Stopping when I make a mistake

Lango-Django

OK, Jon, I just started another thread using your suggestion. Thanks!

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But something else occurred to me on the subject of remembering the right chords.

For me, certain songs seem so "logical" that I never blank on them... "Embraceable You" springs to mind... those chords just follow each other with such perfect logic, even the "weird" ones underneath "You and you alone bring out the gypsy in me".

Likewise, I never have any trouble with standards like "Sunny Side of the Street" "It Had to be You" "Out of Nowhere" or "Honeysuckle Rose"...

Even "Nuages"... yes, that tune has a lot of chords.... but they follow each other as perfectly as railroad cars.

But then there are the standards that I always have to watch myself on... "Body and Soul" in its "FU" key of Db being at the top of that particular list... and in "I'll See You in My Dreams" there is that weird change from D7 to A7 that is often a stumbling block... can't think of any others right now...

"You Know What I'm Sayin'?"

Will

Chiefbigeasy

Ditto on all said above. Keep it simple, but keep that rhythm going no matter what. Remember that part of your function in "la pompe" is not only the sound of the chords but just as importantly, the beat. The great New Orleans gypsy jazz player Russell Welch told me as much during a rare lesson I was able to squeeze out of him. He described forgetting where he was in a song and just dampening the strings with his left hand while continuing to strum in time with the right until he got back on track.

I've been playing this music for years now and, don't you know it, just the other night I lost my way in the same place in a song during each pass, even though I play the song without even thinking all the time.

I can create trouble for myself if I start to play inversions of the chords for fun, though. And, sometimes, I'll get a block about a song. My quartet backs me up for "Indifference" or "Bistro Fada" (depending on the evening), so I don't get a chance to practice playing the chords that much. I've been forcing myself to practice them at home because I feel I need to know them in case called upon to back up a more superior player. So, I work on the "C" section a little more now by trying to envision the chords flowing into the next one from the position of the previous one. The chord backing on this kind of tune is much more critical than keeping "Minor Swing" in the groove because of a missed chord.

But, when I'm playing the solo for these waltzes, or I'm trying to play Django's solo on "I'll See You in My Dreams" and mess up during that, finding my way back in time with no facial grimaces is another version of this skill, which I'll save for the other thread about getting lost in a solo.

All said, keep that groove going, even with damped strings. If I'm looking for anything in the audience while I'm playing rhythm, I looking for toes tapping and feet swinging. Then, I know I'm doing my job.

Buco

If you're playing guitar a total of five months, it's just much to early. Probably the best you could do is to listen to the songs you play as much as possible so that it becomes a second nature then learn the progression by heart.

vanmalmsteen