1. learning by memorizing lines 2. dots on fretboard

PapsPier

What works for me currently is a mixed technique: I transcribe by ear Django's solos but I often don't manage to remember them all. So when i want to play a solo I have a quick look at the tab/chart to get the correct start and then it usually comes naturally by following the recording by ear.

By the way if you are looking for Django transcription, I have a good bunch of them (but it is from a specific era: the clarinet quintet, not the classical violin quintet) on this website: (click either on Liste des titres for the full list of titles or on any date to learn more about the story of the clarinet Quintet)
http://djangonewquintettclarinet.wordpress.com/

rafapak

do you know any websites guys where I can buy Django's recordings from ?

PapsPier

It depends what you are looking for?
If you really like Django, go for the Integrale fremeaux (all recordings with nice booklets). You are sure you wont miss any recordings, no need to buy any other CDs
https://www.fremeaux.com/
If you like only the traditional Quintet sound, you could go with the newly published boxes with recordings at the correct pitch+chords as a bonus.
Or if you like the clarinet-guitar quintet, the same company did that other box
http://www.adf-bayardmusique.com/album1656-le-nouveau-quintette-les-annees-de-guerre-1940-1943-django-reinhardt

Jazzaferri

IMO having a dot on the 9th or 10th fret is unnecessary.

Dots on 5 7 and 12 are sufficient.

No dots on most classical and flamenco guitars and somehow they manage.

Soemhow I don't think anyone is going to pay attention to my whine. LOL

NylonDave

Jazzaferri wrote: »

IMO having a dot on the 9th or 10th fret is unnecessary.

Dots on 5 7 and 12 are sufficient.

No dots on most classical and flamenco guitars and somehow they manage.

Soemhow I don't think anyone is going to pay attention to my whine. LOL

I'm listening Jay, I agree.

I will add this little known piece of advice which will like all good advice be dismissed with little reflection by the majority. Shifting is EASY. Just stop looking at your hand all the time and look instead at the place you want to shift to.

It seem like radical advice, most people look at their hands while shifting....

Wierdly though I have been watching football and believe it or not, players look at the ball or the net or the player they are passing to and seldom look at their feet as they strike the ball. It's not just that they'd likely miss if they looked at their feet all the time, it is also that they would bump into each other and fall over.

I'm not saying don't look at your hands. Just don't get stuck staring blankly at your left hand as you shift, it doesn't matter how many dots or inlays, or flashing lights you have, if you are looking at your hand they will not help.

It is a lot of work to get out of the habit of looking at your left hand obsessively. The biggest part of the work is letting go of the hope that you don't need to. It's really all the work there is.....

that is LETTING GO OF FOCUSING ON THE WRONG THINGS to stop completely missing the bigger picture.

A final hint for beginners in general, the worst person to listen to is the person who agrees with you about things. As a beginner you know next to nothing. Nothing would be better.


D.

Jazzaferri

When I have a difficult fingering to learn I send some time doing it very slowly with my eyes closed, feeling where my fingers need to move.

Buco

I once borrowed my friend's guitar for our band practice which has a dot on 9th and by then I got used to 10th fret dot. We played a tune by Charlie Parker where I played a head, kept messing it up, pulled a roll of black electrical tape which I always had because of the nature of my job, taped over that whole section of the fretboard and continued playing the song just fine.

I think after passing the beginner stage, the dots are more of a detriment than help. Without them we would build a spatial feel for the fretboard and would use our ears more as well I think.

Bones

Heck, violin and cello etc don't even have frets :-)

That said, I don't put dots on the front of the fretboard anymore but the little dot on 5.7 and 12 on the side of the neck SEEM helpful but never actually tried omitting them so who knows but I suspect it just takes some getting used to whatever configuration.

François RAVEZ

Hi, a cheap trick I have already used with a classical guitar with no dot at all on the neck was to apply some small dots on the side of the neck with white nail varnish I borrowed from my wife. May be you could hide the white dot on the 10th fret with brown/dark varnish (depending of the colour of the fretboard and the variety of nail varnishes of your girlfriend) and add a white dot on the 9th. After all it is not worst than fixing a mike on the guitar with brown tape as I sometimes saw gypsies do.

Best

François

NylonDave

Never mind.