Download the 5-page Jazz violin solo transcription on Django Reinhardt’s “Minor Swing”, complete with bowings, for free, by leaving your email below.
For more, get the “Super Transcription” (pay what you want). Either way, the minor swing PDF will be in your inbox in minutes. Find related backing tracks, minor swing backing track play-alongs, and the original performance below.
You can also listen to the original performance and play along to tutorial videos.
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Understand the theory and apply it to your own solos!
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Jazz Manouche or “Hot Club Jazz”, was developed in Paris during the 1930s by the Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt and French-Italian violinist Stéphane Grappelli. Their group “Quintette du Hot Club de France” was unusual in that it had no brass lead instruments nor drums, unlike most jazz groups of the 1930s. This was compensated by the guitar’s highly rhythmic playing style called “la pompe” (“the pump”). Their composition “minor swing” (“Mineur Swing”), recorded in 1937, is regarded as one of the pivotal recordings of Hot Club Jazz as well as (early)Violin Jazz. It is characterized by simple chord changes and a repetitive structure giving Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli the opportunity to showcase virtuosity through their solos.
Playing Jazz violin solo transcriptions is an excellent strategy for musicians who are already good readers, because it makes it easy to develop Jazz melodic language. But it’s just one part of an overall strategy.
While the transcription in the minor swing violin sheet music above is difficult to play, studying it is a great way to improve your overall technique, hearing skills and knowledge of scales, arpeggios, bowing techniques and other elements essential in jazz and other styles.
You can also play your own ideas against the minor swing backing track below in the Youtube playlist.
Learn to play over the chords of Django Reinhardt’s “Minor Swing” in my free Youtube Play Along series below:
