This bass must surely take the prize for having the most names, some accurate, some not — some just plain silly: bass, bass viol, contrabass, string bass, double bass, bass violin, upright bass, bass fiddle, and my personal least favorite, bull fiddle — ignoring entirely the electric bass and its several variations. And of all those, it seems that bass violin may be the least accurate of these names, for the bass is not a member of the violin family at all, but rather, the last remaining member of the viol family in the conventional orchestra. The violin, viola and cello all have a very important characteristic in common. They are tuned in fifths. The bass is tuned in fourths like its viol family forebears. Its most common shape has sloped, rather than rounded, shoulders, gamba-style corners and often a flat back – all common characteristics of the viols rather than the violins.
What does all of this have to do with gypsy jazz? Second only to the fiddle, its probably the most important instrument in your band.

Starting tunes and ending tunes is the area where I think I am the weakest because I haven’t been playing with other people enough. Since I think that the start and end are the most important part of a song, I figure that I better get busy.
Here is my mission. I am hoping to find someone who wants to jam on a regular basis. If you are reading this and you live in the Portland area, and if you can’t spare any time yourself to jam, can you keep your eyes out for any other lost sheep that are also looking for someone to jam with? It would really help me to find someone who plays guitar or contra bass that has lots of free time to jam. Of course, I have hopes to start a band myself at some point, but for now I really just want to spend time experimenting and working on starting songs and ending songs.

Happy birthday to one of the all time great jazz violinists, Stephane Grappelli, born January 26, 1908 in Paris, France, whose longevity, enthuiastic playing and position as a founding member of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France, helped establish the violin as a jazz instruments.

This is something I just noticed, don’t ask me how I managed to stumble across this one. I would love to hear comments on my observation. The circle of fifths and astrological star charts seem to have major similarities.
In astrology, a person who has 4 planets arranged on their star chart in a square is said to own an astrological aspect called a “grand square”. There are only 3 different grand squares. It is interpreted by astrologers as meaning that a person has “musical tension”.
If you draw a grand square within a circle of fifths, it creates a diminished chord. In any given key, this same diminished chord works in 4 different inversions. Therefore, as we already know, there are truly only 3 distinct diminished chords. Django used the flat 9th to create musical tension.

Interesting eh?

Today would be the 93rd birthday of Django reinhardt, who was born in 1910. For a more detailed description of who Django was, read the complete liner notes from the 10 CD EMI France Djangology set.

In the Yahoo jazztheory discussion group I ran across this table that represents the circle of fifths. I may use this table to memorize the circle. It is a really fantastic find though. I am glad I ran across this.

I found this neat link that gives a lesson on arpeggios and talks a little bit about the song Night And Day. This lesson proves once again that Django speaks.

I found this site with some in depth information about symmetric scale theory. I really like how these guys develop their ideas. Everyone describes things differently, and these are my favorite explanations so far:
Symetric Scale Primer
or
All Things Diminished

If you really want to know the gypsy scale theory, you should buy the Romane lesson book. Especially with the use of harmonic minor scales.
Phil Nichols, from Sheffield, UK, asked the gypsyjazzguitar group for ideas on using the harmonic minor scales. I replied to him with two of my own ideas on the use of the harmonic scale (which ARE NOT necessarily correct since i am also just learning):
1. The harmonic minor scale + 9th (gypsy) note contains the diminished chord (G7b9). So, the dimished chord is basically a M7b9. You’ll notice that the b9 in that chord is merely just the next half note up from the key your playing in. That is interesting because of point #2 below.
2. There are really only 3 different diminished scales (runs) and each one has 2 different modes. The WH (whole step half step) mode outlines a fully diminished seventh chord and can therefore be used over diminished chords. The HW (half step whole step) mode, which which works well over dominant seventh b9b5 chords. In the key of C#, the HW mode is the same as the C, Eb, F#, and A HW mode. In this case, the A7b9b5 chord can be substituted for the C#dim chord.
In reply to all of this, another member of the gypsyjazzguitar group, Michael Valentiner responds with his own reply
“If you harmonize the scale, for the ii, V, and i you’ll find iim7b5, V7b9, and imM7. These can be used in any tune in a minor key (e.g., Minor Swing, Autumn Leaves).
The iim7b5 and V7b9 can also be substituted when resolving to a minor chord. For example, in a iii-VI-ii-V-I progression (e.g., Rhythm Changes), harmonic minor harmony can be applied to the iii-VI-ii by treating the ii as a temporary tonic (a temporary new key): the iii becomes m7b5 and the V becomes V7b9.
The V7b9 chord is a very interesting chord. It’s a 5 note chord and the upper 4 notes form a diminished 7th. Over that you can play any inversion of that dim7, dim7 arpeggios, Django-style sweep picked dim 7 arpeggios, dim7 scale, or the original harmonic minor from which it came.
The major equivalent is the major scale: iim7, V7, IMaj7 are the naturally occurring harmonizations. Many alterations can be applied to the V7 and the iim7. One alteration is to treat the V7 as a V7b9 as in the minor ii-V-i described above except this time you’re resolving to major I. You can also augment the 5th, sharpen the 9th, add extensions (11ths, 13ths), and on and on. The only “rule” (IMO) is to keep the 3rd and the 7th unaltered, since they define the
function of the chord. If you alter the 3rd or the 7th, its not a V7 chord anymore.
I don’t hear much melodic minor in older swing. It’s a device used in mainstream jazz though since the beboppers. Over V7, you can play out of the melodic minor that starts a 4th above (or 5th below). This gives a b6 alteration. You can play out of the melodic minor that starts a 5th above (or 4th below). This gives a #4 alteration. Or you can play out of a melodic minor that starts a 1/2 step above the root (Eb melodic minor over a D7). This gives you all the
altered notes.”