Daniel Givone instructional books

Lango-Django · August 2011

In a different thread, one of our fellow members, Elliot, expressed enthusiasm for Daniel Givone's instructional methods:

Givone's Manouche Guitar Method... is the only place which has fully laid out arpeggio lines across the neck in all 5 positions as major, minor, M7, m7, add in Dim. Memorize these like he says and look at what the pros do, you will see these patterns over and over again.

http://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/met ... ouche.html

Then when you are ready you can get his 25 Pieces which has typical progressions with solos he made up with these plugged in in typical fashion.

http://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/tra ... ieces.html

It sounds really great... has anyone else out there tried either of these books? Any comments?

I've tried a lot of different books, and they all have their good points and bad points... for me, the only one I would say was an unqualified success so far has been "Gypsy Picking"... So now I'm hoping to find a fabulous resource like that for training my left hand to sound more gypsy-ish!

Will
Niagara-On-The-Lake, ON

Archtop Eddy · August 2011

The Givone's Manouche Guitar Method is great. I can't describe it better than what Elliot so eloquently penned, but I will say that I found it very useful. I translated portions of it into English and blew the pages up on a copy machine to 11.5x17 size pages to make it easier to read. I still pull it out regularly to go over the arpeggio patterns. I didn't know he had the other book -- but thanks to your message, I just ordered it from Michael!

AE

Jim Kaznosky · August 2011

I just picked it up too. I'm not going to go off half cocked without spending some real time with it, but its a well thought out method. More to follow.

Guillaume · August 2011

Really like the Givone book. Instead of the standard arpeggios he introduces melodic variations of arpeggios in 5 positions, and then you learn to connect them so you get used to moving up and down the neck within a phrase. I haven't gotten to his solos yet. This is one jam-packed book!

Lango-Django · February 2012

Okay, I've finally purchased and started using the first Givone book, which I've been considering doing for lo these many months.

I've written my own review of it at the appropriate djangobooks.com page, which you can look at if you wish:

http://shoppingcart.djangobooks.com/met ... ouche.html

Cutting to the chase: It's got its good points and its bad points; overall I'd give it four stars.

I agree with the posters above re: Givone's 'five positions'... so brilliant! yet so obvious! You may well say, like I did, "WTF--- how have I played the guitar for all these years and failed to realize that?"

I've already discovered one minor position in there that I never would've thought of in a million years, so as far as I'm concerned, I've already got my money's worth!

Will

pinkgary · February 2012

So what are the bad points?

Jim Kaznosky · February 2012

The bad points are in his review.

Yes, the five positions seem logical. I'm assuming you are talking about the runs and not the scales.

Lango-Django · February 2012

Well, here's the thing with me... somehow I learned whatever scales I needed as I went along without realizing that a) there were only five of them and b) that for any given key, those exact same five fingering positions will always be the ones you use, you just have to look for them in different places!

Duh!

Okay. Well, maybe I'm just unusually slow...

Right now, in addition to continuing working on stringing together the runs that he gives in the five different positions, I've also started working on his track 53, which is a kind of happy C major piece that's not hard to play... well now that I've slowed it down to half speed, anyway...

Elliot · February 2012

Hi

I never really felt a need to slow down the runs, but what I did do was write them out graphically as seen on the neck. They aren't really that hard to memorize (or play) since they are all the same length and evenly accented against the pomp beat; very bite-sized, and different enough to make them distinguishable, which is I think the way they are designed. Just take them one at a time.

Not to say it doesn't take a while mind you, it does, especially now after you've finished memorizing them in sequence I - V you then start going same position different scale! Ouch!

Hope that helps a bit, Good Luck!

Lango-Django · February 2012

OK, I've been thinking about this idea during the night... and I'm in Spain right now so I'm probably several hours ahead of most of you guys.

Here's what I'd like to do, IF the interest exists... ask Michael Horowitz to establish a "Daniel Givone Method support group" along the lines of the ones that are already set up for Gypsy Picking, Gypsy Fire, etc.

Now obviously this group wouldn't actually have Daniel Givone as a member, but I don't really think that's necessary. There's probably enough expertise amongst us to keep things going. Plus I imagine I could e-mail him the occasional question in French if we really felt it necessary.

Why do I want to have such a group?

Well, as one of my non-musical heroes, Richard Feynman, once said, "If I can't build it, I can't understand it..."

What I want to get from the Givone book is not just copying the stuff Givone already 'built'--- I want to be able to 'build' stuff like that myself.

Right now I can build stuff that's, well, not totally wrong, but not totally right either. I realize that I'm not yet THINKING like a real GJ player.

Michael's book "Gypsy Picking" got me a long way in this process, and I have been helped a bit by many other manuals I've tried--- I won't name them all, I've got quite a collection!

Somewhere along the line, there's something I'm just not getting yet... perhaps I never will, who knows? But I'm a pretty determined guy and I've been at this too long to give it up easily!

With fellow participants, I'd like to be able to trade slow-down-able QuickTime files of Givone tracks privately by e-mail. To respect copyright; this file sharing would only be open to people who already owned the book. I respect Givone's valuable work too much to do anything that could be construed as ripping him off.

But trading slow-downable tracks is not the most important thing to me... it's being able to look at Givone's musical examples together and really think about them carefully and help each other understand the thinking behind them, and help each other learn to think like that.

IMO, the minimum size to get a group like this started is actually only two people, so if anybody else out there were to be interested in participating, I could ask Michael to give us a place to get started. We could try it for a few months and then decide if we think it's worth carrying on.

So if anybody out there is up for this, please let me know!

Thanks,

Will
now in Malaga, Spain