Back to Schedule Overview .
Jump to: Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
J’attendrai / I can’t give you anything but love : Reviewing La Pompe/Medium Swing
Review of “la pompe” and different ways of playing of swing rhythms. How to use the metronome. Chord variations, creation of intro and ending.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
Minor Swing : Chordination with Whit Smith
Chord shapes, inversions, and cadences in motion, designed to bring your rhythm playing to life.
Will Dickerson — Chase 102
“Minor Swing” – Intro to La Pompe
We’ll cover the fundamentals of la pompe, with variations on chords for extra chonk, different feels for different settings, and how to support the band without annoying the bass player.
Denis Chang— Chase Parlor
Rhythm Guitar
I’ll show you everything I know about swing rhythm guitar in the Gypsy Jazz style and how it relates to how American guitarists were playing it in the 1930s
Adrian Holovaty — Chase Dining Room
Overview of La Pompe – I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
There are many ways to play this rhythm, and I’ll show you variations in detail, so you can find your preferred style. We’ll use “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” as the tune.
See also Dave Kelbie’s rhythm guitar classes HERE. — Gillett 101
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Blues en mineur : Improvising Over a Minor Blues
Analysis of chord changes; I–IV–V progression in a minor key… work on use of the minor pentatonic scale / addition of the flat 5th “blue note”; the 3 minor scales , arpeggios, chromaticism, and rhythmic placement.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
Minor Swing : Take Off Guitar with Whit Smith
Drills, exercises, and creative strategies for soloing over changes and developing your own voice.
Will Dickerson — Chase 102
“Minor Swing” – Easy Licks to Get Jamming
We’ll use simple arpeggio-based ideas, accessible licks, and light chord soloing concepts to start building confident solos over Minor Swing.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
Studying Djangology
We’ll focus on Djangology and we’ll look at where this chord progression actually came from and how it is found in other songs.
Ken Allday — Chase Dining Room
Groovin high / Whispering –
We will look at some of my favorite lines to play over this tune and pick apart the melodies of these songs to mine our own ideas.
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Dark eyes, Manoir de mes rêves : La Pompe at fast/slow Tempos
Review medium tempos, and work on swing rhythm on fast tempos; as well as swing rhythm on ballads; how to use the metronome, arrange the tunes, articulate the chords for fast vs slow tempos, and chord variations.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
I Can’t Give You Anything but Love : Chordination with Whit Smith
Chord shapes, inversions, and cadences in motion, designed to bring your rhythm playing to life.
Will Dickerson — Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“All of Me” – La Pompe and Circumstance
We’ll look at how to approach All of Me in different settings, from a big-band-inspired feel to faster tempos.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
Miscellaneous Rhythms
Misc. rhythms used in Gypsy Jazz (Bossa, Bolero, Rumba, etc.)
Ken Allday — Chase Dining Room
All of me –
We will go over standard Django chord changes and learn some new ways to explore the harmony of the song.
See also Dave Kelbie’s rhythm guitar classes HERE. — Gillett 101
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Manoir de mes rêves : Improvising Over Major Key Tunes
Analysis of the tune; work on our available tools for soloing; the major scale, playing the melody, and playing around the melody, adding embellishments, rhythmic variations, arpeggios, and licks.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
I Can’t Give You Anything but Love : Take Off Guitar with Whit Smith
Drills, exercises, and creative strategies for soloing over changes and developing your own voice.
Will Dickerson — Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“All of Me” – Two-Five-Fo-Fum
We’ll work on ii-V-I language, navigating the changes with open and closed triads, licks over the last 8 bars, and ways to mix the melody into your solo.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love
How to deconstruct this tune and apply the same concepts to other songs such as Coquette, Honeysuckle Rose, All Of Me, etc.
Adrian Holovaty — Chase Dining Room
Analyzing Django’s 1949 solo on Djangology
We’ll analyze Django’s 1949 solo on “Djangology,” paying attention to the fretboard shapes he (probably?) used, plus his phrasing patterns and note choices. Instead of simply regurgitating Django’s exact solo, we’ll try to extract lessons that you can apply in other songs and situations.
Christine Tassan— Chase Living Room
Montagne Ste-Geneviève / Double jeu : Exploring the Waltz
Introduction to the Waltz: Learn several methods for accompanying a waltz: traditional bass-chord-chord, Jazz, 6/8 time, learn about waltz forms, and variations on common chord progressions
Whit Smith – Chase Study
Djangology : Chordination with Whit Smith
Chord shapes, inversions, and cadences in motion, designed to bring your rhythm playing to life.
Will Dickerson — Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” – La Pompe Up the Jams
We’ll arrange the tune with intro ideas, breaks, tags, and tasteful rhythmic embellishments, while also talking about when to keep things simple at a jam session.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
Tempo Awareness
In this class, we’ll focus on tempo awareness and how to practice it using my brutal but honest metronome exercise.
Adrian Holovaty — Chase Dining Room
Common Chord Voicings – Honeysuckle Rose
Overview of common chord voicings, with a few variations for each “color” of chord. We’ll use “Honeysuckle Rose” as the tune.
See also Dave Kelbie’s rhythm guitar classes HERE. — Gillett 101
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Daphné : Improvising over “Rhythm Changes”
Learning to play the theme in octaves, analysis of the chord changes and how to simplify them. Learn to improvise through the progression, exploring different colors that work over the chords; diatonic, diminished, altered, bluesy etc.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
Djangology : Take Off Guitar with Whit Smith
Drills, exercises, and creative strategies for soloing over changes and developing your own voice.
Will Dickerson — Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love” – Melody, Licks, and Comping Ideas
We’ll cover comping for another soloist, tasty ii-V-I and ending licks, ideas over the last 8 bars, and ways to weave the melody into your solo.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
All of Me
This tune has a lot of common chord progressions found in various songs. We’ll look at the standard things we can do, and some of the more creative ideas that come out of it.
Ken Allday — Chase Dining Room
Irisha –
In this class we will take a look at how Tcha improvises on guitar and violin over these changes.
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Bossa dorado, Troublant boléro, Caravan : Exploring Other Rhythms in 4/4
Demonstrating the bossa, bolero, and rumba rhythms, learning variations, and common chord progressions, working on metronome use, chord variations, creation of intros and endings.
Whit Smith — Chase Study
J’Attendrai : Chordination with Whit Smith
Chord shapes, inversions, and cadences in motion, designed to bring your rhythm playing to life.
Will Dickerson — Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“Troublant Bolero” – Rhythm, Color, and Arrangement
We’ll explore right-hand variations, beautiful chord embellishments, and intro/outro arranging ideas that work especially well in an ensemble setting.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
Getting Deeper Into Harmony
This is a bit more advanced, but for those who want to go very deep into harmony, we’ll talk about how to reach the next level rather than play chord grips.
Ken Allday — Chase Dining Room
Tea for two –
This class will dive into the harmony and rhythm of ‘Tea for two’ as well as explore how wes montgomery plays the rhythm and comping.
See also Dave Kelbie’s rhythm guitar classes HERE. — Gillett 101
Christine Tassan — Chase Living Room
Tips and tricks used in Gypsy Jazz
Study of some of the effects and tricks that Django uses in his solos and that you can apply right away in your own solos (octaves, vibrato, bends, chromatic lines, open string effects, ghost notes etc…)
Whit Smith — Chase Study
J’Attendrai : Take Off Guitar with Whit Smith
Drills, exercises, and creative strategies for soloing over changes and developing your own voice.
Will Dickerson —Chase Room C (Lower Level, near Dining Room)
“Minor Blues / Blues en Mineur” – Picking Through the Triplets
We’ll break down the tricky triplet phrase over Cmin6, with a close look at picking and fingering, then explore arrangement ideas, implied harmony, secondary dominants, and comping concepts.
Denis Chang — Chase Parlor
Getting Deeper Into Harmony
A repeat of the morning class but looking at it from the perspecective of a lead player. Basically, in any given song , on any given note, it should be possible to harmonize every single note. I will show you how this is done.
Adrian Holovaty — Chase Dining Room
Motifs in lead playing – Minor Swing
Django employed motifs all the time, and it’s a surefire way to sound more musical. We’ll cover several approaches to creating a motif. We’ll use “Minor Swing” as the tune.