Imagine if Django hadn't burned his hand

teletodd

Wonder how EVERYTHiNG on this forum would be different.

Bones

Scary to think about....

dennis

He would have mainly used one extra finger (ring finger) as practically every non classical guitar player did back in the day. Pinky only used for certain chords or the occasional stretch.

Chord wise, it s quite interesting... He made his rhythm players use simple triads and basic 7th chords.. Would he have done the same for accompaniment? For rhythmic chord shots, i would think that he d have stumbled upon the famous handicap voicings anyway, since those are not voicings exclusively used by him..

Re his handicap, he seemed to have much more flexibility in his damaged fingers than one might believe.. He was able to wiggle them enough to play certain chord voicings, and he was able to use it them to play octaves.

Django was above all else a genius musician

PapsPier

We can also think about the people who he would probably have never met and about the evolution of his music without this incident: the days after the fire, he was supposed to join the white jazz band of Jack Hylton...

teletodd

I think it was Les Paul who said that Django's fingers were cracked and bled long after the fire. Les Paul broke his right arm in a car crash and had it permanently set bent at the elbow so he could still play guitar. Don't know if it impacted his playing. Earl Scruggs, arguably the "Django"of the five string banjo, broke his arm in a plane crash.

Lango-Django

Something tells me if Django had joined the Jack Hylton band he would have lasted five minutes...

Buco

Agreed. He was too restless of a mind and character to hold a position of jobber for a long while, burned hand or not.