The secret of this music is not that much the left hand, it’s more the right hand. The pick is very important, too. You have to have those thick picks to have the round sound. When I play that music, my wrist automatically inclines, like a broken wrist. But if I play on an electric guitar, my wrist lays right on the bridge. Because if I do it while playing the Gypsy music, I don’t have enough strength when I play with my wrist on the bridge. It has to be floating, sort of. And this is where the sound comes from. [He plays the same lick with the wrist floating and then resting on the bridge.] With the wrist on the bridge, it doesn’t sound as powerful. It’s a little different approach.
I play with the rounded side. It’s a much warmer sound. It shouts less.
- Bireli Lagrene
(Bireli playing like Django , at age 12! -Ed )
Birelli is one of my favorite players. I got to see him a few years back and he did this trick where he walked a bass line on the low E string by tuning it perfectly up and down in time with the band. He is so good it's sick!
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Yeah chops AND imagination ! I got the DVDs but have not yet to catch Bireli live seeing how I live pretty much out in the woop woop that is Australia, altough I did catch Django's great grand nephew Lulo play at the Brisbane Jazz Club and got him to sign my guitar thanks to the wonderful organizers of Ozmanouche Ewan McKenzie
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