HOW I LEARNED Vol. I Gypsy Jazz Guitar Instructional Book é CD WITH AUDIO AND VIDEO INLCUDED by Gonzalo BergaraHOW I LEARNED Vol. I { really, really did not want to write another instructional book about gypsy jazz, there seems to be enough material out there to keep you going for lifetimes. However | found out that none of them had the concept that | used to study music and guitar playing. So here | am, sorry guys. 'have bought a few books over the course of my life and it usually works out the ‘same way, | open it, look at it once, perhaps start working on something a bit and 20 minutes later it sits on a shelf where is going to stay until | give it away. This book is a method I used to teach myself how to play guitar. 'have written out 6 solos for 6 standard gypsy jazz tunes. Each solo has next to. it an explanation for every bar, because thinking about what we are playing is how | got through. You don't need to know music, you just need to memorize, think and play.CD CONTENTS . Hungaria Fast . Hungaria Slow . All of me Fast |. All of me Slow . Some of these days Fast Some of these days Slow Pll see you in my dreams Fast . Pll see you in my dreams Slow ). Mirior Swing Fast 10.Minor Swing Slow 11.Coquette Fast * 12.Coquette Slow CREIAnAwDH BONUS MATERIAL VIDEOS WITH FINGERINGS FOR EACH SONG Blank 32 bar TAB paper for printingHow to study these solos Pick one song. Don't start with a new one, start with one you are pretty familiar with. Learn the solo note for note, use the videos on the CD for fingering, and memorize the whole thing. You will also find the tracks are recorded twice, one fast and one slow, and the guitar solo is on one side only so if you want to get rid of it use your balance control. The solos are not very long at all, and they are written in 8" notes all the way through, this helps because you don't have to. memorize any time patterns, just shapes on your guitar. You will be done with the solo very soon trust me. After you have leamed the whole thing, play it along with me many, many times. After you have it down it would be a good time to read the notes on the solo you learned, itil help you understand what you are doing. Probably the most important thing, now that you can play it from beginning to end instead of thinking of the solo as a whole thing, divide each chord and play only the sections that belong to each chord. This way you start associating these shapes with the chords. If you learn Minor Swing, now you have a solo to play over the song but also, you can now play the first two measures of the song over any two bar Am section in any song, and of course move it around for other tonalities. This is the key, divide all solos that way, and you'll be improvising in no time. If its not coming along too easily, do in paper. Some of These Days starts with B7 run that lasts 2 measures, move it down two frets, now it's A7, put it over the 2 measures of A7 on the song Coquette, get it? THINK, THINK, THINK. | have included on the CD a blank 32 bar page for you to print and write your own solos. Things that have helped me Rhythm tracks, any you can get, like Robin Nolan's or Stephane Wrembel’s. To play with a rhythm section is essential. use a software called Amazing Slow Downer, it’s just another one of those slowing down things that can help you hear things better when learning something by slowing it down without changing the pitch. Look up all of this on the internet if you have no idea what I'm talking about.a THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW A lot of the times I give lessons to guitar students I notice that many of them have one problem in common. They all know the notes on the guitar down low on the E and A strings, maybe D string, and well of course the high E string since it’s the same as the 6" But most of them get lost on the higher end of the neck, especially on the middle strings. SO, every once in a while look at the neck of your guitar and think about where you can find a G note on the second string, and F on your third, etc. This is very important. It'll help you never be lost again. Through out this book I talk about thirds, fifths, ninths, sixths, ete, Well we nced to know this, and itis very simple, especially on the guitar. First ofall, those numbers are the scale numbers. Take a look at the CM scale. ec DEF GABC~DE FF 6e@a, 123 45 678 9 pune yp ‘Now when I say the third, fifth, sixth and seventh you know what I mean, Knowing this is important because you'll know how to connect your ideas better, Ifyou are playing an E note over a CM chord, and the next chord happens to be a G7 it is very helpful to know that F is the b7" of G7, and this note happens to be one fret away from you. ‘How are chords made, and what notes are in what chords? Here are some chords and the notes that form them For the b notes just go down a half step. ‘There is nothing to memorize here. You'll see, it’s all just common sense. Minor 6° 10356 Major 6" 1356 Major 135 Major 7* 1357 Minor 103 5 Minor 7 1 b3 5 b7 Dominant 9* 135 7 9 Dominant 7th 1 3 5 7 Abbreviations: Dom: Dominant Dim: Diminished M: Major m: minor Arp: ArppegioRoweaeit (4) Gt -_—_—_z_erellcre OUR Oke OU Oe oeHUNGARIA M1 and 2, more of a jazzy flavor, easy to play, more chromatic notes which add great colors to your playing. Look at the first 9 notes and think of that as a lick in itself. Notice the third note counting from the back on the 2 measure, that's the flat 5, gives it a great sound when you move around the five like that. M3 and 4, | repeated the same thing so it gets in your brain, the flat 5 sound and the chromatic fall. M5 and 6 hopefully a new major lick this time over G, move it around. M7 and 8, a great full E7 diminished sound lick, use it for any dominant chord, find the root and move it. M9 thru 12s a great lick | heard Bireli do over this song on the Live in Paris dvd. He does it an octave higher (4 and 3 strings) can you move it there 1007? Think about this because this particular motion is going to show up in every song, A7 to D7. Think of it as one 7 chord going to another chord whose root is on the same fret a string higher, ex, G7 to C7 (Rose room), E7 to A7 (all of me) find your own. 'M 13 thru 16, another jazzy chromatic lick, it doesn't really follow the chord changes, but it is used like this a lot. See how at a good tempo it adds nice tension to your playing. M17 and 18 Another Major lick this time over G, memorize it and be able to play itin all frets. M 19 and 20 yet another major lick, sort of the same one but backwards. Note the last note of measure 20 fret 9 is an Fé, it really has nothing to do with the G#M chord we are playing over, the concept there is that my next note is G ‘so | just went one fret below it and now when measure 21 comes | can land on that G and make a nice connection. To sound proper | probably should've kept coming down and play a G (Fé#) which is a note of the scale of G# major, but then | would've been stuck with two G notes, | thought the Fi was easy to play so that's why | did it. M 21 and 22 you will ind a2 octave G major scale, | added one note (13 fret 1st string) so that i land on that 16 fret (G#) for the E7 chord since this note is the 3rd of E, sounds like a prefect connection. Also notice the fingering on the video, | find this is a very easy way to play this scale. M 23 and 24 a nice diminished lick for E7( give it time, it's not hard to play). M 25 Am lick (see how nice it connects to Cm) M 26 Cm lick. M 27 G major short run. M 28, the typical dim pattern, but look at the second note on the 2nd string, { bet you are not used to playing that, but look how much easier this is on your fingering, by having two notes per string you always end up ready to play a down stroke orf the next string. M29 and 30 another 2 5 1 pattern. M31 and 32 a nice quick turnaround, look at the chords this happens in a lot of ‘songs, learn it well.Aut oF Me Cc)M1 and 2 a CM arp with some passing tones. You will hear Stochelo doing this one a lol. Very easy to move around and use over any major chord. M3 and 4 have the gypsy Jazz sound which is playing a dim run over a dominant chord. All the notes belong to F dim, F Ab Cb D. However i think of it as an 7 with an added F, so E Gé BD and F. Again, very easy to move and to play over any dominant chord. Also important, don’t just memorize the phrase as a whole two measures, divide each measure and study them ‘separately, so the next time you only have one bar of a dominant chord you can throw this in. M5 and 6 over A7, Again outlining the notes of the arp A C# E G but adding a Bb, so again the same sort of dim sound as before. M7 and 8 have a very standard lick but what I think is very coo! here is M 8. Most people know measure 7 but are not familiar with 8, this is a really cool and easy way to come back down. M9 and 10 again hhave the dim sound this time with a full dim lick. Remember that dim chords repeat themselves every three frets. This means this lick (being full dim) works not only for E7, but G7, Bb7, andC#7.STUDYHIM 11 and 12 have an Am arp with some interesting Passing tones, memorize it and play it over Minor Swing as much as you possibly can, M 13 and 14 have the well known Django lick, but what i would recommend to pay close attention here is how we can go from playing singles notes to this with no pause in the middle. This is so much more interesting than starting this lick from nothing. Try to find other ways to do this, put it into your solos, try to go from single note playing to landing ‘on these simple little chords without stopping, your playing will sound a lot more exciting. Another important thing to mention on these dim chords is as you can see in M15, when you go back one fret you are going up a fourth. Meaning play that lick over D7, fret 2, 5, 8, 11, and then to go to G7, go back one fret to 10 and play 10, 7, 4. This is very coo! to know because all these jazz standards are always moving in fourths. THINK! M 16, this. is just a connection to go back to C, but again a good concept going from those little ‘chords to note playing again without stopping. Come up with your own. M17 and 18 ‘over CM we find a CM scale with a few passing tones, these are ok, any passing tone is Pretty much ok. I used these two so that I could land on the open 6 string for the E7 and : ‘sound cool. M 19 and 20 have a great E7 open lick, again same dim sound. Memorize this and play it over any E7 anywhere, it's a great lick. M21 and 22, notice how I went from the D note on the third string on measure 20 to the C# on M21. | was playing the 7th of E, (D), and the next chord was A7, the closest note for me was GF the third of A. This movement always makes you sound like you are connecting ideas in a very good way, find the closest note to you that belongs to the next chord. Also important to notice {s the jump from the second note to the third note on M 21. Finger 3 is doing that all by itself, however this is not hard at all, its very easy you'll notice to jump that distance with one finger, use this for other things too, don’ be afraid of jumping like that, because it might not be as hard as you think. The following measures are just ideas over A7 to go to Dm and then Dm patterns, however this particular shape for Dm I haven't seen a lot of People use and | think it will open up places in the neck of your guitar where you haven't Played Dm before. M 25 has an FM arp, same as the CM in the beginning of the song. The last note 9th fret on first string is a passing tone to get to the 10th fret which is D, the 6th of F so that i could start outlining an Fm6 arp in M 26. M 27 just a short CM pattern. 'M 28 a short A7 pattern. These two would be good to study together because a lot of songs have that movement for that same amount of time, REMEMBER THIS IS NOT ONLY C7 TO A7, this is a 1 to a dominant 6, just be prepared to move it around, it happens in a lot of these songs in all keys. M 29 is a great Dm 7 arp also rarely used. Put it everywhere!!! M30 a short 7 arp in G, very handy. M31 and 32 are CM to G7th with some passing tones.wi MS M4 A me n21 nes Fea Ay cr Be Te cH En Ew At As. Da Op < Meats. An AK g Ey Ss‘SOME OF THESE DAYS In the first 4 measures of this song we find two bars of a dominant and two bars M5 and 6, fd like you to find a particular lick here. Forget the 2 first notes of fog aoure 5 and the last 2 of measure 6. Loop the rest 12 notes. this is a great lick {er any dominant chord. You'd better play this one next time I see you, M7 and 8, again a great minor lick, the jump on measure 8 going from fret 9 to 4 on the same string is a lot easier than it seems. M9 and 10, great E7 lick. Move it around for any dominant chord M11, 12, 13 and 14 you will find a very long up and down dominant arp. works much better if going to a D major or dominant. REMEMBER THIS, use it, add the 9th to a dominant chord ifthe next one happens to be a fourth away and is major or dominant, add a flat 9th note if the next chord ig a fourth away and is minor. Ex, Minor Swing, E7 going back to Am i would add F instead of F#, Coquette A7 going to D major | would a B instead of a Bb. GOOD LUCK AND THINK ABOUT THIS. M15 and 16 D dominant lick, M 17 and 18 another great simple lick Use it for any major dominant stuff, it leads really good if the next chord is a fourth up like in this case G7 to C major. M23 and 24, Amé6 arp, hopefully one you are not so familiar with, memorize it, play it all the time. M25 and 26 have an easy transition from C to CF dim, this happens in a lot of songs as well so study it well. M27 very short easy G major, think of it as E minor pentatonic, or G major Bavatonic, or just do what Ido, memorize the shape knowing that this works for G major. It doesn’t really have to have a name. M 28 short E7 lick, very, very handy. M29 short lick for A7, very cool. M30 short lick for D7 very handy. M31 and 32 G major scale starting with a four note pattem, then just going down jhe scale with a passing tone. Can you hear this pattern (measures 31)? Can you keep it going down the third and fourth strings?m Vu se Yor Ny Deeans CF) b B we Bh Bh 6)M1 and 2 Bb major arp with a nice little chromatic run at the end. M3 and 4 Bb minor 6 arp. Notice the last three notes, frets 6 and 3 are the root and the 6th, fret 4 again is just a way to connect to the next chord, F. Jam looking for the Sth fret (A the third of F) the third ALWAYS a great note. So | just go up to it chromatically, hitting a fret that has nothing to do with anything and would sound horrible on its own. M5 FM arp, know this one for every key. M 6 finally an augmented arpeggio, these are never easy, there is to much jumping from string to string, but start working on it. Augmented chords don't come around very often but its a great sound to add on your own even if the band is not playing an augmented chord. Try it over a7 chord that is going to resolve to a chord up a fourth, E7 to A, G7 to C. On the guitar it is a lot easier to think of it this way: a7 chord that goes to a major chord on the string underneath.on the same fret. Lets say you have two measures of E7 and then comes A, so play an E7 arp for the first measure. Then for the second play this E augmented arp and make sure you resolve correctly to the A. You will have a really cool movement there. Thesé kinds of changes happen in every song in the world, so you could start playing this literally over every song you know. M7 and 8 same FM arp with a few added notes. The same concept of connecting two notes chromatically. Works every time what can I say? M9 thru 12, a long run for D7. Memorize it like this or cut in pieces, but think about it when you play. You can learn many things just from this one. M 13 and 14 a nice G7 run, | used the flat 5th (9 fret second string) it gives it perhaps a more interesting sound. M 15 and 16 short arpeggios for C7 and F7 M17 and 18 a very useful nice lick for any major chord. M19 | tured the lick into a minor one. Let your ear be your guide. If it sounds 9004, it's good. M 20 hopefully a new concept for us to work on, | stretched it for a few measures. the 13th fret on the first string is an F, this note is the Sth to Bb, but i's also the root to the next chord, so instead of moving around | stay on it and play it until the chord F finally comes then I keep moving. This adds a sense of more musicality to your playing. | did something similar for the next 3 measures. Play it and have fun with it, but also sit think about this. Study it. M 25 and 26 D7 arp. Again using that flat 9 note. M 27 and 28 A7 to Dm. Notice | didn't play the 7th (G) on the A arp, this is very 0k too. M 29 a nice little lick to move chromatically. There are many, many kinds of these and they work great for your right hand, think of more. M 30 | extended one of them to be longer. M 31 and 32 F major scale coming down. The note in parenthesis afterwards is a D, the third of Bb which is the chord we would hit when we start all over again, find a major lick on this book that starts with the third, and put it there. This is endless. Come up with your own solos, eventually your brain will do this instantly, and you'll be improvising. 12Minor Stine i D loo De haM1 a different m6 arp, notice it starts on F# (the 6th of A). Comes in very handy, also start using this over a D7 chord, Bireli likes this a lot! M 2.a continuation of the arpeggio, ive used this before in this book and it has the same concept of jumping backwards which we are not inclined to think about, so hopefully this will put it in your brain. Measure 3 and 4 have a scale pattern for Dm. This is not the easiest thing to play but it really adds intensity to your playing, this kind of ascending sound, M5 again playing F dim arp over E7. Right here notice the jump going up, again not very hard, and very helpful. M 6 Just E7 stuff. M7 another interesting, hopefully unknown to you Am arp. Notice measure 8 how you can add a few chromatic notes to land on the F you need (Minor 3" of Djon measure 9. Use this kind of ideas for your own things. Just ‘connect chromaticalty, i'l sound a lot better that you think, especially at fast tempos. M9 and 10 Dm arp with the same idea of starting to go down and go back up a little bit to keep coming down. This is A LOT more exciting than just playing a full going down arpeggio. Try it with everything you know, you'll get really cool results. Like everything else, dont over use itl! There is another jump going down on the 10 measure, going from {ret 10 on the third string to fret 7, again it might seem hard in the beginning but itl get really easy really quick. And it'l get you out of trouble countless times. M111 starts with what looks like a regular Am arp, but look at the notes i added. The Sth of Ais E, | added the notes one fret above and below this E. This is a great sound that works pretty much for every chord and adds a nice color to your playing. Try it out, play the fifth of any chord and the notes around it, always come back to the fifth. The longer you stay on the other ones the more tension you will put in. Play around with it, ‘sometimes tension, or "outside" playing, adds a lot of fun to your solos. M12 hopefully a new way to finish this common arp instead of going to the 12th fret after the 8th fret (a very common lick that we all do) try this one where it goes back to the 5th fret. M 13, Bb7 short arp. Notice it also has the Sth (C note on the &th fret first string) the ninth is always a great note to add to any dominant chord. But anyway, lels also not think so much, just understand the shape of it and get it under your fingers so that you can play it over any dominant chord. M14 hopefully a new way to start an E7 run, with the typical open D shape arpeggio. M15 Am except last note i added a note so that | can play the note i need on the next measure. Very cool concept that will make your playing sound more like is flowing, also your brain can learn to do this very, very fast, that is to add instant notes to get to the one you need at the right time, so start using it. After the 8th fret on the 6 string the right note would've been the 7th fret, because it ‘sounds more right to the chord A, but then I would've ended up with having to play that note twice since the next chord starts with that as well. M16 E7 with a shape Django used, not going to the first string like you think i's going to, but resolving on the second string instead. M 17 and 18 have a Am scale pattem. Again 'm trying to put these in here because they might be new to you and they really sound good, a good option after playing so many arpeggios. M 19 and 20, | heard Angelo doing this lick and I really liked it, uses notes I wouldn't have thought of, try it out in all minor chords, it works great. M21 E7 descending scale, works great. M22 same concept of starting to go up but then going back a bil to keep going up. M23 and 24, Am stuff, I think by now you already Know this one. I'm trying to get you to use it more. M 25 and 26 Dmé arp, notice it's the same one as the Am arp we started with but it jumps somewhere else, also very easy and it works great. It starts on the 6 (B), remember this is also good for G7, B being the third. M 27 and 28 Amé6 arp. M 29 short Bb7 arp. M 30 short E7 little connection lick M31 Am arp. M32 E7 again paying F dim arp over E7. 14D fe D Ent Ay nt bs tmnt A DO Dike tht AR hes Sb dD thy Ay mehM1 and 2 another shape for a major arp coming down with the notes of the major scale. M 3, before we can finish playing the entire DM scale coming down we land on the note E, right for the Em7. | arranged this from the beginning, had | needed one more note | would've added other non-scale notes when descending. Had | needed less, ! would've started the arp on D, not Cii(fret 4 string 5). Think about this and work on your own patterns. Everybody you listen to borrows licks from other people but also has a great time developing their own ideas. No rush, do what you like to do. In this particular way you will get to know the neck of the guitar pretty well. M3 Em arp. M 4 A7 arp. M5 and 6 can also be separated but these two together are a great 2 5 1 tumaround. 99 percent of songs in this style have a 25 1 turnaround. Memorize this and move it around everywhere. M7 and 8 are a great turnaround. A lot of these songs have also this progression and most people usually don't play over this because of how fast it moves, here is a great simple idea for them, again move it around. M 9 starts with a DM scale starting from an A note, a concept that I'd like to share with you. Scales most times sound even better if you don't start from the root, they sound great starting from the fifth like this case. Play CM scale over a c major chord but start from G, this is very, very common and it sounds great. M10 major arp that by now I hope you know. M 11 and 12 another 2.5 1 turnaround, look at the notes I added to make it work. M 13 hopefully a new shape for a minor 7th arpeggio, study it! M14 A7 arp. M 15 D major scale, M 16 DM scale with passing tones, doesn't it work nice? and you end up at a high D ready for D7. M17 and 18 D dominant 9 arp. There is an E note coming down, so its got that nice 9 sound. Works for any dominant chord, doesn’t have to be a 9th. M 19 cool simple pattern for a major chord. M 20 just GM scale coming down | took one note out on the first string (8th fret) s0 I get to the next chord in time. M 21 and 22 E7 arp hopefully a new shape. Notice how it jump two frets and you suddenly covered so much more ground on one chord. Some of these jumps are simple, we need to use them more often. Come up with your own. M 23 and 24 A7 arp with a few tums. Learn this one. It adds nice colors to your playing. (15 13 14 12 on the second string) adds interesting things to an otherwise common arp. That's one fret above and below the 3 note of the chord, in this case C#. Use this for any major dominant chord. I's a cool sound. The more you hang on the 4th (D) the more tension you'll add, try playing that 15 fret on second string more than once, hear it in your head, itll open other doors. M 25 and 26 DM scale again starting from the 5th note. Where to jump up is important here. | find this to be the easiest way. M27 and 28, hopetully a new 2 § 1 for you. memorize it and move it around. M29 and 30 yet another new 2 5 1. M31 Django’s favorite turnaround, the minor 4th instead of the 5th dominant chord. Try this: instead of outlining dominant 5 to 1, play minor 4 arp to 1. This is a short lick that Django used a lot. M 32 | wanted to show you this to understand something that might come in handy sometimes, if you need to go from somewhere up in the neck to somewhere lower this is a good easy thing. It might seem hard in the beginning, but keep trying you'll see it's not that hard to hit the right fret. DM scale notes. \GRHYTHM The KEY to it all, you'll never play lead right if your rhythm is wrong. Work on this gypsy jazz rhythm, alll the time, get a good fat tone, make sure you get your guitar to bark. Also don’t play too loud, some lead players are not super loud, that’s ok, you play quieter then. If you can’t hear the lead you are playing to loud. And stop adding all those extra rhythm things in there, keep it nice straight and simple, notice how most everybody does a little something at the end of a verse, try not to, itil be a much bigger challenge, RIGHT HAND One of the most important aspects of playing gypsy jazz, the famous right hand technique. The rule every time you start on a new string start with a down stroke, regardless of how you picked before. We can talk about the right hand forever, there is a book called Gypsy Picking by Michael Horowitz that I think says it all, you might want to check it out. Let's try this: pick a note on your guitar, now look at where your pick is, is it resting on the following string? If not you are probably not doing this right. Go on you tube, watch Bireli Lagrene, Angelo Debarre, Stochelo Rosenberg, look at how they pick and try to copy it. Notice how their arm is resting on the body of the guitar and the wrist is arched so that you don't touch the top of the guitar with it. EVERY DOWNSTROKE IS A REST STROKE. IF YOU CAN PLAY IT WITH A DOWN STROKE THEN DO SO. Down strokes just sound so much better, look at all these great players, when they play ‘something slow, it's ALL down strokes. Think of not only picking down toward the floor, but also into the guitar, in an angle, this way you always rest on the next string. PICK People ask me about picks, and how to hold them correctly. I'm not sure there is an answer to this, every body uses something different and it all works, find out what works for you, listen to the players you like and find out what they use. 1d also like to say that sometimes thinking about all these little things might actually end up hurting you. Just play.SOUND Nobody talks about this very much but | think it’s the key to a lot of things. If you hear me play a fast line and some notes are louder than other ones when they all should be the same the run loses SO much. Make sure that you geta nice and even sound, instead of some notes really Popping out and some other ones not coming out at all. PRACTICE You know when you grab the guitar and you sit in front of the TV and just play around for hours watching TV? Well you are not really doing much, practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. PLAY TO A TIME, even if it’s your foot. You don't need a rhythm track to play over the chords of minor swing play the rhythm in your head and play along to it, this is much harder, but think about this, when are you ever going to play to free time? So then why practice to free time? cD The CD includes, one blank sheet of tab with 32 bars for you to print and write your own solos if you want. A video for each track so you can see the fingering | used. Two tracks for every song, one slow and one fast, with the solo on one side only so you can get it out if you want to play only with the rhythm. MISC YES!!! There are a few mistakes here and there. Sometimes I mess one note up on a video, or recording. But always follow the tab, the TAB is always correct. You probably know by now | sped up the songs for faster solos, so the sound quality is not great, well, SO WHAT? you will learn, | PROMISE.Amé/4 Choros Amé Due ea 4} | feme t (2) Fags G $ Rae