introduction/Question about Gipsy jazz comping techinique

[MrIbanez]

Hey everybody nice to meet you all!

ill take this chance to shortly introduce myself,

My name is Sami Arefin, and i am currently doing a jazz studies major at Goucher College. I have been playing for about 2 years, but only recently got into the jazz world.
A style that interests me is Gipsy jazz, i cant get enough of it. the only part that is bugging me is the comping technique! im not sure if i am on the right track or not. I was wondering if the Gipsy jazz experts here could look at this video and see if i am on the right track with my technique?
Thanks so much
i know its not anywhere near perfect, i just need to know if im going the right way haha. and im not a left, for some weird reason photo booth likes to flip the video
Sami Arefin

YouTube Video

[juuso1]

Hi Sami,
Thanks for sharing your YouTubeplaying...

I am perhaps not a right man to teach you, but anyhow I write my opinion. I have also just started to play some gipsy music with ohters and found also difficult to learn right "compingsounds". In my opinion you stroke too heavily on first and third. There you can take only one or two notes for bass and then stroke second and forth over all cordnotes you use, but it dosn´t need to bee all six strings. Look at You Tube some examples of the songs we have tried to learn. Write "hop hop hop" and (relatives to that and next) there you find musics from then movie Gipsies`camp moves to heaven or put "Rambi rambi" so there is other kind tones and comping. The latter is not usul 4/4 bars but think it is 9/8. Listen those and try to follow rythm and speed, I am sure you got the main point that comping isn´t so heavy, I mean it shold flou easy...
Juuso1

[FatJeff]

One thing I noticed right away: try to learn some inversions for your chords. You are playing everything in the root position. That way you won't have to jump all over the neck to get to the next chord in the progression. Even learning the second inversion (based off the fifth) for your m7, Maj7, and dom7 chords would really open things up for you.

I don't have much knowledge of Gypsy jazz, so I can't comment specifically on that aspect of your playing.

[MrIbanez]

Thank you juuso and jeff for the hasty responses!

@juuso
Yes! i see what you mean now! i think i was stroking too heavily because i was trying to recreate the volume and attack of the Gitane with my semi-hallow guitar
@jeff
Surprisingly i actually know my M7 m7 d7, etc chords starting on the 6th 5th and 4th strings, i just tried to use my usual voicings for this style and it didnt really work, so i looked at this vid and i use those voicing to try to work on the right hand
YouTube - Gipsy jazz rhythm & chords. Minor Swing (this is the video)

Thanks again for the help you two! any other opinions would really be appreciated as well!

[vsaumarez]

Very solid, strong pulse. You are going to make a good player. You have the gypsy left hand release down. Use the up stroke sparingly. It is great for anticipating the end of A or B sections, or turnarounds to help the soloist. If you like the gypsy style, also listen to other jazz player's who play four in the bar. The difference is well worth studying. There are some good Youtube videos of John Pizzarelli strumming. He is an absolute master of it. He plays with a much lighter feel, so although quieter, he gets a much better separation of sound that the gypsy players, whose strings tend to rattle and lose sonority. Notice his relaxed wrist on up tempo numbers. He can remain completely calm on frighteningly fast tempos. Same for good gypsy rhythm players, but their even approach as oppose to boom-chick, tends to sound a little stilted at warp speed ...IMHO.

[MrIbanez]

Whoa thanks so much for the kind words!

so the upstroke part is actually confusing me.. do you mean the "pompe?" in this video, it seems like they are using it on most every beat: YouTube - Minor Swing
but i am untrained in this style so i wouldnt know...

also is it right to stay i should strike the bass strings more on beat 1+3 and all the strings on 2+4(for a swing)

Thanks so much!

[kulte]

Hi,
I could not watch the video as youtube is blocked here.

Anyway, look on youtube for Denis Chang. He has a video out which covers entirely giypsy jazz comping.

all the best,
D.

[kulte]

here's the link I was talking about:

YouTube - denis chang accompaniement

cheers,
D.