Guitar Lesson - Swinging Away!

As planned, I hit the gypsy jazz pretty hard today and figured I may as well provide a guitar lesson. My first quest is to master Django Reinhart's Minor Swing. I am using the Moreno and Marina Quartet version as inspiration. Of all the renditions I have heard, I find their's the best (even better than Birelli LaGrene's). It is the perfect combination of melody and unreserved fire. I was trying to jam to along to it but I find whenever I jam to music that has a lead part, I get distracted by the lead lines. So I recorded the 16 bar guitar chord progression and jammed for a couple hours.

The guitar chord progression is simply

|Am  Am  Am  Am |Am  Am  Am  Am |
|Dm7 Dm7 Dm7 Dm7|Dm7 Dm7 Dm7 Dm7|
|E7  E7  E7  E7 |E7  E7  E7  E7 |
|Am  Am  Am  Am |Am  Am  Am  Am |
|Dm7 Dm7 Dm7 Dm7|Dm7 Dm7 Dm7 Dm7|
|Am  Am  Am  Am |Am  Am  Am  Am |
|E7  E7  E7  E7 |Bb7 Bb7 Bb7 Bb7|
|Am  Am  Am  Am |F7  F7  E7  E7 |

Since I am not accustomed to swing, I recorded it around 145 BPM starting off and simply worked through arpeggios and scalar lines that fit the progression, being particulay careful to maintain a swing feel. After a while I re-recorded it around 220 BPM which is how this music is supposed to be played.

I find that a great way to improvise over this song is to learn arpeggios corresponding to the chords at various places on the neck. This has the added benefit of expanding your fretboard knowledge. For instance, as I improvise, I play Am and Am7 arpeggios shapes throughout the fretboard. Below are some examples.

Likewise I learn Dm7 arpeggios throughout the neck and the others as well. The end result is that I can blend these arpeggios into one another anywhere on the neck. And as you work up the tempo it forces your hands to quickly develop a 'memory' of these shapes so that as you are playing up to tempo, you don't have to think about where on the neck these shapes are - your hands simply find them. I am still trying to get there myself...

I hope this was a worthwhile guitar lesson. So get out your guitar and start swinging! I have created a MIDI file for your convenience for playing along to. If your MIDI player allows you to adjust the tempo then be sure to increase it as you progress. And if you want to hear examples of the types of lines that players use over these chords, then check out Django Reinhart's recordings as well as those of Birelli LaGrene and other gypsy players. You can listen to these players and countless others on Rhapsody.

Later,

Brian Huether

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