Reference manual for Manouche chords

Smokeadvisor · July 16

Hello everyone,

Good morning. I'm trying to transcribe some songs to Manouche, but I don't know enough chords to transcribe classical chords to Manouche (e.g., Am7b5 and similar).

Does anyone know of a reference book or manual where I can look up the voicings and adapt them to Django Form?

Thank you very much for your help.

DoubleWhisky · July 16

There are so many different voicings being used "in the style" and "Django form" most probably will differ from "nowadays gypsy jazz" in many cases, but in this video Christiaan van Hemert shows all the common chord types in common "in style" voicings, might be helpful:

https://youtu.be/LLir8HXS4sc

DoubleWhisky · July 16

For Am7b5 this would be a common voicing, often played with thumb over for the root on low e string:

JSanta · July 16

This is what I started out with, highly recommended: https://www.djangobooks.com/Item/michael-horowitz-gyspy-rhythm-volume-1

billyshakes · July 16

https://djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/21514/reference-manual-for-manouche-chords

My first thought was the same as JSanta above. I know there are several pages of chord shapes in Michael's book (some basic, some intermediate, some advanced). In fact, I was even wondering if one of the sample pages was the chords page. Alas, no. That said, do check out the samples on the link he sent to the Gypsy Rhythm book and you'll see some of the basic chord shapes in the exercises. If you are new to the style, either it or the Gypsy Picking book are good references to help you get going. LOTS of info and good stuff in there. I own both and can tell you, you won't run out of practice material.

Also, you can look at the Django in June "Get Ready" page for some material to include Jack's suggested basic chord grips for the 24 standards. https://djangoinjune.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/24_GJ_Standards_Chord_Shapes.pdf

Joonas · July 17

Chords for Gypsy Jazz.pdf

Those are the chords from Christiaan's video. I made this reference sheet for myself to have an overlook of them all at once. All credit goes to Christiaan and if you like his stuff you can buy his books and lessons.

lucky · July 17

I don't know if there is really such a thing as a Manouche chord, it's not a term I've ever heard before. The QHCF guitars were in standard tuning so there's no reason why an Am7b5 would be any different just because it's being played by a gypsy ...

There are some idiomatic differences. Django used his thumb for bass strings (although that is not unique to Django), but the other guitarists on the band tended to play straight barre chords.

Django had some particularly distinctive chords but they were mainly used for colour and dramatic effect over the rhythm section, they're not the kind of chords you would put on a lead sheet. Still cool to learn. Mystery Pacific is a good workout for Django's chords.

They tended to prefer 6th chords over maj7ths, and also used 6/9 chords a lot - but that was more about the fashion in 1930s swing than their cultural background. This has carried on into modern gypsy jazz though so it sounds quite distinctive these days. As a general rule, if a song has a major or major7th chord in it, play a 6th or 6/9 instead.

Also, play the whole chord (the Hot Club tended to play 5 or 6 string chords, not fragments or 3rds and 7ths like modern jazz guitarists). It's a bit of a myth that Django only played shell chords.

Rico59 · July 18

https://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/comment/122224#Comment_122224

That PDF is really helpful--thanks for posting that!

billyshakes · July 18

Sven Jungbeck also has a playlist of typical standard songs in the style with a few options for playing chord voicings. It's his "Proper Chords" series and you can find the playlist here. It might auto play in the window below, but clicking the link will definitely bring you to the youtube playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-hVcd8QD3k&list=PL2fzgPmEE9wY09eA83ryk4IE496_kM5xY