Tuesday Special Offerings « Django In June

Tuesday Special Offerings

Below you’ll find a selection of special workshops on the Tuesday (June 9) before Django Camp proper gets under way. You have carved out a chunk of precious time for Django in June. These Tuesday offerings are one more way to get the most of it.

Before reading on, please note a few things:

All of these workshops are are daylong, consisting of three 90-minute sessions meeting at 10, 1:30 and 4 o’clock.
We ask that you sign up for one daylong workshop rather than creating your own mix-and-match from different workshops. This is the only way we can manage the student/teacher ratio for each workshop.
These workshops are not included in the basic camp tuition. The additional cost for any workshop ranges from $110 to $125, so please double check the exact cost.
These workshops are completely optional, even for early arrivals. So if you would like to arrive early but skip them, you are welcome to do so.

Below you see an overview of the Special Offerings we have in store for 2026. Click on any workshop title to jump down the page for a class description.

Meet, Greet and Play All Day — Multiple Instructors (36 attending as of 3/1)

All instruments / All levels / Unlimited number of participants / $110

Improve Your Improv — Evan Arntzen (FULL – Waitlist Only)

All instruments / All Levels / Limited to 12 participants / $125

Tier 2 Core Repertoire Deep Dive! — Jack Soref (14 attending as of 3/1)

All instruments / Levels 2-4 / Limited to 20 participants / $110

Tiny Bit of Tiny — Joe K Walsh (One spot left as of 3/1!)

Mandolin / All Levels / Limited to 12 participants / $125

The Violin Style of Joe Venuti — Gabe Terracciano (FULL – Waitlist Only)

Violin / All Levels / Limited to 12 participants / $125

The Jazz Guitar Style of Eddie Lang — Matt Munisteri (FULL – Waitlist Only)

Guitar / Levels 2-4 / Limited to 15 participants / $125

Meet, Greet and Play All Day

Multiple Instructors
All Instruments / All Levels / $110

The feedback we receive every year tells us that nothing will make or break your experience of Django Camp more than this one thing: having a few tunes you can jam on, and finding “your people” to hang with. We offer Meet, Greet and Play All Day to make sure this piece is in place from the get-go. By the time orientation comes round Tuesday evening you’ll have refreshed your memory on some great jam tunes, warmed up your fingers and met (or re-connected with) your peeps. A smart start to Django Camp, indeed.

The day-long workshop will consist of three 90-minute facilitated jam sessions during which you’ll play through tunes we will have made available on the “Get Ready Musically” pages of this website. We’ll organize the groups into 3 levels of ability to insure that everyone moves at an appropriate pace and meets other compatible musicians. You determine your own level, and you are welcome to change levels at any point if you’d like. Here’s how the levels break down:

Level 1 groups will walk through the Tier 1 Core Repertoire tunes we’re recommending this year. You’ll play through them at slow to moderate tempos, with guidance from the facilitator as needed. The focus will be on the accompaniment and melody with less emphasis on improvised soloing.
Level 2 groups will focus on that same selection of tunes but we’ll assume that, in addition to a walk-through to get started, people who have chosen this level can already play them and want to actually jam, including soloing, at moderate tempos. If time allows, the facilitator may suggest another well-known tune from Jack’s Gypsy Jazz Standards booklets available on the Get Ready Musically page of this website.
Level 3 groups will not necessarily play at breakneck speeds but, generally speaking, at this level we’ll assume people want to jam at respectable performance tempos. You can also expect to play Core Repertoire from both Tiers 1 and 2.

Improve Your Improv

Evan Arntzen
All Instruments / Levels 2 – 4 / $125

Reedman Evan Arntzen can be seen performing regularly with NYC institutions such as the Catherine Russell band and Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. Join him for three special sessions designed to boost your improvising skill:

Session 1: How to play the melody. Exploring the foundation of all improvised jazz using the standard “All of Me” at two different tempos.

Session 2: In the shed (what do you practice?) For this 90-minute session we’ll explore (1) how to play with scales and arpeggios to improve facility and (2) how to transcribe from recordings.

Session 3: Django’s Tiger. Analysis of Django’s solo and improvising using a chordal roadmap.

Tier 2 Core Repertoire Deep Dive

Jack Soref
All Instruments / For Levels See Description / $110

Note from Andrew: The Tier 2 Repertoire we recommend every year is intended to help you move beyond the most common GJ standards, and to do so together, so you can call even these less-known tunes at a jam and hope to find a few takers. They are always drawn from the repertoire of our guest artists from Europe, so you can take inspiration from their performances. Now, here’s Jack…

Open to all instruments and levels (but recommended for intermediate musicians) – Each class period, we will dig into two tunes from this year’s Tier 2 Core Repertoire. With each tune we’ll cover three, big, important, topics…

The history of the tune: We will listen to excerpts of each tune, including first recordings, recordings that have made these tunes popular with Django style musicians, and recordings by the artists on staff who inspired the inclusion of these tunes in our Core Repertoire this year.

How to interpret the melody: We’ll explore idiomatically appropriate ways to interpret the melodies of these tunes—in some cases to make them easier to play, and in all cases to try to breathe life into them.

How to approach the underlying harmony of the tune: We will discuss different ways to approach the changes of each tune, both as a soloist, and as an accompanist.

And if we have time, we’ll jam on them as well. 🙂 Here’s what’s on tap:

Class 1 Bei Dir War es Immer so Schön & Irisha

Class 2 Time on My Hands & Black and White

Class 3 Topsy & Mit Mur Geige

Tiny Bit of Tiny

Joe K Walsh
Mandolin / All Levels / $125

Tiny Moore’s mandolin playing is amongst the most inspiring improvised mandolin ever recorded. His sense of swing and adventurous approach to melodic development is timeless, playful, inventive and fun. In our time together we will examine and break down three solos from Tiny’s playing. We will also break out some choice phrases and move them through all keys, expanding our “moveable ear training” bag of ideas. Throughout, we’ll analyze Tiny’s choices and see how we can incorporate a “tiny” bit of his genius into our own playing.

The Violin Style of Joe Venuti

Gabe Terracciano (with Matt Munisteri)

Violin / All Levels / $125

Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti were two of the most technically dazzling string playing improvisers of the 1920s and 1930s. Their partnership and the resulting recordings had influence around the world, including on a young Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. For this Tuesday session — taught in collaboration with Matt Munisteri’s on Eddie Lang — we’ll be exploring the playing and style of Joe Venuti and then joining forces with our guitar playing friends to recreate some famous Venuti and Lang duets!

Session 1: Joe Venuti’s History, Style, and Substance
Session 2: We’ll be focusing on “Doin’ Things”, a Venuti and Lang classic, and will learn the head and solo.
Session 3: Come Together! Joining forces with our guitar brethren and making those old recordings come alive!

The Guitar Style of Eddie Lang

Matt Munisteri (with Gabe Terracciano)
Guitar / Levels 2-4/ $125

Eddie Lang and Joe Venuti were two of the most technically dazzling string playing improvisers of the 1920s and 1930s. Their partnership and the resulting recordings had influence around the world, including on a young Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. For this Tuesday session, Matt will offer his insights into the rhythm and lead guitar style of Eddie Lang. Guitarists will then join forces with violinists who’ve been working with Gabe Terracciano on Joe Venuti’s violin style. Essential insights into the roots of string-based jazz on this side of the pond!