Where should I start?

Mitu

I've been admiring Django's work for a while now, my first guitar was a jazz Manouche guitar and I'm so frustrated that I can't play Django's famous improvisations.

I may be rushing things, I've only been playing for a year but I'm so mesmerised by Django's work and I really wanna play Gypsy jazz myself.

So I am here to ask the Django Book community, where do I make my start? What arpeggios should I practice? What songs should I look to learn?

Any comments are welcomed and appreciated.

geese_com

@dennis Has a five volume course for beginners on Soundslice.

https://www.soundslice.com/users/DenisChang/

JSanta

Also - find yourself a good teacher. I have made more progress in my 4ish years with Stephane Wrembel than I had made the 15 years prior. There's a baseline technique to this style of guitar, and it helps to have someone make sure you're learning proper technique as best you can. We can toss resources at you, but it is a massive help to have someone contextualize what you're learning.

You've only been playing a year, which is nothing. It took Stephane 5 years to learn and transcribe those Improvisations, and I can attest that he still practices them. It's an ongoing process. You can't build a tree.

The other thing is to find jams in your area. Connect with better players. You'll learn a ton that way, even if it's not the traditional lesson format.

Buco

When you say his famous improvisations, do you mean his solo guitar pieces or his solos? Either way, that's some time down the road if you are one year into. However, you can learn small chunks. A short part from some of his solos that excite you or a few bars from one of his solo pieces.

I think the best way to start is to just learn the songs. Pick one that you love particularly. Learn the chords and melody. If it's a fast tune, just slow it down.

Music in general and especially this genre is a lifetime of study. Things will not happen overnight. A lot depends on how much you play and practice in a day. If you're obsessed and practice 6+ hours a day, you'll get much further in another year.

voutoreenie

Personally (please don't hate me Buco), I'd practice less than Buco's suggesting or at the very least, break up the hours spent practicing into pieces rather than marathon stretches - initially, this style can be tolling on the right hand/wrist/arm and before your technique building blocks becomes a solid foundation, it can be easy to compensate for fatigue by making improper adjustments you might not even notice, which can lead to bad habits...and trust me, those "bad habits" can become all the harder to correct should they become ingrained.

That said, 100% agreed with Buco that learning the songs is the best way to do it.

And truly, you can get pretty far on your own but as other folks have said, there's no substitution for lessons and/or finding a mentor who already plays in the style that you can directly observe - the reason why the pros make it look so easy is a combination of talent, dedication and refined technique and for some of us like me who might be lacking in a bit in the first part can really make up for it in the other 2 if practice time is spent wisely.

Last, if you're truly a complete beginner, this is probably one of the styles you should come back to after you learn all your folk chords first and also basic bar chords. Maybe consider learning from an introductory basic jazz method as well to get some "straight ahead" chord voicings in your ears and fingers stretched before moving to the "huge" voicings utilized in la pompe.

Buco

@voutoreenie lol

Yes. But!

While all of the educators say anything over 4-6 hours is a waste of time and even those should be in shorter blocks, I've never met or heard from someone that I admire say that's how they practiced in the beginning. Every single time, it was "oh, when I was younger, I practiced 8-10-12 hours a day". I just read recently Steve Vai said something like once he pulled an all nighter, so he ended up practicing something like 23 hours.

So which is it...I don't know...

flaco

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122853#Comment_122853

lol, “you can”t build a tree” is my favorite quote from my time with Stephane!

jonpowl

I had success with a few tabs by Samy Daussat in my early GJ years, especially the solos for All of Me and Georgia Brown. See the links above or https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/13930/anybody-use-samy-daussats-fb-course/p1

I can still play those solos from memory after many years.

JP

richter4208

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122853#Comment_122853

We have very few people in the United States with roots in this genre as deep as Stephane Wrembel. That is really cool you are able to study with him directly.

JSanta

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122864#Comment_122864

It's been an absolute blessing, no doubt about it! He's still accepting students, and based on only my own living experience, if you can start with a teacher, you'll make much better progress. Not that people can't teach themselves, but even with all of the online resources available, having someone being able to watch you (even over a virtual lesson) makes a massive difference.

None of this is to say I'm an accomplished player, but Stephane provided a foundational base that I can build from, and that appreciation is something I really can't articulate well.