question for michael about up/downstrokes

practicealot

Hi,

I recently was looking through the Romane/Sebastian book "L'Esprit Manouche" and in the first chapter they instruct you to play the exercises with strictly up and down strokes (except for sweeps). As a result, sometimes you cross strings with an upstroke and sometimes you end phrases with an upstroke, two things which I believe are violations of the Manouche picking style. Am I right about this? Do the professional players of this style NEVER use upstrokes in the above two situations? I am just crossing over into this style of playing and don't want to waste time practicing the wrong techniques.

Thanks in advance,

Steve in San Francisco

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Steve,

E'spirit Manouche is a useful book, but you have to keep in mind that it wasn't really written by Romane. Most books with Romane's name on are actually written by Derek Sebestain. He seems to be a knowledgeable guitarist and transcriber, but he's more of a straight-ahea player so his fingerings are usually not what a Gypsy would use.

Thanks,

-Michael