I am new to Gypsy Jazz

Walter R Toomes

Hello all. I am new to Gypsy Jazz and I want to do it right.
I am an intermediate guitar player.
So where do I start?

Thank you.

Jazzaferri

Hi and Welcome to the group.

Hmmm...where to start. One of the basic reference books for this style is Gypsy Picking ....by Michael Horowitz. Most here have it and will include it in their advice to you lol. It can be purchased at the Djangobooks store.

Start listening to lots of tunes in the genre and concentrate your listening on the ones you like....you can't play this music well til you hear it in your head.

Start learning the chords to some of the simpler tunes and listen a lot to the rhythm guitar. Check out the threads on rhythm here and the repertoire and GJ 101 forums.

GJ is like golf...it can be frustrating at times but when everything clicks it is wonderful music to play. You will find lots of friendly and helpful people here.

Next step is to find out if you are more a book learner or an example learner...once we know that it is much easier to point you in the right directions. There are online teachers, DVD courses...lots of different avenues.

anthon_74

Hey Man,

Welcome !

Here are some ideas - Learn these songs like the back of your hand - All of me, Minor swing, Dark eyes, and sweet georgia brown.
Get Denis changs art of the accompaniment and start working on pompe rhythm like your life depended on it.
Also, start practicing Arpeggios in the shape of E, A, and C, both minor and major. Learn to play them in every key, and to play them over all the chords of the previously mentioned songs.
Make sure all your down picks are rest strokes, and start every new string with a downstroke.

Also - Get gypsy Picking, which probably covers most of what I said about arpeggios and stuff.

oh, and make sure you get yourself a nice selmer style guitar or 2 , and follow every impulse to buy whatever new shiny gear you see on this website, and/or cool looking instruction book... Make sure you don't stop buying new stuff until you have a book shelf full of gypsy instruction you rarely use....

Oh wait, the last paragraph of stuff is just what I did.. Not for everyone.

Jim Kaznosky

Hi Walter,

There is already some really fantastic advice here. I'll just add a few more.

Learning how to play rhythm correctly is paramount. Spend time on learning how to do this correctly. there are quite a few options on how to learn this. Denis Chang's is one of the best. Most important is to learn it in context...learn songs.

Gypsy Picking is a very good technical primer on the mechanics of the single note style. As Anthony said, there is quite a bit of material out there on this style. It's hard to not get caught up in all of this material and there will be many opinions on this. A good way to practice the technique is to learn the heads of songs, in addition to arpeggios. Anthony's basic description of the technique is accurate.

Work on left hand strength. The left hand is as important as the right hand. There is some good advice in the forums as to how to develop this.

If you have the chance to study or play with someone who is well versed in the style, this will accelerate your learning. Once you get past the rudiments, learn Django solos and waltzes. It will take a lot of time and be very frustrating. But it will be worth it and this has helped me quite a bit. When you are at this point, there is very good advice in the forums as to how to learn and what to do with the solos once you learn.

With guitars, play what you can afford or what you have on hand. If you feel that you want to make a jump to a GJ guitar, Michael H. is a very patient person to speak with. Additionally, do use the forum search feature here and ask questions. People are generally very generous with their time and will try to steer you in the right direction. This forum has been very useful for me when I knew very little about this music and there is a strong knowledge base here.

I hope that this is helpful to you.