DiJ 2013: lick exchange Monday June 17...?

Bones · March 2013

Roger that Paul!

Passacaglia · March 2013

Just a p.s. Sorry, by the way, Will, for hijacking your thread a bit. Have a blast at DIJ, everyone!

anthon_74 · March 2013

I agree that we all need work on rhythm if we want to be Gypsy Jazz superstars. How much work you really "need" , however, is directly related to your goals as a player. One player said to me - I wanted to play like Django Reinhardt, NOT his brother Joe. Of course this guy had excellent pompe'.

That said, I do want to respect Andrew, so sorry about the mention of skipping rhythm class to jam. My soloing fingers don't work too well at that time of the morning anyhow

Cheers and counting the days !

Anthony

Passacaglia · March 2013

anthon_74 wrote:

I agree that we all need work on rhythm if we want to be Gypsy superstars

Wow, you mean this obsession with mastering walking is going to allow me to be a superstar runner? Awesome! I knew there was something behind it other than neurotic monomania

Lango-Django · March 2013

I want to play like Django Reinhardt, NOT his brother Joe.

No, Joe was his cousin... his brothers were Larry and Curly.

I play like them. :?

mikegnik · March 2013

If I may share one more perspective regarding GJ rhythm:

I only went to DIJ once, last year, but I wouldn't dream of skipping a rhythm class this year, and neither should anybody. I got 4 different "correct" perspectives of playing la pompe, all of which are unique and useful in different situations or different tunes, plus plenty of evaluations from masterful players, a chance to evaluate everybody else's approaches, strengths, weaknesses (as a guitar teacher, Anthon you can become an even better teacher here!), tips on endurance, speed, relaxation, voicings, rhythm fills, etc.... To be a really great lead player, it is arguable you have to also be a great accompanist. Django certainly was.

And we can't all be Django, the soloist, at the same time. Really, truly locking into tempo, groove and the physics involved takes great concentration, even meditation, not to mention endurance and harmonic knowledge. To my ear, Joseph wasn't as good as Django at rhythm guitar.

The rhythm guitar is after all the drummer in the group. What drummer abandons playing drum beats to only play drum solos? The kind nobody wants to play with! (I don't mean to be condescending with this metaphor. There was no prior suggestion of ditching rhythm playing altogether)

Cheers,
Mike 2

PS I like the idea of exchanging licks, but may not be there until late on Tuesday. But, at the same time, I generally don't play a lot of licks (some always has to say that, don't they?

). Some would argue we all play licks and I am full of shhhhhhaving cream (remember that corny song?), but really do attempt to compose as I go, for better or worse at times.

mikegnik · March 2013

PPS It just occurred to me that I just may have hijacked a thread regarding a guitar method I don't use. Anything DIJ related gets my attention quickly. Sorry 'bout that! Cheers folks, and looking forward to stealing some of your licks ::cough:: jamming with you folks at camp

Lango-Django · March 2013

No harm, no foul, Mike... the original idea was to exchange licks in general, and not necessarily Givone-related stuff.

I don't know why, I've learned a lot of licks over the years, but for some reason it helps me remember them better if I have some kind of personal peg to hang them on, like learning them off a record I really love, or better still, learning them from a real live person.

It would never occur to me to say, "Gosh, I only want to learn official 'Givone' licks!"

And I doubt that anyone else who has used the Givone method as a learning tool would ever say anything like that either.

The Givone 'forms' aka 'shapes' are a conceptual tool to help you find the notes you want to find all over the fingerboard.

It's sort of like learning to touch type: once you have learned the home keys and all that stuff, then you really don't want to keep practising exercises like "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" over and over again... you want use the keyboard to say what you want to say!

So I do hope you will join me and whoever else ends up participating in this.

mikegnik · March 2013

Sounds cool to me Lango! Thanks for the invite. I would happily join the group if I can make the timing work, depending on what is decided. The thing for me is that I'll be heading into town Tuesday with my wife and kids and will most likely not have a lot of control over a precise time of arrival.

I think it would be fun to put together and could be quite beneficial to take part in. For me, even moreso if we all have our ideas written down, as I know if I am shown 10 licks in a row a few will stick and ::poof:: go the rest! This would be a cool bonus take away from camp.