Arpeggios and chord progressions....

Working with Denis Chang DVD's;



"Practicing connecting arpeggios from the Denis Chang DVD."

Christmas came early for me last year as I recieved the Denis Chang DVD's I had ordered on Hyperhipmedia.com much faster than I had expected.
Bumping into Denis Chang and his video lessons while looking for Gypsy Jazz resources on the internet is not that hard. And since he plays togheter with people like Stochelo Rosenberg, Wawau Adler and Tim Kliphuis it must be good , right? So I ordered the whole deal, 5 DVD's on improvisation and accompaniment. Enough to keep me occupied for at least the next two to three years (and probably even longer).


Excerp from the Denis Chang DVD's

The DVD's turned out to be even better than I eventualy thought. Denis has a clear way to explain all the aspects of Gypsy Jazz. The well arranged menu's make it easy to navigate and learn everything you need to know about Gypsy Jazz one step at a time.

After watching the intro and practicing "La pompe" for a while I started with the arpeggios last week. I allready knew some from my Romane book : "L'esprit Manouche" but I had no clue how to combine them. So I was glad Denis showed me. After a few hours of practice I found myself improvising a little tune combining Denis' licks with Romane's and a few of my own I stumbled on whyle playing. And then it occured to me; "I was making music!" Thank you Denis!


An arpeggio I came up with by myself, altough I don't know if it's right, I think it sounds ok.


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Rakrel Romanes?

To talk the talk;


"Knikker Lagréne singing in Romanes."

My passion for Gypsy music is not limited to the sounds alone but also to the culture of Roma and Sinti. The ideology of freedom and creative beauty is one loads of us long for. Although sadly the lives of the Rom are often submitted to racism and persecution they still manage to cultivate theire heritage of blessed musicality and their own language spoken from the depths of the Eastern European countrys to the South of France. Romanes is a language wich finds here roots in India just like the Rom do (or Dom as they called themselves at that time). Later the language evolved as the Rom started to travel over Armenia and Eastern Europe. It became a mix of German,Italian, Romanian and Hungarian. A beautiful language very suitable for beautiful songs....


Find translations from English to Romanes in this elaborate Romanes Lexicon



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Talking all that Gypsy Jazz....

Freakin' Phrygian;

Since Gypsy Jazz has alot to do with, eh.....Jazz I thought it might be clever to learn something about this style of music. I had already heard about arpeggios and chord progressions and I slowly start to be able to put both of them together now. Still I was curious so I ran a Google search on "Jazz Guitar".

This was one of the first sentences that came out under beginner lessons:

"This G Mixolydian scale is the V of the C major scale. The G Bebop Scale can be played on most chords that are diatonic to the key of C major, but not on the C major chord itself because the F is an avoid note for the C major chord".
source: www.jazzguitar.be


WTF?!!?


Bireli Lagréne, Gypsy Jazz God

So now what? It all seemed very confusing to me... Talking about this with a musical friend of mine (Frédéric Zolnet) he told me he recognized the problem. Pentatonic, Diatonic, Dominant, Sub Dominant and freakin' Phrygian. But then he told me not to worry. He had read an interview with Bireli Lagréne whose answer to the question: "Wich arpeggio do you play over a Deminished Chord?" Simply was "Wich what?! do I play over what?"


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Our second Djam session....

"Les Yeux Noirs" from left to right: Nico Hegt, Frédéric Zolnet and myself hanging in there with the chords.



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Blow the wistle on em...

Paulus Schäfer Gipsy Band feat. Wattie Rosenberg and Prisor Jazz Band;

During the cultural Sunday's organized in our city every first Sunday of the month, club Mammoni presented two of the finest Dutch Gypsy Jazz ensembles. First up were Paulus Schäfer and Wattie Rosenberg in a packed club. Togheter with jam buddy Fréderic and his friend Nico we enjoyed the balanced conversation between violin and guitar. During the end of the set an older man came on stage, put four fingers in his mouth and started wistelling to "Les Yeux Noirs" absolutely amazing.



After that it was up to the Prisor Jazz Band; Years of experience, stereotype looks and an interresting mix between two solo guitars, one Selmer type and one electric Jazz guitar (played by Eddy Grünholtz)created an absolute magical atmosphere filled with pumping rythmes and beautiful warm melodies. Again I was honored to be able to witness such beauty.


Feigeli Prisor Photo: Gaby Penders


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I hope you like Djammin too.....

My first ever jam session... a sweet defeat;

After my first lesson with Popy I felt really comfortable practicing today. I was going along nicely with my chord progressions. Put on my Denis Chang DVD and played till it hurt. So when Frédéric mailed me to ask me if I would join him and his new friend Nico for a jam session that night there was not a split second of doubt.

I met Frédéric about a month ago when I was looking for a suitable place on the internet to post an add asking around for people in my neighbourhood also suffering from Djangofever. Came out Frédéric had beat me to it. I followded his link and we mailed back and forth for a while, sharing tips, resources and planning to meet up sometime for a genuine Gypsy Jazz jam session at his place.

So far so good... so what? You might think...

Well... here's what happened;

Entering appartment, shaking hands, enjoying drink, putting livingroom table aside... no problem. The wellknown opening tune of "Minor Swing"... Still no sweat... The first chords of "Minor Swing"... Hey! That came out pretty good! Then "Les Yeux Noirs"... oeps, reality check... Nico and Frédéric were long gone as I desperatly tried to follow the grid lying in front of me. Maybe a little to much to soon... Embarassing?, hum, slightly, but whatever...
I was glad Frédéric reacted comprehensivly to my incompetence and tried his best to make it easier for me to play the right chords by showing me simplified versions of the real Gypsy Jazz deal (wich he seemed to master pretty well by the way!) I tried my very best to keep up and felt I did not manage to bad the first half hour or so. I tried to play not to loud so any mistake would pass unnoticed, but this was underestimating my newly made jam friends. Arriving to "Ceasar Swing" I started to give up, not wanting to slow down any longer the anticipated fun and extasy of jammin I felt Fédéric and Nico were so eager to experience.

And so they played! Wonderfully!

Nico with his years of experience and Frédéric with his entousiasm and elborate skills were an absolute blessing to hear and see. I soon got over my little defeat and soacked up the sweetness of being in a place were people play Gypsy Jazz guitar with their heart and soul!


Songs I will have to practice for our next meeting; "Minor Swing", "Les Yeux Noirs" and "Ceasar Swing"

On my way out Frédéric gave me a short list of grids to practice for our next appointment... so I suggest I stop blogging...and start playing!

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So he taught me...

My first Gypsy Jazz Guitar lesson;

After a first appointment that I unfortunately could not attend to I was in for a rematch tonight....

I felt strangly calm during the afternoon rush hour, the extra time I had planed getting to my teachers home was slowly ticking away as the cars infront of me wouldn't move an inch. It was only when I got to the final traffic light around the corner of Popy Basily's home that my handpalms started to get slightly damp. I parked my car next to a big trailer home at the entrance of the small Sinti settlement and wandered on to the alley between the houses. I had forgotten to write down the exact housenumber and the names on the mailboxes didn't really help out as many of them had Basily written on them.
Just as I was about to ask a young boy walking a small dog the way to Popy's house I heard my name being called behind me.
Fashionably as always with his long black coat, tailord pants and shiny shoes Popy showed me the way to his home. Arriving at the front door he kicked of his shoes in a reflex. When I asked him if I should do the same he firmly recommended it if I had the intention to stay in good understanding with the lady of the house. Needles to say my socks were touching the rug within seconds.


My teacher Popy Basily

After meeting Popy's wife and kid "Tchavo" (wich later turned out not to be the name of his son but the Sinti word for "Boy") we sat down around the kitchen table and picked up our guitars. Then the first question I had so much anticipated upon the last few weeks came; "So... show me what you got." and of course the even so strongly awaited nerves really kicked in now. Somehow I managed to get out a very poor version of "Montagne St. Genevieve" I had spent so much sweat on practicing the last few months. Popy didn't really seem to be impressed, and frankly I don't blame him.
So I desided to pick myself togheter and show him my chord progression on Minor Swing I started practicing since saturday. As soon as I struck the second chord Popy joined me and started improvising. He then corrected me on the chords, showed me what they where supossed to be: "A Minor", then "the one you just did", followed by "the other one on the third dot". Ten minutes later we where making music! Me stumbling over my chords and Popy keeping everything together with a beautiful improvised melody. When I asked him the names of the chords so I could write them down Popy admitted not knowing all of them. "I know how to play them, not what they are called." I replied that it surely was better than knowing them all by name without being able to play them. This was Gypsy Jazz the way the Gypsy teach it, and I absolutely loved it....

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