Nuages in F or G?

Tele295

Most of the charts and grilles I see for this tune, most notably Robin Nolan's Gigbook, have "Nuages" in G.

However, unless I'm losing it big time (always a possibility), the original Django recording is in F!

What's up with that? Is there another version in G that everyone likes better?

rimm

As far as I know he recorded Nuages around 12 times, so its really down to which one that you dig. I know Stochelo generally plays it in F, and it sounds incredible obviously.

steven_eire

i think he mostly played it in F when playing with clarinetists. the version with steph is in G and so is the last electric version. although the unaccompanied version is in F.

Djangoslefthandman

Yes our clarinetist insists on F, whereas I learnt it from Robin's book in G. I'm used to transposing for singers but it just doesn't sound right to me in F. Mind you HoneySuckle in G would sound odd I guess.

We do After You've Gone and All Of Me in Bb and where the keys fit the genre he uses an A clarinet. Still it's great to play with a clarinetist, my favourite line up in this style.

Craig Bumgarner

Best to know how to play it in both, you'll run into both ways sooner or later. We usually play it in F, but lots of people like it in G. To me, G sounds better for the melody on guitar as it puts it in the middle of the neck where things just sound sweeter and I like being able to hit the harmonics, but I feel like I can use more of the range of the neck in F.

I've heard Stochello Rosenberg does it in D.

CB

Tele295

Thanks. I'm glad to know I wasn't losing my mind. I can transpose it in my head to G, I'm just slower at it.

Jazzaferri

A couple of SR's Nuages on Youtube are in G FWIW

Joli Gadjo

If I'm not mistaken, Nuages was written when Grappelli was away in England, during the war.
Nuages has been written with Django Reinhardt and Hubert Rostaing. It's no secret that F is much more friendly key for a Clarinet player than G.

I think that when Grappelli came back from England, he simply read Rostaing's music sheet, which is written in G (one step higher for Clarinets), and played it as is...

It is definitely true that the Rosemberg's play it in D.