Another chord to practice--1st position A minor

Bill McNeill

My first impression on hearing about one-finger double stops was "that's impossible," but it didn't take too much practice to get fluent with them.

The very first double-stop chord I got down before moving on to the 6/9s was a simple 1st position A-minor:

X
X
2 (E)
2 (A)
1 (C)
X

(This is the fingering suggested throughout Unaccompanied Django.)

This and the first position E-minor are the simplest double-stop chords you can play. I used them to convince myself the technique was possible before moving on to fuller forms.[/i]

Kcox

You know, for a moment there I thought you might be Patrick Saussois...

dennis

ya man, we don't take too kindly to people who post their tabs upside down....

emicad

Personally I use double stops in some working (most obligated) situations but in this case and many others, why make a simple thing so difficoult? When I've seen the fingerings on Mike's book studying Improvisation#3B I thinked...
:shock:
W_H_Y

Bill McNeill

I had the same reaction when I first saw the double-stop fingerings for 1st position Am, E and Em in Unaccompanied. I stuck with these fingerings out of curiosity and to practice the technique for situations in which it is absolutely necessary. Now I find them relatively easy to play, so I'm sticking with them for the time being. But I agree that it seems like the slightly harder way to do things. For instance, I have a hard time using only two fingers in the beginning of "Echoes of Spain" where you slide back and forth between and E and an F.

This is a good question for Michael. What are the advantages (besides the pedagogical ones I cite above) of playing these simple chords with double-stops? Is it so that your ring finger is free?

MichaelHorowitz

billmcn wrote:

This is a good question for Michael. What are the advantages (besides the pedagogical ones I cite above) of playing these simple chords with double-stops? Is it so that your ring finger is free?

Personally, I think the less fingers the better. I find it much easier to "grab" a chord quickly when there's only two fingers to worry about. Once you get used to the double stops, they work amazingly well!

But I also use conventional fingerings too...just depends on what I'm doing. for example, in one of the etudes I have the Am fingered convenionaly. Just works better in context. But I think most of Django's stuff is easier when double stopping.

Good luck!

'm

emicad

Michael Horowitz wrote:

billmcn wrote:

This is a good question for Michael. What are the advantages (besides the pedagogical ones I cite above) of playing these simple chords with double-stops? Is it so that your ring finger is free?

Personally, I think the less fingers the better. I find it much easier to "grab" a chord quickly when there's only two fingers to worry about. Once you get used to the double stops, they work amazingly well!

But I also use conventional fingerings too...just depends on what I'm doing. for example, in one of the etudes I have the Am fingered convenionaly. Just works better in context. But I think most of Django's stuff is easier when double stopping.

Good luck!

'm

OK I want to follow you, I'll restart trying this...