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"Escalier" arps
Lango-Django
Niagara-On-The-Lake, ONModerator
Over the years I've accumulated many GJ methods and have learned from them all.
But there's one are where my technique really could use a boost, and it's touched on only tangentially in all the books I've got... the "escalier" aka "stairway" style of arpeggios where the notes are played usually two to a string from the low end of the fingerboard up to the high end. As far as I am aware, this way of playing arps is unique to gyspy jazz, and it certainly gives the player who has mastered it that distinctive GJ sound.
I've been working out on Andreas Oberg's arrangement of "Minor Swing" which has some good escalier stuff in the third chorus, and it's helping, but I know I have a lot more to learn. For some reason, this pattern is harder to get under my fingers than a lot of the other GJ stuff I've learned, so I'm still playing this escalier stuff at about half speed.
Stephane Wrembel's book "Getting Into Gypsy Jazz Guitar" includes examples of many arps played many different ways... he calls regular one-position arps "closed" and escalier arps "open".
Although I'd be real happy if I could actually memorize and play all the arps in Stephane's book, I sincerely wonder if real GJ players have actually mastered all the ones Stephane includes? It seems likely to me he just put a lot of them in there as a sort of reference library?
Anyway, anything that experienced GJ players can tell me about which escalier arps to learn, and the best way to learn them would be appreciated.
This seems like fertile ground for a whole new book by one of our many excellent teachers at djangobooks.com--- Michael Horowitz? Dennis Chang? Andreas Oberg? Anybody interested in getting into this topic more deeply?
But there's one are where my technique really could use a boost, and it's touched on only tangentially in all the books I've got... the "escalier" aka "stairway" style of arpeggios where the notes are played usually two to a string from the low end of the fingerboard up to the high end. As far as I am aware, this way of playing arps is unique to gyspy jazz, and it certainly gives the player who has mastered it that distinctive GJ sound.
I've been working out on Andreas Oberg's arrangement of "Minor Swing" which has some good escalier stuff in the third chorus, and it's helping, but I know I have a lot more to learn. For some reason, this pattern is harder to get under my fingers than a lot of the other GJ stuff I've learned, so I'm still playing this escalier stuff at about half speed.
Stephane Wrembel's book "Getting Into Gypsy Jazz Guitar" includes examples of many arps played many different ways... he calls regular one-position arps "closed" and escalier arps "open".
Although I'd be real happy if I could actually memorize and play all the arps in Stephane's book, I sincerely wonder if real GJ players have actually mastered all the ones Stephane includes? It seems likely to me he just put a lot of them in there as a sort of reference library?
Anyway, anything that experienced GJ players can tell me about which escalier arps to learn, and the best way to learn them would be appreciated.
This seems like fertile ground for a whole new book by one of our many excellent teachers at djangobooks.com--- Michael Horowitz? Dennis Chang? Andreas Oberg? Anybody interested in getting into this topic more deeply?
Paul Cezanne: "I could paint for a thousand years without stopping and I would still feel as though I knew nothing."
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
Comments
If you mean two-note-per-string arpeggios, I'd recommend starting with diminished 7th, it's just symmetrical.
That goes over dominant b9 chords, you just start a half step above the root: E7b9 =F diminished 7th
After that the most used in GJ are minor sixth. You have four inversions.
If you learn them all in all twelve keys you can start using them all over the place because Dm6= Bm7b5= G9= Db7 (b9 b13)
So by learning one arp you're actually working on four!!
Then m7. Dm7= F6
There some others maj7, -maj7, 7b5, etc but the main ones are the ones i said before.
I doubt gypsies study them systematically... But for us gadjos it's a different story. Try to do all four inversions in all 12 keys and you'll begin to see the pattern by which they are organized on the fretboard. plus is a terrific workout for both hands.
You can build a whole style with just those arps.
Best of luck!
I actually knew about the dim7 ones, and now I've just started working on the Am6 and Dm6 ones thanks to Andreas Oberg's version of Minor Swing...
What fingering do you use for you m7 ones? I mean, is there an "official" one? I'm afraid I'll do it my own way only to find out that I've done it the opposite way from everyone else...don't laugh, it actually happened with my dim7 arps...
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
-------------------------------------------------------10-----13-----
-------------------------------------------8-----11------------------
---------------------------------7---10------------------------------
----------------------5----8------------------------------------------
------------5---8-----------------------------------------------------
---3---6--------------------------------------------------------------
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
-------------------------------------------------------10----12-----
-------------------------------------------8----11------------------
---------------------------------7---9------------------------------
----------------------5----8------------------------------------------
------------5---7-----------------------------------------------------
---3---6--------------------------------------------------------------
or would learning two such similar arps be confusing in actual use?
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I'll send you a PM with some details
Just to clarify on my previous posts I use index and fourth fingers only for minor and major thirds in the same string
I just completed playing through Wrembel's book and am in the process of going back through to study and absorb its contents. So much is there its daunting. I have my Maj and Min arps down and was looking at my next jumping off point. Sounds like Dim7 and m6 arps are next on the list.
much appreciated.