Stephanesque

nym

Hi!

I just got Rosenberg trio's cd Caravan and now I am trying to learn Stephanesque from Unaccompanied Django. Huh! Some runs are really difficult with gipsy picking - f.e. that descending D major run which is fingered so that there are consecutive downstrokes when changing strings. Is it really possible to play it that way in right tempo? (For someone who's not Stochelo?) (There is a big temptation to change left hand fingering so that you can change strings with upstroke - downstroke when descending.)
One question also came to mind when listening to Rosenberg cd. It appears that Django plays with more dynamics than Stochelo. Have someone else noticed that? Is it somehow connected with their playing techniques?
One more thing... IN GP book Michael speculates with diffferent possible reasons why Django adapted - or used - rest sroke technique. I remember I have seen a document where Rosenbergs are giving a master class to players who are new to this style. Stochelo told that he tried first to play everything (copying Django's records) with downstrokes but when realizing that he couldn't keep up with Django's speed begun to use also upstrokes - which he demonstrated by moving his hand up and down. (At that time I understood - wrongly - that he was using alternate picking. So if that is how he learned rest stroke, he devoleped that for his needs, not vice versa.

MichaelHorowitz

[quote="nym"]
Some runs are really difficult with gipsy picking - f.e. that descending D major run which is fingered so that there are consecutive downstrokes when changing strings. Is it really possible to play it that way in right tempo? (For someone who's not Stochelo?) [/quote]

Stochelo is a pretty strict Gypsy picker...so I'd stick with rules of Gypsy picking when playing this piece.

[quote="nym"](There is a big temptation to change left hand fingering so that you can change strings with upstroke - downstroke when descending.)[/quote]

It's always good to try out some different fingerings. Usually things work better w/Gypsy Picking when played horizontally. However, most of the fingerings in Unaccompanied book are how Stochleo would play them. So I'd try those first.

[quote="nym"]One question also came to mind when listening to Rosenberg cd. It appears that Django plays with more dynamics than Stochelo. Have someone else noticed that? Is it somehow connected with their playing techniques?[/quote]

I think on a lot of Stochelo's early recordings he played with less dynamics. However, on his most recent CD he plays with a lot of dynamics:

Stochelo
Rosenberg and Mozes Rosenberg

Readyn
able

[quote="nym"]One more thing... IN GP book Michael speculates with diffferent possible reasons why Django adapted - or used - rest sroke technique..... So if that is how he learned rest stroke, he devoleped that for his needs, not vice versa.[/quote]

The rest stroke style is a very old and pervasive form of picking. It seems pretty obvious that Django used it simply because that's what everyone did back then. And after free stroke picking became fashionable, rest stroke picking survived mostly in the oral traditions of the Gypsies. I'm sure that Stochelo learned it from hanging around the older Gypsies in Holland...(i.e, Fapy, Wasso, Limbergers, etc.)


'm

dennis

Michael Horowitz wrote:

The rest stroke style is a very old and pervasive form of picking. It seems pretty obvious that Django used it simply because that's what everyone did back then. And after free stroke picking became fashionable, rest stroke picking survived mostly in the oral traditions of the Gypsies. I'm sure that Stochelo learned it from hanging around the older Gypsies in Holland...(i.e, Fapy, Wasso, Limbergers, etc.)


'm

quite true, they grow up with that technique , they don't even know they do what they do... one gypsy once told me he didn't know where he got the technique and he asked me if django picked that way also!

nym

Hi!
Thanks for your answers!
m.n.