which of these two books to buy

woodamand

I recently purchased 50 Gypsy Guitar Licks you should know, and starting to work thru that. However, since I will be in Seattle in a couple of weeks to look at guitars, I am almost certain to also buy an instruction book.
The two that look most interesting to me are Michael's Gypsy Picking and Manifesting Manouche by Anthony Parker. I have been playing guitar for a long time, so I don't need anything basic but what I do need is the best all round guide for someone like me that has no GJ experience at all except for having listened to a lot of the music for a long time.
thanks in advance for all your thoughts on this

alton

I have also been playing guitar for a long time, and I bought "Gypsy picking" in February of this year. It has changed my life. As rest-stroke picking is a necessity of Gypsy jazz, I would say that you can't go wrong with that book.

I have no experience with Anthony's book (yet - I will be purchasing it soon), however, I met and saw him jamming at Django in June. Nice guy and a fine player, so I am certain that there is a wealth of knowledge and skills in his book.

woodamand

The difficult first thirty years, no kidding I will be 92 by then!

anthon_74

Hey gents,
Obviously I'm very biased here, having written Manifesting Manouche, but I have to chime in.
One of my favorite books is getting Gypsy Jazz by Stephan Wremble, although like most technique books, I found it to be hard to follow, and hard to figure out what the best things for me to work on were. You will find that my book covers a lot of similar material as getting gypsy jazz, but I believe I've arranged it, and explained it in a way that may be easier to digest for the "western mind". It covers Enclosures/diminished scales/arpeggios(/the harmonic minor scale , plus I include several pages of gypsy style phrases and etudes. The challenge I find in a lot of other books is they put too much info on each page, and don't really talk much about what you need to practice.

That being said, Gypsy picking is a must have for learning how to get the right TONE. You won't get an all around understanding of gypsy lead, but you will get quite a few exercises to help you learn how to rest stroke pick. I will be adding a gypsy picking tutorial to my Youtube page that accompanies the book, but everyone raves about gypsy picking the book.

Lastly, I'm available through email to answer any questions you may have, and since I recently wrote the book, all of the info in it is very fresh in my mind.

Cheers!

Anthony

Scoredog

I have Gypsy Picking and found it quite useful...In the small amount I have seen of Anthony's method it seems far more comprehensive.

woodamand

Hi Anthony
That is good info to know. Fortunately, I will be up in Seattle next week, and I will be able to look at your book as well as Michael's. Right now, I am looking for something comprehensive but not overwhelming. Not as worried about tone, right now, as I am getting a grip on the style. If I can't play the notes correctly, tone won't be worth much. Very cool that you are reachable by email and on youtube.
And I still don't even have a GJ guitar yet, doing all this on my archtop. Of course, this may well change after I see Michael.
thanks

jonpowl

Michael's books are "must haves", although I found Gypsy Rhythm to be a bit daunting for a gypsy jazz newcomer. I am working my way through it, albeit very slowly. If I could only have one book it would be Stephane Wrembel's Getting Into Gypsy Jazz, as it offers a bit of everything and can fit into a guitar case. I also recommend Gonzalo's How I Learned books as they are inexpensive with great arpeggio ideas, and Robin Nolan's hard to find Gig Book which offers 76 common GJ songs with intros, outros and chord voicings.

Jazzaferri

I have a very large collection of books on GJ. How to transcriptions etc. other than the histories and bio's I am embarrassed to say mine live on the shelf. I figure I am an ear learner and much as I will have a quick read through when I first get it, unless tab, which I don't read well, they get put with the collection and admired from afar.

I think both Romane and Stephan's book look very good, and would depend on how one best learns as to a preference, which I know is rather unhelpful.

mcgroup53

Manifesting Manouche is a great tutorial on starting to learn Gypsy jazz guitar. Teaches the foundational tunes, chord shapes, other essentials in a clear, well thought-out approach. It leaves the right hand and rhythm lessons for later, so it's really a starter guide that should be followed, IMO, with Gypsy Picking and Gypsy Rhythm if you want to dive DEEP into the punch bowl. Just my observations.

woodamand

Hi mcgroup53
I am thinking that that is the way I will be going. I need a general tutorial first, in addition to the 50 Gypsy Jazz guitar licks, and then the deeper dive.
thanks for your input

Jim Kaznosky

Gypsy picking is the mechanics of picking. You can use these as warmup exercises to get familiar with the technique.
Stephane's book gives a very good path to how to learn the rudiments and is an excellent resource for arpeggios and scales
Anthony's book offers a very good plan for learning how to begin to improvise.
Gonzalo's book gives etudes and pathways for improv.

All of these are good resources that should be applied to new material in addition to how it is presented in the books. For example, Stephane's book has you learn arpeggios and play them in certain "directions" over minor swing. Do this for any tune you are learning. He speaks about enclosures...run these through a song form in all directions. He talks about more complex chords. Run these through the changes. Same with scales.
Anthony's book has a plan. Apply his plan to new songs.
And so on.

The licks courses are good, but are even better if you understand why they work, transportation them into all keys, and in different positions when possible. Barry Greene offers excellent jazz guitar videos and his course on transcribing is quite good.

As it is alluded to, it is very easy to buy books and put them on the shelf. There is no magic potion but any one of these books will pay off if you don't get bored of them too quickly