Hi Guys,

I was at the 12th Fret yesterday and while I was there a couple guys were basically putting on a show playing those gypsy type guitars (Gitane).  I asked them what style of music they were playing and they told me it was Django style acoustic jazz.  I loved sound of the chords they were using and it sounded like so much fun to play.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any sources on the net that can teach you the basics of this style, or if there are any particular books available that can teach you this style.

Thanks for the help,
Andrew

check out www.homespuntapes.com.I'm sure there is some sort of internet lesson.

Quote from: alieu on March 16, 2006, 08:36:45 PM
Hi Guys,

I was at the 12th Fret yesterday and while I was there a couple guys were basically putting on a show playing those gypsy type guitars (Gitane).  I asked them what style of music they were playing and they told me it was Django style acoustic jazz.  I loved sound of the chords they were using and it sounded like so much fun to play.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any sources on the net that can teach you the basics of this style, or if there are any particular books available that can teach you this style.

Thanks for the help,
Andrew

Go here:

http://www.redhotjazz.com/django.html

IMO, he was one of the best that ever played.  Lightening fast and had a burned up mangled left hand.  Get some of the recordings with Stephane Grappelli, the one from the 30's.  Just fantastic jazz. 

Hey Andrew,

I've been getting into the gypsy jazz technique for the last year or so now. Here's a good site to go to that has a lot of good instructional material and a good video archive to watch some of these awesome players. http://www.djangobooks.com/

You can also download some free lessons there as well.

I heard the first 30 years are the toughest.

Here is a link to a well know player of Django style. I think he is pretty darn good and worth checking out.

http://www.johnjorgenson.com/html/home.html

My friend Django was The Man. Jon Jorgensson played him in a film. Check out Jons books DVDs CDs. He does a lot of Django style stuff. Theres also been a couple of jazz guitars released with his moniker. email me and I will pass you more details. Cheers John

robin nolan trio

rnt

try that

And after you've beaten your head against the wall trying to get those licks to flow some joker will tell you that Django did it with only two fingers on his fretting hand.

He has basically only 2 fingers + thumb on his left, but he does always look slick :thumb... ...always.

He did have partial use of the 3rd and 4th finger even after the fire.  I think most of his playing used only the 2 fingers, but he used 3 and 4 for some chords and even for some single string playing, if only on the E and B strings.   

FYI I had always heard the "only 2 fingers" thing... I recently read the book below and that's where I'm getting my info from.  There are pictures in the book of Django later in his life clearly using his 3rd and 4th finger.

http://www.amazon.com/Django-Reinhardt-Know-/dp/0879308370/sr=1-5/qid=1156944845/ref=sr_1_5/002-2098090-2603241?ie=UTF8&s=books