I need a great soloing workout plan

anthon_74

Hey All,

So let me explain - I have been playing the guitar for 24 years, but mostly rock and Roll (no Jazz OR Gypsy Jazz), and I've only begun playing Django Jazz for about 6 years. The first 5.5 years of playing Gypsy Jazz, I mainly focused on rhythm, so I've really only been trying my hand at lead for about 7 months now.

NOW, I have a system of playing every major scale mode up and down the neck which I'm very happy with, and to memorize it, I spent many hours playing the 7 scale shapes starting in the key of C, then moving to G, then to D and so on down the circle of 5ths. This led me to being able to play in the major scale all over the fret board no matter what key I was in and almost never get lost.

THIS also seems nearly useless in Gypsy Jazz.

SO ---- What I'm looking for is the equivalent for learning the arpeggios and "note maps" most commonly used in the Django style. A system of sorts that I can play in different keys, with the end result being greater ease and understanding of the fretboard from a gypsy Jazz POV.

(FYI right now my biggest difficulty is following chord changes) .

Is there a book ? (right now I have Stephen wrembels book and Gypsy Fire) I'm having trouble incorporating the licks and patterns into my soloing though....

Thanks for any advice you may have !!

Cheers
Anthony

asd123321

What about playing the entire tune simply by playing arpeggios in different positions until you know them. Is the problem you can't do it or haven't worked on it?

anthon_74

Yeah I'm working on that . Not as much as I would like to but I've been very busy of late. I was also hoping for some additional ideas beyond the basic arpeggios. Also, I want to be smart as to which books I buy for study. The books are all pretty pricey and I can't flip through them before I buy. Maybe a collection of etudes/studies vouched for by people in a similar boat as I.

Cheers

Anthony

Jon

My 2 cents:

(in addition to, or as a focus for learning arpeggios)

1. Pick a solo - probably Django is a good place to start and end, although Tchavolo is good too, because he plays simple ideas, but really, really well, and with amazing time.
2. Learn the solo (100% speed, and being very picky about technique and timing
3. Figure out how everything in it fits against the chords theoretically (chord degrees etc)
4. Could you have thought of all the phrases - ie do you have an arpeggio pattern to account for each phrase?
5. If not, practice patterns for the ones you don't
6. Work out whether some licks could work over different types of chords (ie often minor lines work also over the relative major, or over the dominant 7th a fourth above...major lines that don't use the 7th often work verbatim over dom 7th chords)
6.5 Some licks work well starting a beat or a half beat earlier or later. Try playing the lick starting on all of these beats - 1,1+,2,2+,3,3+,4,4+
7. Take one short phrase at a time from the solo and improvise over a new tune playing only that phrase - finding a way to make it work over every chord, or just leaving space if you can't.
8. Are there any "tricks" or technical gimmicks in the solo (chromatic runs, DUD picking licks )etc? If so, learn them exactly and go back to 7 to practice them.
9. Learn some hard Waltzes to get you technique working.

Hope that helps. That's basically my practice regime.

Jon

klaatu

Jon wrote:

9. Learn some hard Waltzes to get you technique working.

Someone once asked Denis Chang what was the best way to improve his technique. Denis' response: "Work on gypsy waltzes."

HotTinRoof

Just as I have D.Chang playing here Klaatu

Jon - excellent write up.

anthon_74

Thanks a lot Jon !

I've done a little of that - Specifically, I learned the original Djangos tiger solo, nearly full speed. Problem is, some of the things django does seem inexplicable. Specifically, he plays a B minor arpeggio over the A 6/9 chord at the beginning of the first B section of the song. I still don't quite understand that, but in real time it moves by so quickly.

Otherwise, Learning that solo has made Djangos tiger my best song so far to improvise over (not counting minor swing since that one is pretty simple) .
I'd like to learn honeysuckle rose, but the Hal Leonard book I have has a version I'm not familiar with as opposed to the original version I know.(unfortunately, I'm not able to transcribe his solos on my own yet)

Can you recommend a Tchavalo Album for me to get ?

Cheers !

Anthony

BluesBop Harry

For gypsy jazz a good thing to practice is 4 note arps in a 2 note per string configuration. That will force you to play horizontally which is a big part of this style.
Denis Changs DVD's (Technique and Improvisation) are great for vocabulary and more useful than books IMO
Keep learning Django's solos. that's the way all the other greats learned.
+1 on the gypsy waltzes suggestion.

klaatu

BluesBop Harry wrote:

Denis Changs DVD's (Technique and Improvisation) are great for vocabulary and more useful than books IMO

I totally agree, with the exception that I find Gonzalo's books to have been very helpful. There has been some grousing about the cheap homemade look, but the content is what counts for me.

anthon_74

Thanks A lot !

I have one of the Gonzalo books, and it is one of my favorites despite the cheep look. I'll get the Denis chang vids too.

seeirwin

Re: Django's Tiger

Django's stuff can be frustrating because much of it "doesn't make sense" and can be hard to drop into another context. You might try Jimmy Rosenberg: his stuff never strays too far from the basic harmony and is much easier to drag and drop.