I found the perfect book...

Major7

No offense to the fine authors here, I have all of your books and study them regularly. But finally I got one that suites my needs perfectly.

The winner is:

Robin Nolan's Gypsy Jazz Licks Vol 1.

This book has great rythms and gypsy style progressions to learn - they are based on popular songs. But, there's more - the licks are just great! They are based on arpeggios Django style, and so are easily transferable to other songs. As a bonus you are learning arpeggios!!

The licks are presented in increasing order of difficulty first at a slow cadence and a 'at speed' cadence.
It is well explained and easily learned.

I give it an A.
I would give it an A++ but for the funky tab notation he uses. It's odd, but I got used to it quickly.

If he used standard tab it would indeed be perfect.

This book will increase my playing tremendously,

Let's have more like it.

:P
Thanks Robin!!!

dennis

here's my honest opinion: I dont actually own any method books except gypsy picking which michael generously sent me but i got to check out most of them through friends.

i saw the robin book, it's good for absolute beginners (both to this style and improvisation in general) but it's based more on robin's approach to gypsy jazz than django's ... at the same time the licks that i checked out are quite basic which is why i said it's more suited for beginning improvisors

michael hasn't published any django licks books, but the transcriptions at the end of his gypsy picking book contain licks that are more "standard" to the django style... and it includes the picking indications which is quite important if you want to get the traditional sound

i believe andreas is working on a book of some of the flashier licks played by the dutch gypsies.

stephane wrembel's book has a lot of licks too although a lot of them are also based on his personal style (which is still nonetheless closer to the traditional style than robin)... i really like his concepts and he's one of my favorite players in this style. I am also a big fan of Robin Nolan for those who are about to misinterpret everything i write and bash me....

in the end it depends on what you are ultimately looking for, they all have something to offer, and therefore from a general point of view, neither is better than the other....

drolling

Hi Major7,

There are 2 of these books out there with very similar titles. I have the one that contains licks for 'Minor Swing', 'Dark Eyes', 'Douce Ambience', 'Djangology' and 'Sweet Georgia Brown'.

I am curious about the new one called ‘Essential Gypsy jazz licks, vol. 1’. It looks very different from the rest of the series and is not available at their website. This one has licks for ‘Minor Blues’, ‘Gypsy Blues’, ‘Daphne’, ‘Lady Be Good’ and ’Nuages’.

Which one do you have?

Thanks,
dr

Major7

This is the one with Minor Swing, Dark Eyes Djanolology and Sweet Ga Brown.
I cant say enough good stuff about this book: I leaning great rythms and cool licks to use in a jam.
Major7

Major7

Check your book again, I think the one you have is:

The Gypsy Jazz Songbook and Play Along CD Volume2.

This has the tunes you mentioned. The one I have is Licks. This has arpeggio based licks in the style of Minor Swing ...


M7

djangology

yes, Robins licks book is excellent, especially when you come from the point of view of soloing with the CAGED system... there is a lot to learn from the lick patterns he presents if you look hard enough and read between the notes... so I agree but your statement that the licks book is a good book is an understatement...

drolling

Major7 you and I have the same book.

The one I was wondering about is here;

http://www.hotclub.co.uk/~rnolan/catalo ... ucts_id=35

Major7

You are very observant. I guess there are two books with nearly the same name.

1) Gypsy Jazz Licks Songbook and Playalong CD Vol 1

2) Essential Gypsy Jazz Licks Songbook and Playalong CD Vol 1

Why couldn't he just call it VOLUME 2 ????

Make me wonder about these guitar players...,.

Charlie Ayers

I think the first one that you list was written with Paul Meader, before Robin altered his business and started his new website (which appear to be independent of Paul M.).

The 2nd one was published under his new company name, as are his newer CDs. That's my take on it, anyway.......

Charlie