Question about learning a Django Solo

wim

Can you upload your transcription? To my disappointment, the soundslice is still empty. This is one of my favourite django solos actually ..

anthon_74

I already did post it a few months ago and nobody was interested so the post quickly disappeared from the home page forum posts. Here is the link - viewtopic.php?f=22&t=12083

I just photographed it and posted the pictures, because I am not savvy enough to do it any other way.

Anthony

Bones

Cool thanks Anthon! I missed the original post.

If you have a scanner function on your printer you can just scan it and attach the scan (.jpg) to the post.

Lango-Django

Django's Picasso-esque 1938 solo on Honeysuckle Rose has long been one of my favourites, too. A few years ago I shelled out five bucks and bought a transcription by an online company

http://www.djangosolos.com/GuitarTranscriptions.php

I thought their version was pretty good, but there were a couple of places where their version of the fingering didn't seem quite natural to me so I just changed it slightly.

I've been working fairly hard on this kind of stuff for about five years now, ever since attending DiJ in 2008, and you know what is weird to me?

When I learn a Django solo, I have this need to understand not just HOW he played it that way, but also to understand WHY. Because I don't really want to play Django solos in real life, but I want to somehow internalize his brilliant insights about what can be done with an acoustic guitar.

Anyway, the thing that is weird about learning from Django is that it's a mixture of three different reactions:

- "Oh, yeah, that makes sense, Django"
- "WTF? whatever made you think of doing that?"
- "WTF? that's so obvious, why didn't I think of doing that?"

Luckily, I do find that more and more things about his playing make sense as I get into the style.

but a lot of the stuff that he does, especially in first position, frets 0 to 3, like he does in both Honeysuckle Rose and Sheik of Araby--- I would never have dreamed of doing what he did and am still amazed by it... somehow it's not something that I can learn and use in my own way... At least I have never managed to as of yet, but there is always the hope that one day pigs will fly, water will run uphill, and I'll be able to play like Django, but without actually copying...

Will

Jim Kaznosky

Late to respond on this topic, but I'll add in my thoughts.

Learning solos has been working well for me with regards to development. Once I was shown a few pathways by Stephane for working out some solos, I've started to work on transcribing one every six weeks or so or by reworking the solo's I've figured out within the structure I was taught. I also try to work these out with two fingers. Granted I fudge a little bit on some harder phrases, this has been helpful for me to see the neck a bit better.

I do not write these down at all. I learn them by rote and work on one solo until I have it completely memorized to the point of where I can play it with a metronome away from any playalongs. While I struggle with getting these up to speed, I take a solo at a comfortable speed (maybe 75% of the actual tempo) and play it with a metronome. I note the parts that are causing me trouble or that I have not completely learned and work on these with a metronome. I also try to figure out which parts are giving me difficulty with bringing it up to speed. Finally, I try to work on the phrasing itself: the slides, hammers, ghost notes, and django-isms, and once or twice a week, I bring it back to the original recording to check how far I've deviated. I always deviate and I tend to think that this is not necessarily a bad thing. Perhaps I am wrong, but I feel that this is the way that I might hear or feel a phrase. Nonetheless, I try to make sure I can duplicate the recording.

Another thing I do is try to take the solo apart phrase by phrase and play it slow (50% tempo) in every key, though the cycle of 4ths. The open string phrases are hard to move, but it can be done and I try to find a workable pattern for these phrases. I try to make sure that there is a chord or arpeggio that is related to the phrase and figure out why it works.

So a general practice session will be arpeggios and other technique exercises, and then working on a solo or waltz in this fashion, followed by some rhythm work and free-play...usually 1.5-2 hours a night.

Honeysuckle Rose is a good one to work on. If I had the time to write these down, I would choose to do it, as Anthony figured out, after I had the solo memorized. This works for some folks, doesn't work for others. I'm trying to keep the solos I've learned fresh by revisiting them. So If I've learned Minor Swing 1939 two months ago, and I've worked on something new since then for a month, I may take a weekend day, when I have more time, where I split my practice and wok a little bit on both solos.

AmundLauritzen

Yeah the open string licks are interesting. They are usually locked to a specific key or chord because they can not be transposed due to the open strings. Learning a pattern and moving it around the fretboard is one thing, but listening to Django and hearing so many key/chord-exclusive ideas, brilliant ideas, and so many of them is just daunting to take in.

I noticed from the Tcha Limberger lessons at DC Music School that he uses a lot of open string stuff too. Tcha has a lot of old school tricks up his sleeve, very Django-esque.

I think he, Fapy, Paulus and Feigeli have some of the qualities that you find in Djangos playing. They seem to have studied not only Djangos licks, but his storytelling, how he would develop ideas through a solo to make a complete statement that makes sense. I think that is an important thing when learning Djangos solos. Not only to copy and paste his licks, but to try to understand why he played that specific idea at that place and how it ties together.

Jim Kaznosky

Good post, Amund, especially with regards to developing ideas. I'm finding a lot of motivic development in a lot of the solos. That is, ideas will tend to repeat or expand.

Jazzaferri

Amund...IMO you hve hit the nail right on the head

What is important is the story you haveto tell

Copying someone elses lines notes for note does not tell any story really unless one gets all the inflections perfectly.

Learn the words and tell your own story. That means IMO one has to know ones scales in seconds thrirds fourths fifths and sixths ones arps triadic, 4 note and extended and spend lots of time making them musical.