THE ULTIMATE AND FREE
"ORA ET LABORA" GUITAR LESSONS
by
John Hoan
CAN BE FOUND HERE: TWOHANDS GUITAR-BLOG
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My latest album.
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WHAT MAKES THE GYPSY GUITAR SOUND SO PARTICULAR? SO DIFFERENT?
The main factor is certainly the guitar itself. They all use that typical model made by Selmer/Maccaferri, Favino, Gallato and others. (In France you'll find at least a dozen of guitar crafters who build these special designed guitars.)
The strings used on these guitars are always "ARGENTINE" by Savarez. (Gauge 011 to 046) whereby the high strings E and B are plain steel, while the four lower strings are Silver-Roundwound with a nylon core.
But it's the right hand technique that really makes the guitar sound different. With it goes the use of a stiff and thick plectrum. They are mostly made of horn, bone, ebony or delrain (see article about DUGAIN plecs) and also stone or metal.
Django used to carve his picks out of horn or tortoise-shell haircombs.
Gypsy players have a loud and hard attack. This is achieved by a free moving hand (same as when you're strumming rhythm/chords. Because the right hand fingers don't rest on the top or the bridge of the guitar, the force and the swing of the attack on each note comes out of the entire forearm. The fist acts as an extra-whip and so the whole movement is a loose and free picking of the string!
In the beginning it will be difficult to land always on the right string, because there's no more pivot point on the guitar with the hand.
This IS very important, since it's the only way to get a real hard and loud attack. (Also for one string slide-up-rolls and other gimmicks).
Listen to Django, even on slow and quiet ballads you can almost physically feel the strenghth and clearly defined force in every single note he plays!
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SOME THOUGHTS OF PRACTISING AND EXERCISES:
Let's say, there are four phases of practising...
one:
NOODELING
Very important to find new ideas, or to impress the neighbor's daughter...
two:
MEMORIZING
Memorizing songs / chordcharts / song structures / and phone numbers...
All in your head! Very healthy for the mind! But there's also the mind-practising of licks and phrases/themes. By visualizing them in your head and really see your fingers playing note by note exactly on the right fret of the neck, improves your playing by finding the notes almost blindly while really playing.
(article about this will follow)
three:
EXERCISES
Exercises have to be broken down into different categories.(Left-hand exercises, right-hand exercises, metric exercises, Triads, Arpeggios, Scales and so on).
The most important thing is:
Always and only execute with a metronome!!
Otherwise the whole exercise is completely useless and you better go back to noodeling!
four:
WARM UP
These exercises are the most important. Exactly like any sportsman, you have to warm up the muscles of your fingers and the articulation of your fists. And without warm-up exercises, there's no evolution or improving of speed and precision!
Same rule: Always and only execute with the metronome!! Otherwise the whole exercise is completely useless and you better go back to noodeling and date the neighbor's daughter...
In my own case, I improved my speed by doing warm-ups everytime before I'd play something musical.
And here the ultimate rule:
The slower you play any exercise, the faster you will be able to play in the future!!
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HERE YOU CAN FOLLOW THE FREE
"ORA ET LABORA" - GUITAR LESSONS
(by John Hoan)
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preamble to the lessons:
I will discuss here the technique for gypsy-guitar playing.
The most important difference in this picking style are:
1) To give sense to this change of hand-positioning and picking technique you must use one of those thick DUGAIN-style picks (mostly made of horn, bone, ebony, even stone).
Personally I use picks of coconut-shell. I craft them myself.
2) All the fingers of the right hand are curled inside, almost a fist, but still relaxed. The right hand is not parallel to the top but is curved and points toward the strings. The pick of course between index and thumb.
3) The point is that no part, no finger of the right hand touches the guitar. You don't have no anchor or pivot anymore on the bridge or the top of the guitar.
(mostly we touch the top with the pinky or ringfinger. Or the palm of the hand rests on the bridge. Thats over! Forget it! Forbidden!)
The only part that rests on the guitar is the inner part of the elbow. And there's also a slight position changing in general for the right arm. But you can only see that by exploring exactly the illustrations.
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