Django and music theory

NylonDave

Rhythm Future first melody is a pentatonic based on a gapped whole tone scale.

He didn't seem to use a complete Major Scale much that I noticed till Swing 42 where he made it the basis of the first phrase of the head straight up G to G in C then back to embellished arpeggios like his normal early style.

Until the bridge where he seems to be exploring major scale fragments in depth.

It might be worth thinking about why he did that. And almost the exact same thing with Anouman, first phrase Melodic minor ascending a whole octave from A to A in Dm.



D.

Lango-Django

Perhaps Django listened to recordings of Bix, who was also a lover of the whole tone scale, eg "Davenport Blues" and "In a Mist".

But, perhaps not...

NylonDave

It's got to be Debussy,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiles



I don't know if Debussy's ability to read and write music disqualifies him from being a real genuis but I would say it is fair to say he is exploring this scale through composition. In Paris, at the turn of the century.

Also in Rhythm Futur Django rhythm part Django explores bitonality in a very similar way to Stravinsky (in as much he is superimposing the sound of a C chord with an F#chord) again in Paris and again in 1910.

(see Petrushka) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytonality

D.

(I don't put much faith in Wikipedia for music theory but it is pretty accessible to everyone)

bopster

Bones wrote: »

In my limited experience (no expert) he didn't use scales nearly as much as arpeggios (or licks like the pseudo chromatic runs for example). I've noticed the use of the harmonic minor scale quite a bit (i.e. Dark Eyes solo) usually descending (ascending with a 7b9 arp). Rarely a major scale (but I could be wrong). Stuart, can you think of a good example of the whole tone scale/lick off of the top of your head

Diminushing (also known as Diminishing Blackness) has whole tone licks all over Django's solo, Anouman has Django doing whole tone licks in his solo (right before the sax comes back in for the out head), the beginning head with clarinet on Porto Cabello.

NylonDave

@bopster
I think that is the ascending augmented triad lick from Rhythm Futur moving up in whole tones on Anouman. It does spell out a whole whole tone scale after the second shift mind.

I think for these he is just thinking about decorating a triad for a dominant and shifting it about. Three frets for a diminished and two for an augmented.

If he is thinking anything like that, then that would be a theory. If he wasn't though it is still a theory. (actually for clarity I prefer postulate over theory, given that the definition of theory remains as unclear on this thread as it is everywhere else when there is an open conversation, postulate may seem obscure but it has the benefit of not meaning lots of contradictory things to different people)


http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/postulate

D.

Jazzaferri

Will....who was a better songwriter?......both of them

Jazzaferri

From all that I have read about Django, I get the feeling he didn't think about playing...he just played what came into his head.

NylonDave

Jazzaferri wrote: »

From all that I have read about Django, I get the feeling he didn't think about playing...he just played what came into his head.

I have learned to enjoy what I read in books and to try and give them a fair shake to get to the nuggets. But in the end with music and musicians I find it is my ears that tell me only the truth, and if I listen carefully they tell me much more than a book.

And that is a miracle because I certainly didn't start with a good ear and I am not sure it is even average now. But I do enjoy using it.

D.

Jeff Moore

Lango Django
Nice explanation of theory. It seems possible too that a visual representation (bars and staff for instance) could offer a different outlook (no pun) on a piece if you can correlate sounds with patterns.
People should look too at the other thread on theory with Ted Greene using language to describe chords as be plays. It's astonishing to me to actually see someone creating verbal shorthand for chord shapes while they use ideas nicely. Who'da thunk? I posted a vid of Birelli next to Ted, but I think I should have let Ted occupy the thread w/out Birelli, though they seem to be on the same journey, one with and one without words.

Teddy Dupont

Jazzaferri wrote: »

From all that I have read about Django, I get the feeling he didn't think about playing...he just played what came into his head.

That is exactly right. He heard sounds in his head that he could instantly transfer to the guitar. There was no analysis or evaluation involved. The sounds and ideas in his head were like nothing anyone had had before. Obviously to be able to transfer these sounds into reality, he had to experiment and practice in the early days whilst he was learning but it was purely instinctive. For someone like Django, written notes and musical theory were irrelevant and unecessary.