zaterdag 12 december 2009

My first encounter.... I wished...

Stochelo is playing in my town tonight...

But I have to give my tickets away because work wants me in Copenhagen.... hope to be able to enjoy live Gypsy Jazz soon. In the meantime I pray for someone to please "Bring me the hands of Stochelo Rosenberg!"



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zaterdag 21 november 2009

The action needed a reaction...

Taking action against rattling strings due to a laydback action;

One of the first things that started to slightly annoy me whille practicing on my guitar were the strings rattling againgst other frets when I struck them. My first impulse was to lamely blame the equipment, but I soon found out that placing your fingers directly behind the frets and pushing hard enough helps a lot.
Then I read about the "action" on a guitar. The action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard wich can be altered by changing the height of the bridge. Since my guitar is a relatively (with all due respect) low-end product designed for beginners as myself the action on my guitar was low (the distance between strings and fretboard was small). This makes the guitar easier to play since you don't have to puch down the strings that hard. A low action is very suitable for playing fast solo's the way Gypsy Jazz is intended to.
A major problem might occur dough when the action is too low. And surely when strings get more worn out they tend to rattle even with the fingers well placed.
This was the case ,I guess, with my guitar.

So I tried a little trick I heard Jimmy talk about in his documentary were he told he always used to put two coins under the bridge of his guitars to higher the action.


The "action" is the distance between fretboard and strings.Here I hightend the bridge using two old Dutch coins.


It seemes to work out fine for me! (Dough I wouldn't especialy recomend it on an expensive instrument!)

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donderdag 12 november 2009

Montagne St. Geneviéve....

Starting my first project;



Started practicing on Montagne St. Geneviéve as played by Romane today. Seems to me a great piece to start with since it is quite easy to remember and has this impresive diagonal covering the whole of the guitars neck.....


See how Romane does his version:



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vrijdag 30 oktober 2009

Swing...

A movie for everyone to see;



Tonight I watched this amazing movie Swing by Tony Gatlif. Starring Tchavolo Schmitt.
You just have to see this for yourself!



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donderdag 29 oktober 2009

128 Gypsy Jazz powertabs !!!!

Everything you need for a great start on Gypsy Jazz Guitar;

While strawling on the internet for some good lessons and resources I found this amazing collection of 128 Gypsy Jazz powertabs!
Just amazing!

And this way I also got to learn about software like: Powertab Editor and Guitar Pro, wich help me out alot now while practicing!

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maandag 12 oktober 2009

To pick a pick....

What a difference a pick makes;

One of the things I had absolutely no idea of is the amazing difference a ,to me, simple pick can make. After my first tryouts on my newly procured Gypsy Jazz guitar I quickly noticed the difference between a thick and a thin pick. But I was really in for a schock when I first struck my strings with the Wegen pick I got in the magical Palm guitars shop in Amsterdam (if you have the chance you really have to go and see this shop!).

Listen to the difference between picks for yourself:


Some picks I tried the last few months:

1. An ultra thin Fender pick.
2. A pick my girlfriends uncle made me out of a plastic container.
3. A thicker pick, but one I intent to lose grip on during "La Pompe".
4. A genuine handcrafted Wegen Gypsy Jazz pick.


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zaterdag 10 oktober 2009

Big mouth, little mouth, left or right...

Chosing a good instrument;

Starting to play the guitar logicaly starts by getting one. And the logic following the logic is wich one to get...

Luckaly the choices in Gypsy Jazz style guitars are basically narrowed down to two major types build by french instrument building company Henri Selmer in cooperation with the Italian luthier Mario Maccaferri since 1932. Django Reinhardt immortalized the Selmer Maccaferi guitars and they became the trademark for generations of Gypsy Jazz guitarists to come.


Django Reinhardt by M.Signier

But besides the choice between a "Grande Bouche" (Big mouth or D-Hole type) or a "Petite Bouche" (Small mouth or oval hole type) I had to choose between a left or right handed version since I'm lefthanded. An easy choice you might think, but I refused to see why there would be a difference since the instrument is played with both hands. The left hand (on a right handed guitar) runs down the neck at a dazzling speed so it seemed an advantage to me playing a right handed guitar. On the other hand (literaly) the right hand needs enormous precision and speed to hit the strings at the right time so that might become a problem in the future. So now, what to do?
And then it occured to me that it would be very frustrating to have to bring your own left-handed instrument everywhere just in case you might find yourself in a spontanious jamsession. Month maybe years of practice would suddenly become useless in a place with only the much more common right handed guitars.

So stubern as I am I chose this relatively cheap righthanded Richwood "Petite Bouche" replica to help me along my first babysteps into the wonderful world of Gypsy Jazz.



Sure hope it was the right choice for now, later i'll try to find out what makes a good guitar a good guitar.

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zaterdag 3 oktober 2009

Know thy Gods...

A quick summary of Gypsy Jazz Gods;

After my first internet encounter with Jimmy Rosenberg I watched this beautiful dutch documentary about his tourmented young life filled with enourmous talent and drug abuse.

My interest got aroused and I wondered who this (in the documentary) often refered to "Django Reinhardt" was. I found many answers in another great movie:


Watch Swing Guitar - The Genius Of Django Reinhardt.divx in Music  |  

Once the life, fortune and misfortune of Django became clear to me I started wondering about his followers and yet another great documentary movie crossed my digital path.


A small excerp from the movie: "Django Reinhardt Legacy" be sure to pay attention to little Jimmy round the campfire.

Now I new about Jimmy's big cousin: Stochelo Rosenberg, and about Angelo DeBarre, Babik Reinhardt, Fapy Lafertin, Bireli Lagrene, Tchavolo and Dorado Schmitt to name but a few, I could start to build up my cd collection and get to know them all...

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donderdag 1 oktober 2009

It started with a kiss....

A brief introduction;

When and were my profound passion for Roma and their culture first started is still obscure to me. Vaguely I remenber the magical attraction to the logo printed on the "Gitanes" cigarrete pack the old man down our road used to smoke while sipping on his four o'clock Pastis. But my first clear recalling of Gypsy beauty certainly were the "dark eyes" Géraldine Lambert had. This ravissant young manouche I was lucky enough to have as a neighbour while I was living in a tiny village in the south of France drove my young man's heart and mind crazy. And when I finally got the chance to kiss her I knew the love for the roaming people was here to stay.....


"Dark eyes"

A small lifetime later I am the one roaming the world with my television camera making reports in all the wonderfull aswell as scary places on our planet, thirsty to understand human kind and it's sometimes strange behaviour while Géraldine got married and lovingly nurses her children some ten miles away from where I first met her.


Some of the places i've been.

My passion for music starts to evolve and I find myself playing loud Balkan Beats on the car stereo longing for wodka drenched nights on a riverside along the Donau.The silence violently smuthered by drunken trumpet players and skinny vagabond dogs howling at a swolen moon.

And then; all of sudden; along came Jimmy......


Jimmy Rosenberg - Sweet Georgia Brown -

....and my passion got a goal.... I was going to play the guitar like a Gypsy (or at least I would try to)

This blog will document my journey into Gypsy Jazz as I hope to grow step by step and learn everything about the "Rom" and their music. Please feel free to inform, correct or assist me as I go on!

Alexander Koning


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