Another Newcomer to the Jazz Manouche world...

AmundLauritzen · August 2014

If you're willing to put in hard work and discipline, you will benefit a lot from the lessons at The Rosenberg Academy. Learning Stochelos picking technique is a long journey with lots of work, but if you stick with it and take the time to get it right, you will stand out from the crowd with a strong sound. Many people try to get away with only the bare amount of downstrokes "required" for this style, and it sounds alright, but if you really want to stand out from the crowd, Stochelos way is probably the best road to take.

The Rosenberg Academy also produced a rhythm guitar course with Nous'che Rosenberg. There are some real eye opening stuff in there on how he gets the powerful drive in his rhythm. Might want to check that out.

For practicing, I recommend Denis Changs play alongs which are high quality in audio quality and musicianship. It's a good selection of tunes that are often played in jams. You get your moneys worth.

There's also a guy, Yakov Hoter, who seems to teach improvisation with basis in Djangos solos. I haven't tried these lessons so I can't comment on it from experience, but they seem to be comprehensive and he has a good, strong sound and seems to have a thorough knowledge of Djangos solos.

Work hard and disciplined every day and you will have much success!

Jazzaferri · August 2014

Dennis is a superb transcriber. Go for the pId version. Besides, like all musicians, I rather suspect he can use the money.

Franz Morales · August 2014

I am about to hit the one-year mark of learning GJ, and like you I've had many, many, many years playing guitar but in the rock/blues arena.

Denis Chang's courses and the DC school has helped me a lot (the playalongs alone are worth it!). While Yaakov Hoter's site has been the most fruitful (for me). Yaakov has been extremely helpful and encouraging, I owe him a lot.

However, I am more a learn-live kind of guy, and my progress has been really slow. So now, I'm planning to get skype lessons from Dario Napoli (another extremely friendly and all-around great guy).

Lots of resources out there to learn! Good luck and have fun

AndrewUlle · January 2015

After seeing so many of the great videos posted by so many Djangobooks forum dwellers, I decided to put up one of mine for comic relief. If you think I should just quit now while I'm ahead, try to put it to me gently... LOL

dennis · January 2015

doesn't sound bad at all to me! You might want to be careful about those hickupy flourishes that you seem to do a lot ! keep it steady and use the flourishes sparsely (listen to recordings of django's accompanists for instance).

Also when you play fast rhythm, you tend not to release the pressure on beats 1 and 3, it sounds a bit strange thsat way.. Yet you don't seem to have that problem when you slow things down halfway

AndrewUlle · January 2015

Thanks for the input - I need that critical ear. Without partners to play with, consistency is difficult. I can tell things aren't quite right, but don't know exactly what and when.

This is the first that anyone outside of my immediate family to hear me play GJ (other than CDs and Spotify), so any advice is helpful. I'm driving my wife and kids crazy with 24/7 Django, Bireli, Stochelo, Tchavalo, etc, etc.

Barkonator · January 2015

Hi Andrew!

I am not too far from you. I live in Medina, which is about 45 minutes south of Cleveland. PM me if you are interested in trying to find some time to get together and jam.