Electric Guitar: Finger Exercises Inspired by Django Reinhardt

Django Reinhardt was one of the greatest jazz guitarists who ever lived. He possessed incredible technique, even though he only had the use of two fingers on his fretting hand (index and middle) after being seriously injured in a fire at the age of 18. But despite his injury, Django could play better with two fingers than I have ever played in my life using all four (or more, if you include finger tapping).

Django Reinhardt was born into a gypsy caravan in Belgium, and one of his favorite scales was the Gypsy guitar scale, or the Hungarian Gypsy minor scale, as it's also known, which is listed here in the key of G:

Low E string: {-3-5-6-} A string: {-4-5-6-} D string: {-4-5-} G string: {-2-3-} B string: {-2-3-4-} high E string: {-2-3-5-}

Although the intervals in the scale are somewhat strange (notice the three semitones in a row for example), it is surprisingly easy to play, falling naturally under the fingers. Django regularly incorporated the Gypsy scale into his improvisations, combining it with other scales and arpeggios in fantastically musical ways.

Concerning exercises, in this article we're going to use only two fingers of our fretting hand to perform shifts around the fret board as Django was forced to do in his improvisations. This exercise will help your hand/eye coordination and improve your accuracy when doing fast shifts around the neck:

Low E string: {-4-5-} A string: {-7-8-} D string: {-4-5-} G string: {-7-8-} B string: {-4-5-} high E string: {-7-8-}

First, use only your middle and ring fingers to play the half step intervals, shifting forward and backward as necessary. Then switch to using your middle and ring fingers. Finally, use your ring and pinky to work up the pseudo scale, then back down again.

Another simple chromatic based exercise involving only two fingers is the following, which uses a descending half step motion.

High E string: |-14-15-14-13-14-13-12-13-12-11-12-11--| stay on high E string: |-10-11-10-9-10-9-8-9-8-7-8-7--|

Continue the pattern down the neck as far as you like, picking every note. Use different fingers each time, index and middle; middle and ring; ring and pinky. Also play it on different strings. This exercise is another that could be used in a descending fashion for live improvisations when changing from one position of the neck to another.

To sum up, Django Reinhardt is an icon among jazz guitarists, and recordings of his performances prove his incredible level of virtuosity, so be sure to check them out. There are a also few videos of him on youtube.com if you would like to have a look.

Source:

"Exotic Scales for Flair and Panache," How to Become a Guitar Player from Hell, Jason Earls, Pleroma Publications, 2007.