In this lesson I show you some great and simple ways of making regular chords sound Spanish, giving Gypsy Jazz a Flamenco flavor.

If you just raise your pinky a fret on a regular bar chord then you instantly give a flavor of Spain. Try it on Dorado Schmidt’s “Bossa Dorado” and Stochelo Rosenberg’s “For Sephora” where instead of the regular A7 & B7 you play A or B Spanish.

I also look at “Dark Eyes” and show how placing the diminished chord over the A7 can create a dramatic Flamenco effect.
There is a wealth of fantastic music in Flamenco & by using just a dash here and there can give Gypsy Jazz a broader and deeper sound.

In general when learning gypsy jazz guitar keep your ears open for other styles of music which you can incorporate.
Have fun – and Please leave a comment! Cheers, Robin

When I was in Sydney Australia this week I had the fantastic opportunity to go flying with my buddy Ian Cooper (amazing musician) who took me up in the skies above that beautiful city.

Couldn’t help thinking of Django’s ‘Nuages’ as we climbed into the heavens and that in turn brought to mind a simple yet awesome move over that tune that Ian Date (guitarist extraordinaire) had been talking about earlier that day.

When you land on the home key of G major at the end of the sequence instead of playing the Am7 – Bbdim – G/B sequence just bounce of the Cm6 chord and back to the G. Ian Date explains this concept with chords and soloing ideas.

Ian has a wealth of killer diller tricks and a great insight into Jazz which can help us all keep the Jazz in Gypsy Jazz!

Here’s a couple more tunes from our set at DjangoFest NW. Enjoy, and please post a comment below! Cheers.

Djangofest Northwest celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year and also the 100th of Django Reinhardt making it THE place to be for Gypsy Jazz in North America in 2010.

My trio was fresh with Chris Sartisohn on rhythm and Michael Papillo (Papy) on bass and we played a set on the sunday afternoon to a warm receptive Djangofest crowd, and also streamed the show out live onto the internet which was great.

We all three really dig AC/DC so couldn’t resist opening with “For Those About To Rock”, which lead into “For Sephora”, followed by “Lulu Swing” to keep things light and crispy.

This clip here is from the video we streamed live to the internet.

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