Join us for the online party at Cafe Rosenberg in Reykjavik, Iceland Saturday night, June 19, 6PM East Coast time (2010). We’ve got a great show planned with some awesome local guests and cool surprises.

These online shows always turn into a cool party. So sign up for a www.ustream.tv account to hang out on the chat during the show. I’ll send you the rest of the details tomorrow.

See you tomorrow night!

PS – Leave us a comment below – cheers!

Last Saturday night was a special night as my “other” brother Brendan joined the Robin Nolan Trio to lend an extra hand (literally) to our show.

I was playing a concert at the Stamford Guitar Festival with my brother Kevin on rhythm guitar and Brendan happened to be in the neighborhood.

To put you in the picture Brendan is by NO means a GUITARIST but we hatched the plan over breakfast in the hotel and thought it might be fun…………it was!

Kevin fretted the chords with his left hand while I played all the noodly stuff up top of the guitar and Brendan strummed the rhythm with his right hand – Perfect!

The audience went wild and we all had a lot of fun!

Thanks to Nigel Betteridge for sending me this great photograph.

Some of my favorite guitarists ever are Jazz fusion players like John Scofield and Mike Stern and the lick I show you here is inspired by their way of playing. It’s my own lick but reeks of Jazz fusion.

I think it’s healthy to bring licks and ideas from other genres into Gypsy Jazz and this is an example of just that.

You can use this over a minor tonality and it will sound great. It’s very guitaristic and involves some hammer ons and pull offs but you can see clearly what’s going on when I play it real slow note by note. I also talk about the tension created when playing a major 3rd (in this case a B natural) over a minor chord. This is something I do a lot and it can kind of sounds awful but if you pull the right face and it rocks!

Check it out and let me know what you think!

We had a great time celebrating Django Reinhardt’s 100th birthday in Denmark Saturday night. Lot’s of great musicians, cool people, and amazing hospitality.

What was really cool was having 297 friends from all over the world tune in to watch the show live on the internet. It’s been a while since we’ve done something like this and we weren’t sure how it would go, but things turned out perfectly. We loved reading the online chat that was going on during the show. You guys were having your own private party there. Some funny stuff.

So did you dig the show? If you were there online, leave a comment and let me know what the experience was like watching from home. Should we do this again sometime? For those who couldn’t catch the show live, we’re putting it up here now. Enjoy!

It’s Django Reinhardt’s birthday tomorrow (Saturday) as he was born 100 years ago to the day and we are going to celebrate in style up in Assens Denmark, where they have a Django festival to commemorate the occasion.

I’ll be playing there with my trio and the good news is that my brother Kevin is in town so it’s going to be a rock solid gig. Gustav Lundgren is representing Sweden and this guy can really play!

I’ve been playing in Denmark a fair bit over the past years and they have a really great Gypsy Jazz scene with a really great bunch of guys who just love to jam and have fun.

That’s what this festival is all about. But the really cool thing is that you don’t have to be anywhere near Denmark or even Europe to join in – We are going to stream the concert live out on the internet so you can have a taste of the action from wherever you may be.

The last time we did this was for my 40th birthday party in Amsterdam and there really were a lot of people all over the world tuning in and digging the music and fun that night.

We’re scheduled to go on about 10:00PM Denmark time (4:00PM New York time).

So to catch the show live and be able to chat with everyone online, you’ll want to set up your free account on
 www.Ustream.tv ahead of time.

Set that up right now. And then tomorrow I’ll email you the link you’ll need to see the show.

See you at the gig!

Hi Fellow Musicians, Guitarists, and Django Lovers

I would like to convey in this New Years message firstly my thanks to all of you out there who have made this global community of ours such a wonderful one in sharing our love and appreciation of Gypsy Jazz and our hero Django Reinhardt.

The love of Gypsy Jazz has come a long way over the past few years and I especially feel a part of this now I have my own Blog where I can share my experience with others and I feel closer to the community than ever before.  I appreciate all the comments and words of encouragement which literally drive me to create new material which is always a challenge but ultimately rewarding.

To know that musicians are benefiting from my efforts helping them to get out there and live the dream of playing music is deeply motivating.

2009 was a big year for me in many ways but most importantly for me because of the birth of my son Salvador. Also the creation of this blog which I feel is growing into something very special.

I want to encourage us all to really go for it in 2010 and improve ourselves as musicians share the love and realize our dreams.  I know from experience that it takes a lot of effort but if you can play a little every day and master new tricks, licks, songs, rhythms etc. then we will all make the world a better place through our music.

As we all know 2010 is the 100th birthday of the man himself, Django Reinhardt, and I for one am really relishing the opportunity to get out there to the festivals meet new players and kick some ass!!! We owe it to Django!!

I have several new and exciting projects in the pipeline and I look forward to getting them out to the world and moving on with sharing the knowledge and experience I have amassed over the years.  My motto is to always be honest and give what I can give without pretending or hiding behind complicated technical jargon – I want to give it up straight from the heart.  It´s the only way for me.

I wish you all a fantastic 2010 – Happy New Year!!!!!

Cheers, Robin

In this video I demonstrate the classic Jazz device of ending a song with a turnaround. In this instance I use the Django tune ‘Djangology’ to show you how it works.

Quite simply after you play the last II-V (Am7 -D7), instead of resolving to the home key of G, you move up 2 frets and play Bm7-E7 then back to Am7-D7 continuing this for as long as you want. This is the ‘turnaround’ and gives the soloist a platform on which to get things really going. I also demonstrate it in C and it’s good to practice in all keys so as to give you the option of using this device in any song.

Sound good? Let me know how it goes and leave a comment below. Cheers.

Here’s a different way of playing the changes to Django’s classic ‘Minor Swing’ using mostly open chords down the bottom of the neck. It sounds slightly more traditional Gypsy.

In the clip I show you these chords and play a couple of chorus’s of Minor Swing changes so you get the idea. It’s just an alternate way to accompany a soloist without playing the usual ‘Pompe’ rhythm and mixes it up a little.

Let me know what that works out for you by posting a comment below. Cheers.

In this lesson I’ll demonstrate how one chord shape acts as three different types of chord making it one REALLY useful shape to know.

I show you how what we might first think of as a minor 7-5 (1/2 diminished) type chord can, in the Gypsy Jazz style, also act as a dominant 7th and a Minor 6th. Therefore by learning this one shape you have learnt three chord types.

All the Gypsy Jazz players use these shapes and this one tip will get you a long way quickly!

John Jorgenson showed me this lick in L.A. a few years back and sometimes I can’t stop using it!

It’s a real country lick and works over any major type chord. The example I’ve shown you in this clip is in the good old country key of G but I also play it in A so you get the gist of how to apply it to different tonalities.

There’s a big bend of a whole tone up on the B string while fretting with your pinky a note on the top E string with a release of the bend and moving the pinky down to another note at the same time. It gives the effect of a pedal steel guitar.

I play it really slowly and up close to the camera so you can see what’s going on. It’s not a Gypsy Jazz lick or even a Jazz lick but what the heck it’s a country lick and turns heads every time!

Leave me a comment or question at the bottom of this page. Cheers.