Gypsy Jazz Chord Resources

sfishman59

Hey everyone,

I've been doing a lot of practicing on my own now because i'm in an area where there's no one around to give lessons and as a result i've had to rely on youtube/DVD's/books a lot more. I've seen a lot of transcriptions in songs i'm interested in learning the rythm for but the problem is--though I know how to play the chords that are listed in the more traditional sense (bar chords etc)--i'm having trouble finding out the gypsy chord equivalent. I know that it isn't always consistent with the bass note being the chord obviously (i.e e minor at the 5th fret) so I was wondering if anyone knew if a resource where they had a lot of the gypsy chord fingerings posted so I could use them as a reference until I have them memorized.

Thanks a lot,
Sam

MichaelHorowitz

Hi Sam....there is a complete Gypsy jazz Chord dictionary here:

http://www.djangobooks.com/books/gypsy-rhythm/

Michael

sfishman59

Thanks Michael

seeirwin

I have Michael's books, and they are all fantastic. Gypsy Rhythm has tons of cool ideas for shapes, turnarounds, rhythmic variations, and pretty much anything else you could ask for. Many of the people on this forum would consider Gypsy Picking to be a must for anyone who really wants the sound and articulation that you can hear on Django's records (there are tons of great players that don't gypsy pick, but it certainly seems to make the physicality of some of the harder stuff easier).

To get you started, here are a handful of chords that you could use exclusively and still sound pretty good. They are all moveable

A minor (root on the 6th string.
-5- ring finger
-5- ring finger
-5- ring finger
-4- index finger
-x-
-5- 3rd finger

D7 (pretty much the same thing above, but with the D note added. same fingering)
-5-
-5-
-5
-4-
-5-
-5-

C6 (this is used as a "normal" major chord.)
-3- pinky
-3- ring finger
-2- index
-2- index
-3- middle
-3- middle

F6 (again, this is a "normal" F major. The fingering on this one can seem impossible at first, especially down low. It doesn't take too long to become second nature, though. )
-3- ring
-3- ring
-2- index
-3- middle
-3- middle
-1- thumb

G7
-x-
-3- middle
-4- ring
-3- index
-x-
-3- thumb

JazzDawg

An alternative to start, check out Colin Cosimini's site - http://www.djangosolos.com/. He has a free pdf chord chart of 'All of Me', which includes samples of chord diagrams. They are pretty good, and have the root position noted, so you can move them around too. Most of the gypsy chords, and jazz for that matter are moveable.

arjr

Try these two websites:


http://nuagesdeswing.free.fr/accords/accords_index.html

www.guitarejazzmanouche.com/accords/


Enjoy

sfishman59

Thanks again everyone

djangolizer

You can find any note of arpeggios, scales and chords in the guitar trainer "Djangolizer".
Check the demo on www.djangolizer.ch
It also gives you a playback for all the songs you want to practice in any tempo you like.
have fun,

redblues

pickitjohn

Doing pretty much the same thing myself, however there really are some great You tube Videos that have helped me a lot to understand some NEW TO ME viocings.

1) The most descriptive and FREE is "The Developing Jazz Guitarist"

http://acmuzik.com/products/instruction ... guitarist/

Tom Hynes has 11 videos to explain these chord and other concepts plus there is a treasure chest PDF with Chord's, Note explanations, and fingerings be sure to download this:

http://acmuzik.com/wp-content/uploads/guitar-book.pdf

2) There's another guy here in Austin TX Leon Grizzard that posted some stuff for western swing however it's still helpful for Gypsy Jazz.
Be sure to have annotations turned on in youtube there are some chord fingerings that help.
He's giving some chords to Crazy:
part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76YqQ1lzid4
part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrZko0UOKFI

ENJOY

pickitjohn

BluesBop Harry

http://www.dc-musicschool.com/
The Hono Winterstein lessons are awesome, you can learn the songs and chords by watching him play... If that's too hard, you can download a pdf of the exact voicings he uses...