Learning 5 solos by django in june (personal challenge)

anthon_74

terrassier wrote: »

Crickey ....you must have some free time on your hands Anthony

Not as much as I would like. I have to stay up until 1:00 am every night, and wake up extra early in order to fit in an hour of practice before I teach my students in the afternoon.
I wish I had as much time to practice as the great players whos solos I'm learning.

anthony

anthon_74

Here's solo #2, Bireli Lagrene's Django's Tiger -

Bones

Thanks for posting it Anthony!

Lango-Django

Anthony, I remember at DiJ a few years ago when you played Django's version of this tune.

I know you are a busy guy, but if you ever had a few minutes to put together a mini-analysis of the differences in the Django vs. Birelli version, some of us here (okay, well, maybe just me...) might find your thoughts entertaining...

I admire your ability to play other people's solos. I'm pretty much like a commenter in a previous thread (forget who) who finds that hard to do, and to be honest I don't really want to do it badly enough to work through the frustration I'd encounter.

I'm one of these I'VE GOTTA BE ME!!!!! kind of idiot guitar players, for better or worse... probably for worse. So I admire your talent in studying the great players so carefully.

Jim Kaznosky

I never got the whole argument that learning other players solos is bad. Licks are nice but hearing a good player put some together in context and learning how they did that is pretty a pretty useful way of understanding how to craft a solo. Also, it's a great way to improve technique, which is evident in your playing in these videos
Based on the way you've learned as laid out in your book and in combination with learning some solos, you are headed into a really good place.

anthon_74

Jim Kaznosky wrote: »

I never got the whole argument that learning other players solos is bad. Licks are nice but hearing a good player put some together in context and learning how they did that is pretty a pretty useful way of understanding how to craft a solo. Also, it's a great way to improve technique, which is evident in your playing in these videos
Based on the way you've learned as laid out in your book and in combination with learning some solos, you are headed into a really good place.

Thanks a lot Jim ! It's interesting because, while I had certain thoughts about what this challenge will do for my playing, there have been other benefits that I wasn't thinking about.
Primarily, I discovered through this process that I've been picking TOO hard, and it affects my ability to play faster lines.

The only downside is that the time commitment leaves little time to practice anything else, and learning others solos helps a LOT more if you have time to practice applying the new ideas to one's own improvisation. Hopefully I will have said time before DIJ, though that may have to be a AT DIJ project.

Cheers
Anthony

Lango-Django

Jim, I didn't mean to imply that learning other people's solos is bad. It just doesn't work for me.

I've put hours and hours into trying to learn some of my favourite Django solos, but then I find what happens is always this:

As soon as I stop practising Given Solo constantly... zIng!--- it mysteriously vanishes into thin air, leaving behind only a few licks as a souvenir.

And I'm right back where I started from.

Sigh.

Bones

Yeah sounds like a little idea in G up at the 12th thru 10th frets on the E string (3 note pull off followed by C and B on the B string). Then a 2 fret (whole tone) hammer on-pull off on the E string descending chromatically to put him in a position to play a D7 idea down around the 5ht to 8th fret area. Good luck and thanks again for posting your hard work!

Lango-Django

The other thing I think is very discuss-able along these lines is this... tell me if my perceptions are off? Maybe so.

But in listening to some of the wonderful, wonderful guitar players I've heard playing this style it seems to me you can say as a general rule, regardless of technique---

1) the gypsy players somehow SOUND LIKE gypsies
2) the French players somehow SOUND French
3) and most importantly to me, the US/UK players somehow SOUND Anglo

My hypothesis is that there is some area of the brain connecting musical phrasing with native language.

So over the years I've come to the conclusion that I'm one of the guys that's always going to sound Anglo, no matter how much I try to copy Django!

But nevertheless, studying this style has brought me light years ahead of where I would have been otherwise.

I hope this doesn't seem harsh or controversial, and it is not meant to imply that certain players either do not or cannot overcome those categories.

Shitstorm of criticism to begin in Five... Four... Three...

Will

anthon_74

Lango-Django wrote: »

1) the gypsy players somehow SOUND LIKE gypsies
2) the French players somehow SOUND French
3) and most importantly to me, the US/UK players somehow SOUND Anglo

My thought on this is simply that french players are in france, playing in the epicenter of popularity in terms of the style. They are influenced daily by others around them. U.S. players are learning it from recordings and books, so probably sound different as a result.

I don't know about the UK players though. I've listened to Tim Robinson, and met him a few years back at DIJ, and he sounds like Django. French?US? I don't know, but definitely Django.

Also, Paul Mehling sounds like Django as well.

Anthony