Balancing Act

Spalo · February 2006

How do I balance playing in a band once a week (mainstream jazz standards) and relearning my picking technique at the same time?

Django is my first love, although until now I've never sat down to learn the style 'properly' as it were.

I certainly don't want to give up the band - its taken me a long time to find it, and it's fun - we only rehearse for enjoyment. We might get gigs.

Do I just warn them that I'm going to fall apart for a while? Do I just play chords?

Any comments, Gypsy Pickers....?

SP

MichaelHorowitz · February 2006

I maintain that it's best if you can leave your old technique behind and just focusing on Gypsy picking. You'll definitely get it down faster that way. I've seen some folks in your position try to do both so they could keep giging. In most cases it didn't work...they ended up with pretty half ass Gypsy picking. Simply because they didn't focus on it long enough. So much of it is just untraining your old technique!

I'd just stick with playing simple lines that you can execute with Gypsy picking. It might also be a good time work on your chord soloing!

Good luck!

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BluesBop Harry · February 2006

Try this:http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1077
Look for my reply... it worked for me
Good luck!

Spalo · February 2006

BluesBop Harry -

Thanks for the thumb tip - I'll give that some serious attention.

I was trying to think of a way to keep playing without compromising what I was learning from the Gypsy Picking book, and this looks like it could work.

Plus, I love Wes - not as much as the Gypsy Genius - but he's one of the very best in my book.

All the best,

SP