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Start with the Gypsy jazz chords shapes. There are actually not too many shapes you have to learn. You can find very good Gypsy Jazz chord overviews on the internet. Then start to learn La Pompe and a simple melody/solo to practice the proper picking technique.
This keeps you busy for quite a while. Good luck and enjoy !
Ok - that does change things quite a bit. All of the gypsy jazz courses I know presume some basic knowledge of the guitar, most of them assume a fairly advanced knowledge. So the first thing to do is learn how to play it - until you've got basic chords down, learnt how to fret a note so it rings clear, learnt how to fret several notes at the same time in a way that allows all of them to be sounded at once, got the hang of strumming so that notes sound even, figured out how to play four beats to the bar, and got some calluses on those fingers so it doesn't hurt when you play ....
The good news is that you don't need a teacher to learn guitar. It's always good to have one, but the truth is that most guitarists are self-taught, including some of the greatest guitarists ever (Clapton, Hendrix, Wes etc). It's good to be motivated by a style you want to play - but as a starter, you will have friends and family who can play guitar so get them to show you a few basics. They don't need to know how to play Minor Swing to show you a basic C chord.
Also, there are a lot of free resources for learning to play guitar. Justinguitar is very popular and mainly free - try this as a starting point: https://www.justinguitar.com/categories/beginner-guitar-course-classic
Keep at it for three months and you'll be addicted for life. It's an exciting journey to start on, good luck!
With respect, and I do understand where you are coming from, but I disagree.
At last here is someone WITHOUT any prior knowledge, and indeed the bad habits that come with it, who is asking to learn from scratch. Surely this is exactly how the children of gypsies usually learn from their elders, and from what I have heard it is just by copying and absorbing at first. I doubt there is much passing on of musical theory.
Yes, it will be painful until the callouses develop, and frustrating if there are no family playing to show even the basics but luckily there are many examples on YouTube and elsewhere that show the chord shapes and the popular tunes - Minor Swing etc -and particularly La Pompe that should get you at least started on the right path. There is enough free teaching out there that you will soon know if you can get a basic understanding without having to pay.
Then the fun starts.
Chris,
I read Stu's comment a couple of times and I can't figure out which part of his post are you in disagreement with? You're both advocating self thought route from what I can tell. Not looking to cause friction, it's just a lazy Sunday and it's very quiet around here.
Yeah, sorry, and apologies to Stu too. I misread his first sentence as recommending "gypsy jazz courses". After that I went on to write much the same; there is much to be gained from teaching yourself, and combining this with the amount of free demonstrations and tutorials on Youtube. If a player really wants to learn this will be enough to get him some way along the path by which time he/she should be able to start finding their own voice.
Ah gotcha. Thank you for clearing it up.
It's so much easier to be self thought today too. Or is it harder exactly because of the glut of information out there...
My beginnings were kinda poor man's version of Gypsy communities. Learning and sharing with friends. Lots of sing-along parties, playing songs for people to sing for hours and hours. I only relatively recently realized how much those helped me, hugely. I wouldn't ever trade that experience for the best teacher. The downside was, for years I was dying to find out what a pentatonic scale is. Just had nobody to teach it to me. It was a total mystery.
I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, I can see how not having a formal, in-person relationship with a person can be seen as therefore not having a teacher. However, there is a wealth of information for free on the internet, as many of the previous posts have said. I don't see this as being self-taught, though. These are teachers. They are putting their content out there. It is there for you to study and learn from. Many times, it is explained in detail. Movements are slowed down and put into part-task drills. It may require you to judge your own feedback, but it certainly isn't the mystery that Buco speaks of from pre-internet days. Shoot, I'll bet Buco could now find a video on the history of the pentatonic scale through time and its use through various folk traditions, classical compositions, pop songs, etc. We are indeed blessed with an age of democratization of knowledge.
One thing that helped me learning chords... still does!
Good luck!
Will
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'm mostly self taught which is fine nowadays to a certain extent with all the online stuff but back when I first started (classic jazz rhythm guitar, pre-GJ interest) there wasn't really much info out there. So I developed a LOT of bad habits, mostly right hand but also left. I finally got some lessons with Gonzalo when he was in California a few years back and he definitely helped a LOT. That is why I say it is good to get some 1-on-1 with a proper GJ teacher in the beginning to avoid bad habits. That said, there are no rules and if what you are doing works for you great. For me I really needed help with "proper" technique because mine was so wrong in a way that was really holding me back and detrimental to the tone that I wanted to get. It was a revelation to have G point out what I was doing that was not giving me the results that I was looking for. Again, there are no rules, and if you like what you are doing and the results you are getting great. But I was in a big rut that I couldn't get out of. Just wish I'd had that help before I was 60!
These would be good resources- although language might be a barrier.