Tim Kliphuis - Stephane Grappelli Licks

MichaelHorowitz

A thorough study of Stephane Grappelli's musical vocabulary by today's foremost expert on the style.

MacKeagan

Bought it, like it! A good collection of runs and licks, taken from various eras of Grappelli's recordings, which are conveniently referenced. Haven't tried the CD yet, but I expect it's as good as the previous Kliphuis book.
I'm assuming most of the folks reading this are either beginning Grappelli-style or intermediates, so I expect you advanced guys probably don't need it, but I recommend it for the rest of us.
YMMV.
Ciao.

MacKeagan

Tried the CD that comes with the book last weekend. Sound quality is very good. The clips are brief, so if you want to study them, best shot is to load the CD into iTunes or similar and set them up as a "playlist", and do it in such a way that you can repeat a lick (Amazing Slow Downer comes to mind).
Thanks, Tim!

AndyW

I'm holding off buying this, i still have Tim's first book to try to get through...
I wish someone would do a book of licks / transcriptions of all today's great French-based players..
Lockwood, Nitescu , Niculescu etc etc, but i know the "Grappelli" name sells books more than these living guys.

-a-

MacKeagan

Agreed, Florin Niculescue has a grand sound, he seems to be able to do what Grappelli did while still being his own man (by which I think I mean, not copying Grappelli solos note-for-note, or even phrase-for-phrase).
I'd recommend after you've gotten through the first section of Tim's first book (up to, say, Grappelli improvisation #1 in C) that you start working on transcribing some solos, or maybe playing some "heads" and trying to improvise a bit. I'm an old geezer with slow fingers, and I found after solos 1 and 2, they got substantially more difficult. The "Licks" book takes a similar approach to improvising and licks as the first book, but gets into more depth as far as actually learning more material(licks) to improvise with. I also purchased the DC Music School set of Tim's Etudes(and backing tracks) which is full of good stuff--beginner etudes that are too easy, and Intermedite etudes which are more difficult but not outrageously hard, and very satisfying to play. 2 speeds: slow=100bpm, fast=150bpm.

AndyW

yeah i've transcribed a few choruses of those french guys- Didier lockwood on 'minor swing' and Costel Nitescu on "Blue Moon" and "R Vingt Six " , i can just about get through the Blue Moon solo, with a pitch-shifted aebersold playalong track - - i'd post the transcription up here if it wasnt a pencil stroke laden mess. -A-
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MacKeagan

Wo! Very nice, indeed! Tasteful playing, IMHO! Great tone quality, too. States the tune very nicely, then goes off into improv, but still retaining the essence of the tune. Now, how to do that meself? Back to the practice room, I guess... Thanks for posting that.
Second that re pencil-marked transcriptions--mine are pretty flakey-looking.