Django Reinhardt

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LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
I'm not really a fan of many jazz forms, but i do appreciate it and Django's technique has always fascinated me.
Was talking to guitar teacher last night and he mentioned a video where playing/sound had been synced up so you could actually see him playing.

Might be old news to some but i found it really interesting seeing him play and the way he moves around the board with only two fingers..


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  • jpttaylorjpttaylor Frets: 458
    Wonderful musician and extremely talented player, even before you consider the fact he played with only two fingers.

    His version of La Mer makes my top 10 songs ever.
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    He is a superb showcase for triumph over adversity, but it's not the kind of music that interests me personally 
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  • ChuckManualChuckManual Frets: 692
    One of my favourite guitarists ever. You simply cannot  be unhappy while listening to his playing!
    Not much of the gear, even less idea.
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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7731
    edited July 2018
    The first modern guitar virtuoso. It's an over used word but he is a genuine genius.
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  • meltedbuzzboxmeltedbuzzbox Frets: 10337
    Django is just too damn good. Absolutely brilliant. He always plays a tune without being overly flash wanky. 
    The Bigsby was the first successful design of what is now called a whammy bar or tremolo arm, although vibrato is the technically correct term for the musical effect it produces. In standard usage, tremolo is a rapid fluctuation of the volume of a note, while vibrato is a fluctuation in pitch. The origin of this nonstandard usage of the term by electric guitarists is attributed to Leo Fender, who also used the term “vibrato” to refer to what is really a tremolo effect.
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  • earwighoneyearwighoney Frets: 3489
    I spent a bit of time looking at the transcriptions for his solo pieces and the wide range of influences brought on from classical music was fascinating.  

    IMO, his solo improvisations are well worth checking out.  
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  • Django is just too damn good. Absolutely brilliant. He always plays a tune without being overly flash wanky. 
    Wiz for "flash wanky" alone! =)
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  • DulcetJonesDulcetJones Frets: 515
    I've read that the action was so high on his guitar that anybody that tried to play it was horrified.  Apparently he liked it that way.  Even though I'm not a big listener of jazz in general I did buy every "Hot Club of France" record I could find and still like listening to them now and then.

    “Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay


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  • VoxmanVoxman Frets: 4718
    He was phenomenal. The other two fingers he could only use to dampen strings. He learned to play as a therapy when recovering from polio and he developed a style to play with just 2 fingers...incredible. 
    I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
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  • Matt_McGMatt_McG Frets: 321
    I think the really striking thing is how quickly he became a virtuoso. It was only a few years from burning his hands in the caravan fire to the point where he was playing with the Hot Club. And in the process, he invented a whole range of modern techniques and harmonic innovations, despite being basically illiterate and having no formal music training.

    He could _really_ shred, too. You have to go a long way into the 70s and 80s before you find guitar players who could routinely rip it up at the sort of speed he did.

    Check the solo on this, solo begins about 45-50 seconds in:



    the little octave displaced lick at the start is great, but when he ramps the speed up, he's flying. And yet it's all singable.

    Having tried to play this stuff myself, sometimes his fingerings are actually really logical, and make playing fast easier, even if you have the full compliment of left-hand fingers.
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  • KKJaleKKJale Frets: 982
    edited July 2018
    Django is a source of endless wonderment... his flow of ideas, the sheer joy of it.

    Came across this great audio with real-time transcription the other day - complete with slow-down feature and a pop-up fretboard. For a non-jazzer like me it's an eye-opener, and I hope to find the time to study it and pick up some nuggets. It's I'll See You In My Dreams - a classic. Hit "play" at the bottom of the page. 

    https://www.soundslice.com/scores/68433/
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  • normula1normula1 Frets: 639
    I love a bit of Django too, especially when paired with Stéphane Grappelli's wonderful violin
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    A point to ponder - had he retained the use of all of his fingers would he have been, for want of a better term, twice the guitarist or might the fight in him not have emerged?
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  • Phil_aka_PipPhil_aka_Pip Frets: 9794
    @scrumhalf I don't think we will ever know. To think that he did more with 2 fingers than most of us do with 4 leads you either to try harder, or to give up, depending on how you see life ...
    "Working" software has only unobserved bugs. (Parroty Error: Pieces of Nine! Pieces of Nine!)
    Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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  • jdgmjdgm Frets: 850
    edited July 2018
    That's a great bit of film.
    Still have all my Django LPs; the late session with 'Blues For Ike' - when he had gone electric - is brilliant.
    You can hear how he influenced others, e.g. Les Paul.
    The biography by Charles Delauney (if you can find it) is a real eye-opener to a very different era....he was a bit of a rogue!!
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  • jeztone2jeztone2 Frets: 2160
    I love him. His playing is so full of joy. 
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  • VoxmanVoxman Frets: 4718
    If you like Django I think you'll like this guy too - I love when he nearly falls off his chair at 2:38:


    And this is lovely stuff too:


    And if you mixed Django with Jimi Hendrix, you might get something like this interesting gypsy jazz version of 'Hey Joe':


    I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
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  • richardhomerrichardhomer Frets: 24793
    Some people convey a joyousness when they play - no one more so than him....
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  • SchnozzSchnozz Frets: 1926
    edited July 2018
    What's not to like? I listen to Manouche at work
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  • LuttiSLuttiS Frets: 2243
    @Voxman just watched the first one - that was fantastic :) Will watch the rest tomorrow.
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