum over the years to be reliably intelligent, thoughtful and generous.

To avoid copyright issues, I guess we'll have to complicate life a bit by having a sub-groups of GGG memberships according to whether people own book one or book two, or both... It may take somebody smarter than me to figure out the best way to accomodate this!

One thing I can say, now that I've had a chance to use book two a bit: the two books, though inter-related, function as almost completely independent entities.

Therefore you can start using book two right away without any reference to book one. But of course, if you are familiar with book one, you'll notice a lot of the same fingering patterns re-used in book two.

Will

PS And if you are looking for musical phrases to "rip", as you put it, book two is probably the better one for that.