Michael Horowitz: Gypsy Picking

Play faster, louder, and with better tone by learning the rest-stroke picking technique used by Django Reinhardt, Stochelo Rosenberg, Bireli Lagrene, and Fapy Lafertin.

In this 72-page book and CD you will learn:

• Proper body and hand positions
• The Rest-stroke picking technique
• Fifteen picking patterns
• Thirty of the most commonly used phrases
• A minor blues solo packed with Django's favorite ideas
• History of Django Reinhardt and other Gypsy guitarists

This book will be beneficial for guitarists at any skill level. The basic techniques and picking patterns explained in this book will help beginning students develop a solid foundation on which to build their technique. More advanced students, of whom many have never been exposed to Gypsy technique, will find the picking techniques and Gypsy musical phrases in this book a welcome addition to their improvisational vocabulary. Additionally, the basic picking technique described in this book can be applied to many styles of plectrum guitar playing other than Gypsy jazz. Rock, bebop, bluegrass, and blues guitarists can all improve their technique and musical vocabulary through the material in this book.

One of the unique features of this book is the meticulous attention given to right-hand pick strokes and left hand fingerings. The picking patterns and fingerings notated in this book are based on research among Gypsy musicians and the study of video footage of Django Reinhardt. This book is unlike many other Gypsy jazz guitar instructional books in which the fingering and picking suggestions are unidiomatic to the Gypsy jazz genre or, at worst, merely an afterthought full of errors. To spare you this frustration, the examples in this book demonstrate proven ways of executing Gypsy musical phrases.