Chords for Gypsy Jazz Quick Tips - Episode 2: Noushe's bossa rhythm and consecutive down strokes!

_ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
Welcome to Gypsy Jazz quick tips, the show in which I give you one tip and answer one question.
I'm your host Christian van Heemert and in today's episode we're going to discuss
the secret to good sounding Bossa rhythm and I answer a question about consecutive downstrokes. _ _ _ _
Every Gypsy Jazz guitar player works very hard at developing a good sounding swing rhythm
and of course that's the most important thing.
But the hardest rhythm to actually make sound good is the Gypsy Bossa rhythm.
I am very fortunate to have worked for a long time with the best rhythm guitar player in
the business, Lucia Rosenberg and boy he has a killer Bossa rhythm.
And there's two things you have to know and the first thing is kind of obvious but it
still needs to be mentioned and that is that when you change chords in the middle of the
bar you have to change before beat 3 on the upbeat of beat 2.
_ So let's say we have a progression going from E minor to A minor and A minor it changes
to A minor on beat 3 you have to change [D#] on the 2 ends on the upstroke before.
So here is an example of me [Em] playing that progression _ looped.
[Am] _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ [A] _ _
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ Lucia always changes exactly on beat 1 of a new bar and this creates that calm smooth
rhythm we're going for.
But there's a slight problem because if you want to change exactly on beat 1 it means
that you have to move your hands during the upstroke before.
So this will create a break in the sound, this will make that upstroke sound short even
though it should sound long.
So how is it possible that Lucia can change on beat 1 but still play a long upstroke before
while moving his hands.
_ And here is the secret.
_ That upstroke before the chord change should be open strings.
_ So to demonstrate this I'm gonna play the same progression E minor to A minor but now
every chord lasts one bar and I'll first [A] do it slowly so you can clearly [G] see and hear
the open strings and then I'll do it faster and then you will notice that the sound of
the open strings kind of disappears.
All that's left is a smooth sound without any breaks in the sound.
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ [Am] _
_ [C] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ So there you go.
Great tip for gypsy bossa rhythm.
Now let's answer a question.
_ _ _ [Cm] _ [G] It seems Toklo gets [E] some of his speed from playing two notes per [C] string.
All downstrokes with a rest stroke [Bm] when changing to the next higher string.
Could you elaborate?
That is a great question [C#]
and I've gotten that question or a variation thereof many [G] times
in the past 5 years.
The [Em] question is very specific but it's [Bm] basically asking if there's any benefit _ [A#] to [Bm] playing the
[C#] consecutive downstrokes like Stoklo Rosenberg does.
[B] And you know, 5 [A] years ago I would have said yes, definitely.
That is THE way.
[B] I mean Stoklo is the best guitar player [E] I know, the fastest guitar player I know.
You wanna play that fast and [A] that clean?
Play [B] like him with all the downstrokes.
[E] _ [D#] But the first time I started doubting that notion was when I saw [E] a young [Bm] German guitar
player on YouTube called [D] Dicknu Schneeberger [D] play many of the same [Dm] phrases, many [B] of the
same licks, [A] but just [E] alternating on one [Cm] string and [Bm] down sweeping and still [F#] starting with
a downstroke on a new string.
So there were still [B] some consecutive downstrokes but not as many as Stoklo who plays like 80% downstrokes.
_ [Bm] And he was very effective with that [F#] technique.
_ And then I discovered that there are [F#] actually only 2 guitar players that [Em] play those crazy
amounts of downstrokes.
[E] And those guitar players are Stoklo [Am] Rosenberg and his brother Moses.
_ And then I [C#] switched.
I started playing like Dicknu [G] or like many other guitar players, alternating on one string,
down sweeping, still starting each string with a [F#] downstroke.
And I [G] noticed that [C] everything became a [B] lot easier.
So [B] I would say to that [Cm] question, [Bm] just do what's comfortable [C] for you.
What's more [F#] important for the sound _
[B] and playing clean is that you use the right amount [D] of rest strokes.
[Em] Now if you want to know more [B] about rest [Bm] strokes and [Gm] picking technique, I [D] made a very long
video about this, [F#] going into _ [B] every detail possible, [G] imaginable.
[E] And if you want to see that video, go to [F] this link.
I explain all.
That concludes [C] this episode.
If you have a question you [Gm] would like me to answer in this show, please ask your question
either [Am] on Twitter, [D] on Facebook or [Em] on YouTube.
And [F#] if you like these [G] videos, please subscribe to my [C#] YouTube channel.
And I hope I see [C] you all next time.
_ _ [Gm] _ _ [F#m] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _