Dark eyes versions

sjl

As far as I know, Django played three versions of Les yeux noirs, two in 1940 and one in 1947.
I have all the transcriptions but my problem is about their fingerings.
I have the djangosolos 1940 tab and the free I downloaded from this forum but the fingerings are totally different.
Do we know the master's fingering ore they are just guessed?

swing68

I doubt *any* of them actually suggest Django's fingerings. Choice of string and frets, possibly, but that can only be conjecture except for the, oh, 1 minute 45 seconds of surviving video where we can see what's going on.

If in doubt bind your ring finger and pinky together with elastoplast. If the tab is impossible to play with that limitation, it's a fair bet it's not the Django fingering.

(Anecdote alert: was talking to my fellow GJ guitarists here in Poznan, Poland, last week and one said he returned to the 1937 version of Minor Swing after a good three months of not playing it and subconsciously altered a lot of his previous fingerings on the fly. The result was a lot easier to play, and, as he was using mostly fingers 1 and 2 in the left hand, probbaly a lot more authentic as a result)

S68

Jim Kaznosky

No doubt that the fingerings are guessed, although I agree with S68 above. Certain runs become somewhat intuitive after you figure out a few solos by yourself. They may never be perfectly like Django's, but as long as you are leading with the 1st finger, you should be good.

Jazzaferri

I dont quite understand why anyone with 4 good fingers on the left hand would want to imitate djangos fingerings. The notes and frets i get but which fingers :? :? :shock: . Perhaps someone could share why his fingerings?

Jim Kaznosky

It can help navigate seemingly difficult passages if you know the fingering. There are definitely situations where using these fingerings have been "aha" moments for me. I wouldn't use them exclusively. I'll admit that I find the idea of just using two fingers exclusively a bit much. But its a good skill to have in the toolbox.

wim

Having fewer options for fingering can actually help in some way because it's more obvious, by elimination, which positions are the django positions. Using 2 fingers forces you to play more horizontally, across the neck, rather than in position. And when you do this, you then find that accents are falling into the right places due to the necessary picking pattern and you get "the" sound.

Bones

Those are some great etudes!

Some of the phrases that I have run across in the transcriptions are actually easier to play with 2 fingers than all 4 (even if not with the index and middle). When transcribing his solos I definitely try to think how he would do it with 2 fingers as a clue to the location on the fingerboard but I also definitely use all 4 when practicing if it helps me.

Jazzaferri

Wim, being a bit cheeky, I think you meant to say along the neck.

Having spent years wY back learning all the positions for scales, I find myself always in one position or another.

Did you mean in one position.

I quite understand the idea of figuring out a transcriptionusing 2 fingers if needed to figure out the phrasing. I am just not certain if that is what is meant by learning a solo with only 2 fingers.

Bones you are a man after my own heart...do whatever to figure it out and then take the simplest way. There are phrases that are easiest played with one finger, two fingers, three fingers and four fingers, and not everyone will agree on which one is best for them. Some of us have short fat fingers, some have long slender fingers and all the other combinations. Having big fat fingers allows me to stop an adjacent string/fret easily by rolling a finger a bit, and I have a wider neck than most, between usual gj and classical

Bones

Jazz, I need any advantage I can get!!!!

Jazzaferri

I get that.

I used to get so frustrated playing classical, I would have a phrase to play out of a grand barre position and my ring finger and pinky would be a fret short. :shock: oh well