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Yosh - Posted - 02/19/2009: 03:00:09
I recently started playing rhythm guitar with a Gypsy Jazz group. I'm not so into it, but my wife likes to play violin with them and since I'm there every week anyway I figured "why not."
After a while I thought I'll try learning rhythm/vamping with my 5 string banjo for a few of the songs. It has definitely helped build my chord knowledge since I really don't know or use but a few chords playing bluegrass banjo.
It appears, from the few gypsy jazz videos I could find on YouTube, that banjo players in this style use a flatpick for strums and picking melodies. Is this correct? It does seem that I will need to mute the 5th string. This correct also? Any other advice about playing this style? Thanks. - Yosh
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A clever person can get himself out of a situation that a wise person would never get into.
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Yosh - Posted - 02/19/2009: 03:34:28
quote:
Originally posted by Thor
Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_WGZRFVsjU
Wow, those two guys were great! Thanks for the link? Yosh ________________________________________________________________________ A clever person can get himself out of a situation that a wise person would never get into. ________________________________________________________________________
Edited by - Yosh on 02/19/2009 03:35:42
flatfoot - Posted - 02/19/2009: 05:36:33
>>>...Ibanjo players in this style use a flatpick for strums and picking melodies. Is this correct? It does seem that I will need to mute the 5th string...>>>
If you play with a flatpick and only use four strings, what you have is a plectrum banjo. Plectrum and tenor banjos are what is used for jazz. I do not know of the banjo being used in "Gypsy Jazz," but I could be wrong. It would certainly not sound authentic to a purist. If you want to find out what Gypsy Jazz is, look up Django Reinhardt and Stefan Grapelli on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSjG...0&playnext=1
The players in the video, as good as they are, are not playing jazz of any kind. Jazz requires an approach to harmony that they are not even attempting.
.
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pearcemusic - Posted - 02/19/2009: 05:50:06
Raul Reynoso is a friend of mine , and I know John Jorgensen, who played Django in the movie, and is one of the foremost Gypsy jazz players around. They both worked with Doug Mattocks at Disneyland LA ... in a group of musicians who were a bluegrass band, django band, and other genres of music for years at the park.
Doug is a fabulous banjo player who plays 5 string, tenor and plectrum, but decided to play a maccaferri (Django type guitar) which i believe he tuned like a banjo ... not sure which tuning. But he did play with a flatpick.
Maybe this is an opportunity for you to dig into single string ... I often play 5 string banjo on a guitar .... I tune a regular flat top like a 5 string and spike the 5th string ... (no 6th string) .... and play with fingerpicks, but emulate a flatpick style. Single string all the way, with thumb brushes for that 4/4 beat that Django slammed out in the "hot club" band
The Pearce Family Bluegrass Band
www.pearcemusic.com
Compass56 - Posted - 02/19/2009: 06:04:38
If you want to here some great banjo playing in that style, check out Cynthia Sayer's version of Django's "Swing 42." It's on one of her CD's. She does it on Plectrum in standard plectrum tuning (C, G, B, D low to high) Check it out.
Banjocoltrane - Posted - 02/19/2009: 08:24:29
I play Gypsy Jazz stuff on the banjo and I use 3 finger style with picks.......alternating my fingers for single note lines
If you want to play in the style you will need to get started on the following
1)Know your Arpeggios inside and out throughout the entire range of the instrument.
2)Know your melodic minor scale
3)Transcribe a bunch of Django solos
Good Fortune
Online Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, and Music Theory Lessons available:
http://www.jodyhughesmusic.com
NYCJazz - Posted - 02/19/2009: 15:07:22
quote:
Originally posted by Compass56
If you want to here some great banjo playing in that style, check out Cynthia Sayer's version of Django's "Swing 42." It's on one of her CD's. She does it on Plectrum in standard plectrum tuning (C, G, B, D low to high) Check it out.
"Swing 42" and "Swing 39" are on "The Jazz Banjo of Cynthia Sayer" and "Swing de Paris" is on her latest album "Attractions". "Attractions" is available on iTunes, so you can check out a sample of the song there for free! "There is more to life than simply increasing its speed." - Mohandas K. Gandhi
minstrelmike - Posted - 02/19/2009: 15:29:08
I play jazz with picks, but also strum with my unclad fingers sometimes making it easy to change techniques in mid-song. I just take care to not hit the 5th string then.
I also played in a dixieland band for four years. I played with a flatpick there just so I could be heard over the horns. I left the banjo tuned the same but loosened the 5th string and pulled it down off the side of the bridge (so i could jam bluegrass other nights).
The chords are a lot of fun. There are only the 3 minors, the 3 majors, and maybe 8 sevenths.
My favorite chord shape for jazz is the 'full' F7: 1211 which is 'legally' an Adiminished.
I think of it as an F7 like 3211 or 1213 (sevenths of the F) but also play it as a regular diminished seventh: 1214 which is any of four chords: Adim7, Cdim7, Ebdim7, F#dim7.
Mike Moxcey
Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
http://moxcey.net
Yosh - Posted - 02/20/2009: 01:31:08
Wow, these replies are really good advice. Thanks a lot to everyone, especially minstrelmike and banjocoltrane. I have some direction in what I need to work on now. - Yosh.
________________________________________________________________________
A clever person can get himself out of a situation that a wise person would never get into.
________________________________________________________________________
pdbanjo - Posted - 02/21/2009: 08:57:21
You should know that Django Reinhart first learned to play his stlye of jazz on a banjo that his mother got for him. He played that thru his teens and then went on to guitar. I beleive it was a tenor or PB and he used a flat pick. There is an historical DVD out that chronicals his life that you should try to get ahold of if you really want to explore this genre in depth. He was and remains the Earl Scruggs of gypsy jazz and he did it with only two fingers and thumb on his left hand. Most amazing is to this day, jazzers study his techniques and still don't know how he was able to do what he did with only two fingers. Check out you tube for Django, Biréli Lagrène, The Rosenberg Trio, Jimmy Rosenberg and those will lead you to many other great gypsy jazzers both foreign and domestic. Tough genre to play well but worth the extra effort to learn.
PD
There''s so little time and so much room to experiment, why choose to play like someone else? If I were Earl, I wouldn''t play it like me either.
dhergert - Posted - 02/21/2009: 19:22:55
I am by no means a GJ expert, but I have sat in with a number of GJ jamming folks, playing fingerstyle with my 5-strings. One of the other players is Pat Cloud, and he's his usual great 5-string player in GJ just like just about any other genre.
Lately I prefer GJ jamming with my GT CEB-5 cello banjo, its low tones and strong rhythm backup seem to be appreciated, its muted low tones in melody go nicely with the other instruments.
Best,
-- Don
http://home.att.net/~dhergert
http://mysite.verizon.net/don_hergert
"If you must use your banjo as a snow shovel, do so:
only don''t wonder if it sounds dull afterwards."
-- S.S. Stewart catalog, 1896.
BrianBanjos - Posted - 02/22/2009: 06:50:54
I just finshed reading a bigraphy of Django. Djangos banjo was a six string banjo guitar. I recommend that anyone who gets into Djangos music to take some time and read about his life which is fascinating. To say the least he was something of a character.
Happy Pickin''
Brian Daniels
Deering Goodtime II
Deering Deluxe
Seagull Mini Jumbo vintage burst cedar and cherry
Regal roundneck resophonic
NYCJazz - Posted - 02/22/2009: 07:07:05
"Gypsy Jazz" is kind of a misnomer when it comes to Django & Stephane. The sound they were going for was that of Americans Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang.
Here's a short clip of them in 1930:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3eF8cpNVs
Eddie Lang was a true original in jazz guitar. He was a mentor to MY mentor, Roy Smeck.
Here's the Gibson L-5 he was playing in that clip:
http://www.theguitarhistory.com/ima..._lang_L5.jpg
"There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
pdbanjo - Posted - 03/09/2009: 07:50:13
I stand corrected on the type of banjo D'jango played. It was a six string as Brian said. The biography on D'jango is a great read and relatively short. I wish there was more info about him but evidently that's not the case. He lived pretty much under the secrecy of his gypsy clan but as mentioned, was quite an eccentric character much to the frustration of those who associated and played with him. You would think Grappelli would have eventually moved away from him in his musical career becuse of Djangos irresposibilities but they stuck together thoughout D'jangos life.
PD
There''s so little time and so much room to experiment, why choose to play like someone else? If I were Earl, I wouldn''t play it like me either.
banjofanatico - Posted - 03/09/2009: 15:58:26
I found a couple of Roy Smeck banjo books on e-bay that are really good for learning chord-melody style. They are long out of print and the music publishing companies today don't publish many tenor or plectrum books (maybe none). So you need to go to e-bay. Also, I have a book with the Eddie Lang "Pickin' My Way" solo from the 30's. It's very challenging, but fun to work on, if you play guitar. I can imagine that lessons with Roy Smeck must have been fun. I guess he could play some dazzling stuff on the tenor banjo. I think he played since the 20's, so I guess he must have had lot of stories to tell !
David
Gareth Banjoland - Posted - 03/09/2009: 22:24:50
[quote]Originally posted by NYCJazz
"Gypsy Jazz" is kind of a misnomer when it comes to Django & Stephane. The sound they were going for was that of Americans Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang.
Here's a short clip of them in 1930:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3eF8cpNVs
Eddie Lang was a true original in jazz guitar. He was a mentor to MY mentor, Roy Smeck.
[quote]
-----Hey thanks for that , I never knew about that feller before and I've always wondered who djangos influences were.
<www.thepitts.com.au>
<www.vontrolley.com>
Edited by - Gareth Banjoland on 03/09/2009 22:25:34
brokenstrings - Posted - 04/12/2009: 20:36:27
Django and the banjo! Even if it was a 6-string.
Jessy
Frailaway, ladies, frailaway!
Tom Hanway - Posted - 04/21/2009: 22:12:33
quote:
Originally posted by NYCJazz
"Gypsy Jazz" is kind of a misnomer when it comes to Django & Stephane. The sound they were going for was that of Americans Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang.
Here's a short clip of them in 1930:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql3eF8cpNVs
Eddie Lang was a true original in jazz guitar. He was a mentor to MY mentor, Roy Smeck.
Here's the Gibson L-5 he was playing in that clip:
http://www.theguitarhistory.com/ima..._lang_L5.jpg
"There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."
- Mohandas K. Gandhi
Good listening. Wow, fascinating!  Happy pickin, Tom Hanway Please see my homepage and digital stores. ''Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.'' - W. B. Yeats
banjovy - Posted - 05/07/2009: 09:30:27
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gypsy jazz (also known as "Gypsy Swing") is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s.[1] Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources.[2] Django was foremost among a group of Gypsy guitarists working in and around Paris in the 1930s through the 1950s, a group which also included the brothers Pierre "Baro" Ferret, Etienne "Sarane" Ferret, and Jean "Matelo" Ferret and Reinhardt's brother Joseph "Nin-Nin" Reinhardt.[3]
Edited by - banjovy on 05/07/2009 09:31:29
banjovy - Posted - 05/07/2009: 09:37:47
.... and btw, Banjocoltrane is right, as usual what up bro
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