Any Langologists out there?

Lango-Django

Probably a stupid question to ask at a Djangologists convention!

But I was just wondering if there were any fellow admirers of the great Eddie Lang who would be into sharing stuff they've learned along the way?

Just to get the ball rolling, here's one of Lang's little chord tricks that's fun and easy… you can hear him play this at the end of his "advanced" augmented-chord solo on the Goldkette Orchestra's 1926 version "Sunday" (the one with Bix)

Beat one is a D7 fingered this way X5453X

Beat two, just bend your pinky over to make this D9 chord X54555

Beat three, go right back to the original fingering X5453X

Beat four; rest.

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It's a bit hard to make that second chord sound clean, but you can get away with it for just a beat...

Will

Bohemian

Lang ( and Joe Venuti) fan here.

Thanks for the explanation of the chords.

Are there and Lang specific tutorials ?

Jazzaferri

Yes indeed .... simple but effective....

Lango-Django

Stuart, I don't actually have them all in front of me right now, but I think I've bought all the Lang books that are available.

They were actually written after Lang's death by a guitarist named Dave Behrend, whom I'm not sure actually met Lang or not---?

Behrend's transcriptions of some of Lang's licks and solos are fairly good, even though no tab is provided so you have to do a bit of music reading, though it's not real hard if you've listened to the stuff he's transcribed.

But his "fingerboard harmony" volume is a big disappointment… it's just a collection of major, minor, augmented and diminished chords, mostly triads… the kind of stuff that most serious guitar players would have picked up for themselves simply by figuring out various inversions of these chords.

And worse, altered chords are not even mentioned, not even obvious ones like major sixths, major sevenths, minor sevenths, or ninths, all of which Lang used all the time.

And most disappointingly absent is the sort of serious musical analysis that most of us around here take for granted when it comes to discussing Django's music.

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For instance, one of Lang's strengths as a player, in which I would argue that he surpassed Django, were his chord breaks and modulations.

I'm in the process of transcribing some of these and am wondering… hmmm…. it would be fun to share the work of doing this with other guitarists who are into it and can repay me for my transcriptions by trading me their own transcriptions.

But then on the other hand…hmmm… without a whole lot of effort, I could probably put together enough of this kind of stuff so that I could ask Michael Horowitz to sell it as e-lessons via Djangobooks.com for five or ten bucks…. Though the truth is probably the market for this kind of thing is rather minuscule, even at djangobooks.com!

Therefore I could swing either way, depending on the response from my fellow Lang-lovers here at Djangobooks.com


Will

Bones

Hey Will, I've always loved the Lang/Venuti stuff but have not messed around with much of it. I worked up a semi-close-ish version of April Kisses. Don't have tab but let me know if you have any questions about that one.

Lango-Django

Thanks, Mike. "April Kisses" is included in the Behrend anthology of Lang transcriptions, so I learned it a long time ago though I rarely play it.

The single exception to that rule was at DiJ 2007, when much to my surprise Harry, a guitarist from Maine, started to play it so I joined right in.

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The best number in that anthology, IMHO, is "Rainbow Dreams", one of Lang's most beautiful compositions and a challenge to play because your pinky gets a real workout!

Bones

Hey Will, I did a search but didn't find a book on Eddie Lang by that author???

Lango-Django

You're right, Mike, alas.

I guess my old paperback copy is rarer than I thought...