DJANGO-STYLE GUITAR

Manouche-technique

I use the term 'manouche' to describe this special playing style. Because if I'd say 'gypsy', it would include the spanish gypsies (called gitans). But they play flamenco, and this technique is very different. What's typical for all gypsy-guitarists (gitans, manouche, sinti), is a hard and well defined precise attack. And the fact, that guitarists play always seated.

The strings we use on these guitars are always "ARGENTINE" by Savarez. (gauge 011 to 046).

Whereby the high strings E and B are plain steel, while the four lower strings are silver-roundwound with a nylon core.

 

It's the technique of the right hand
(here I'm talking about lead and melody playing!)

It's certainly the right hand technique that makes the guitar sound different. With it goes the use of a stiff and thick plectrum. They are mostly made of horn, bone, ebony or 'delrain' (see article about Dugain picks).
Gypsy players have a loud and hard attack. This is achieved by a free moving hand (same as when you strumming rhythm). Because the right hand fingers don't rest on the top or the bridge of the guitar, the force and the swing of the attack of each note comes out of the entire forearm. The fist acts as an extra-whip and so the whole movement is a loose and free picking of the string!
In the beginning it will be difficult to land always on the right string, because there's no more pivot point on the guitar with the hand. This IS very important, because it's the only way to get a real hard and loud attack. (Also for one string rolls and other gimmicks).
As I said, we're talking here about lead/melody playing. But for rhythm/chords playing, the technique and hand position is the same. That is very useful to switch between lead and chords at any time.

Listen to Django, even on slow and quiet ballads you can almost physically feel the strenght and clearly defined force in every single note he plays!