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I need a great soloing workout plan
anthon_74
Marin county, CA✭✭✭✭ Alta Mira M 01
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
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
Comments
Cheers
Anthony
(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
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
Jon - excellent write up.
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
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.
"It's a great feeling to be dealing with material which is better than yourself, that you know you can never live up to."
-- Orson Welles
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.
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.