Just bought the book

harrye

Hi Michael,
I have just bought the book, and I am already thoroughly impressed; thankyou for putting so much time any effort into creating such a useful resource.

I am currently building a solo repoitore (both gypsy, and electric chord solo's), and thus your book is an invaluable tool for me.

Whilst I had already learnt echoes of spain, tears, and nuages, your work has showed me better ways in which to phrase these pieces.

I have learnt etude no 1 (a very nice piece, and enjoyable to embellish with one's own improvisations), and I am currently 4 pages into Parfum. I am finding this a challenging, but rewarding piece.

In regards to the chromatic run at measure 37 in Parfum, would you consider it appropriate to use just fingers 1 and 2 for this? I am accustomed to playing these runs that way.

Cheers Michael, looking forward to conversing during my endeavour through your book

Harry,
Tasmania
Australia

dgimcmillan

From one new reader of Unaccompanied Django to another, congrats on buying the book!

You must be very accomplished, Harry to have worked through all those songs already! I'm still trying to get my finger memory working on the first two Etudes, and I got the book at the end of September. :oops:

What's really impressive to me...is the depth of information provided about every tune in the book, and the detail in the fingering charts, too. I don't know if Michael will have the time to answer your question directly (I think he will, though), but you can rest assured that the fingering he's put in the book is pretty accurate.

Having said that...if Django did things with only 2 fingers, and you can do it too, then wow!

I know I'm going to end up with questions for this forum, too, once I really get going. I hope you'll be around to help out, if I ever catch up with you

Ian

MichaelHorowitz

harrye wrote:

In regards to the chromatic run at measure 37 in Parfum, would you consider it appropriate to use just fingers 1 and 2 for this? I am accustomed to playing these runs that way.

Yes, 2 fingers can work as that is what Django would have done! Many of the Gypsies will use three or sometimes four fingers for those runs so in some places I wrote them out in the more modern Gypsy way.

Glad you like the book!

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harrye

Thanks for your replies, Michael and Ian.

Cheers for the wise words Michael. I have just finished learning Parfum (though do not know it by memory yet). I was wondering which tune you would recommend me learning next?. I was thinking perhaps one of the improvisations?
Also, I currently play a solo version of Nuages in G as opposed to F. Since Theme 1 and 2 are standalone pieces, do you think it would work to use these with my G version? Or, do you think I should transpose them up a whole step?
I am currently working on building a solo repertoire of gypsy acoustic pieces, and electric jazz chord/melody arrangements; your book is going to be an invaluable resource to me.
I have to say this is a very unique opportunity to be able to converse with the author of these transcriptions, I feel quite lucky.
Cheers,
Harry

Hi there Ian, glad you're enjoying the book also. Thanks for your comments, I am certainly impressed with the detail in the book, and with the accompanying cd, which serves as entertainment, as well as instructional. I am going to try and keep in touch with this forum, (though i have a tendency to avoid computers ha), and so if i can help with any questions i'd be happy to. Keep practicing those etudes
All the best
Harry