On the gyspyjazzguitar group Michael Valentiner posted this excellent suggestion for beginners who are trying to solo to Bossa Dorado.
The Em7b5 in Bossa Dorado functions as the ii chord a minor ii-V-i progression. The iim7b5 and V7 (really a V7b9) are naturally occurring chords in harmonic minor harmony, so for these chords you should play out of the harmonic minor scale of the i chord. For example, for Em7b5 – A7b9 – Dm play out of D harmonic minor.
For Bossa Dorado, you can use two harmonic minor scales for the A part:

Dm / / / | / / / / |E7b9/ / / | / / / / |
D harm. minor —- A harm. minor —–
Em7b5/ / / |A7b9/ / / | Dm / / / | / / / / |
D harm. minor —————————–

You can treat the the B part in a similar fashion. To “smooth out” your solo, here’s a “trick”. Forget the Em7b5 for a moment and think of the progression as just E7b9 to A7b9. Notice that the top 4 notes of a V7b9 chord form a diminished 7 chord. For example, g# b d f from E7b9 and c# e g bb from A7b9. These two dim7 chords are just a half step apart, so if you play a phrase out of G#dim7 for the E7b9, when the chord changes to A7b9, resolve the last note down a half step. Or play the same phrase down a half step. This “trick” is actually good voice leading.
More specifically, the D harmonic minor over the Em7b5/A7 change ( E F G A Bb C# D) gives you 1 b9 b3 4 b5 6 b7 of the Em7b5 and 5 b6 b7 1 b9 3 4 of the A7. It’s a typical sound for a minor ii v.

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As we all know, chord substitution can be a very complicated thing to grasp and it is a subject too huge to ever completely describe in this weblog, but its extremely common in gypsy jazz. It has been hard to even start to figure how to substitute chords, but this is how I am taking my first baby step.
In the key of G (as an example only) practice the ever present 2-5-1 progression (4 beats per chord, slowly):
IIm7 (Am7) — V7 (D7) — Imaj7 (Gmaj7)
But in the place of playing V7 (D7), instead substitute an F# or A or C or D# diminished 7th chord into the progression. This is a popular and effective substitution for jazz and blues and taken by itself, its easy to learn. Note: Start with the easier, higher voicings of diminished chord on strings 1-2-3-4. Also try playing an inversion up or down the neck for each beat and remember the diminished chord inverts every minor third interval (every 3 frets).
For example, in the gypsy standard “Dark Eyes”, substitute Bbm7-5 for the first of the two measures of A7 before the last chord (Dm).

These arpeggiated runs are in the key of D. I keep in mind that these runs are useful when used as a springboard to other chord positions, such as when a tune resolves back to the Imaj7 position from the V7 chord. Notice that the first image is a run that resolves from the V note (on the sixth string) to the I note (on the fifth string). The second image is what I call an “backwards position run”, which alternately resolves from the 5 note (on the first string) to the I (on the sixth string). As a bonus, I am showing the pattern for the standard harmonic minor scale that we already know, in the third image.
1. 2. 3.
Beyond this, we can find some related ideas with diminished scales. The fourth image shows a D harmonic minor run which has the Db9 and the D in the center of the keyboard and therefore it gives you the ability to resolve from any location in the harmonic minor scale from above or below the position of tension. Notice that the fourth image also “resembles” the diminished runs in images five and six. More specifically, its important to notice the similarity that the D harmonic minor scale (fourth image) has with the Db dominant diminished half-whole scale in the 5th image and with the D minor diminished whole-half scale in the sixth image. From this, we can derive a very important concept: that by playing the diminished dominant scale one fret higher during a tune will create or insinuate a dominant 7th flat nine chord (D7b9), which is important for that gypsy sound.
4. 5. 6.
Chart images by David J. Grossman @ http://www.Guitar-and-Bass.com

We all know that the minor-seventh-flat-5 chord that is related to the harmonic minor scale is very important in gypsy jazz for musical tension. The question is how to I further define how to play a diminished scale so that it sounds gypsy and does not “drift” and become scattered? My impression, though it may or may not be wrong, is to follow these rules. In short, you should generally use the half-whole diminished form since nearly all gypsy tunes are in a minor key.
Half-Whole:

Used on:
C7 (1,3,5,b7) + all tensions b9, #9, #11, 13
C7alt, C7(b9), C7(#9), C7(#11), C7(13), C7(b9,13)….
Cdim (1, b3, b5)
Cm7(b5) (1, b3, b5, b7)
Whole-Half:
Used on:
Cdim (1,b3,b5)
B/C (1, b3, b5,maj7)
Ab/C (1,b3,b13)
D/C (1, 9, #11, 13)

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North American Django Bands:
Compiled by Archtop Eddy, Feb 10, 2003
CANADA
Michael Dunn & Don Ogilvie British Columbia CAN webofjazz.com CD
Marc Atkinson Trio Ontario CAN marcatkinson.com CDs
Jazz Gitan w/Francois Rousseau Montreal CAN djangomontreal.com/doc/JazzGitan.htm
Karavan (defunct?) Montreal CAN
Swing Guitars w/Jean-Francois Larocque Montreal CAN
String Swing (defunct) Montreal CAN
Swing Dynamique (defunct) Montreal CAN
Club Django Sextet of Toronto Toronto CAN
clubdjangotoronto.com CD
Grande-Bouche Swingtette Toronto CAN classicjazztoronto.com CD
Swing Noir Toronto CAN swingnoir.com CD
USA / HAWAII
Gypsy Pacific w/Tom Conway Maui Hawaii mauitime.com/v06iss23/feat.html CD
Hot Club Paradise w/Bo Shores Maui Hawaii mauitime.com/v03iss21/music3.html CD
USA / WESTCOAST
Billet-Deux w/Troy Chapman Seattle WA
Hot Club Sandwich w/Greg Ruby Seattle WA hotclubsandwich.com CD
The Lukewarm Club of Licton Springs Seattle WA
Pearl Django Seattle WA pearldjango.com CDs
Savitrio w/Ted Gottsegen Seattle WA savitrio.com
Three Figures Seattle WA
The Woodchoppers Seattle WA
Django’s Cadillac w/Rick Hulett Hood River, OR djangoscadillac.com CD
Gypsy Ale Parkdale OR
Everything’s Jake Portland OR
Gadjo Djazz w/Phil Lavine Portland OR gadjojazz.com
Kung Pao Chickens Portland OR cavitysearchrecords.com CD
12th Avenue Hot Club Portland OR 12thavenuehotclub.com
Riff Raff Huntington Beach CA hometown.aol.com/riffraffjazz CD
Raul Reynoso L.A. CA rhythmbrothers.com CD
SwingFinger w/Pat Ciliberto, Yussi L.A. CA yussi.com
Club Django LA, South Bay CA clubdjango.com CD
Antone and Olivier LA, (midcity) CA
Hot Club of San Diego w/Alain Cola San Diego CA
Cool Club Quartet of San Diego San Diego CA
Hot Club of San Francisco w/Paul Mehling S.F. CA hcsf.com CDs
USA / WESTERN STATES
Red Rock Hot Club w/Rich Daigle, Charlie Ayers Salt Lake City, UT artist.iuma.com CD
Djunkyard Gypsies w/Norm Johnson Nevada City, NV
Hot Club of the Rockies w/Dave Williams Denver CO sonicgarden.com CD
Hot Jazz Rhythm Chiefs w/Pascal Denver, CO
Mango fan Django w/Archtop Eddy Manitou Springs CO mangofandjango.com CDs
Rick Desko and Scott Tichenor Lawrence, KS
8 1/2 Souvenirs (defunct) Austin TX CDs
Rhythm Barons Austin TX
Hot House Jazz Dallas, TX corrad.com/users/hothousejazz CD
USA / MIDWEST
Clearwater Hot Club Grand Raphids, MN
Hot Club of Wayzata Wayzata, MN
Parisota Hot Club Minneapolis, MN parisota.com
Robert Bell Trio Minneapolis, MN
Randy Sabin/Dean McGraw St Paul, MN
Cafe Accordian Orchestra Minneapolis, MN cafeaccordion.com
Summer, Delaney & Sharp (defunct?) Ann Arbor, Mich
Harmonious Wail w/Sims Delaney-Potthoff Madison, WI wail.com CDs
Swing Gitan w/ Alphonso Ponticelli Chicago IL swinggitan.com
Douce Ambience w/Peter O’Leary Chicago IL
Rhythm Futur w/Carter O’Brien Chicago IL
Hot Club of Edgewater w/ Chicago Pat Chicago IL
Deep Chicago Rhythm Owls Chicago IL
Hot Club of Chicago (defunct) Chicago IL
Grassland Quintette w/Mike O’Connell Chicago IL
Econosize Django Swing Orchestra Chicago IL tamarindomusic.com/econosize Hot Club of Naptown w/Dave
McCarty Indianapolis IN
USA / MIDWEST SOUTH
Tony Green and Gypsy Jazz New Orleans, LA orleansrecords.com CDs
USA / EASTCOAST -SOUTH
Gypsy Wranglers Leverett, MA gypsywranglers.com CD
Stephane Wrembel Boston, MA stephanewrembel.com CD
Cafe Musette w/Larry Urbon Fairchild, CT cafemusette.com CD
La Foule w/Norman Plankey, Larry Urbon Oxford CT
Will Patton Ensemble Burlington, VT wpatton.com CDs
Frank Vignola and GypsySoul NYC NY frankvignola.com CDs
Zela Zola Ithaca, NY zelazola.com CD
Gypsy Jazz Trio w/Barry Warren Jenkintown, PA
Gadjo Playboys w/Fretboard Francis, Scott Bookman Lancaster, PA
Giga ShaneTrio Philadelphia, PA geocities.com/gshanegiga/bio.html
Hot Club of Washington D.C. (defunct?) Washington D.C
USA / EASTCOAST-SOUTH
Gypsy Hombres Nashville, TN gypsyhombres.com CD
John Jorgenson Nashville and LA johnjorgenson.com CDs
Musette Guitars w/Scot Wise, Andy Page Charlotte, NC musetteguitars.com CD
Django Djazz Charleston, SC djangojazz.com
Hot Club of Atlanta Atlanta, GA hotclubofatlanta.com
Michael Markley Withlacoochee River, FL gypsy-jazz-violin-markley.com CDs
Pretty Boy Freud Jacksonville FL prettyboyfreud.com CDs
The Men with the Jive Jacksonville FL

I want to spend some time figuring out some gypsy guitar chord voicings so that I can compare them to the Robin Nolan triad chords. Since making all the little chord charts is time consuming, I will have to do the bulk of it later, but keep your eyes open on this log entry, because I will update it with the info soon. I would also be happy to see any comments on the chord forms that I have found. I will also try to show how the chord forms I find are better subsitutions than some of the Robin Nolan chords.

On the gypsyjazzguitar forum, a user named Jimmy (jovation) posted the following arpeggio excercise that I thought was useful.
“I’m always looking for ‘best practices for practicing’ guitar with the goal to improve on playing techniques. I’ve started to really see the importance of being able to play sweep-picked arpeggios. It seems to me to be the equivalent of a classical player with finger-style tremelo, both techniques that are a signature of a style of playing that should be a part of a regular (daily hopefully) practice routine.
There are two pick-hand and two fret-hand approaches that should be rehearsed. There are four combinations as a result, but I focus mostly on two.
The first one is the diminished spiral, with up-down-down-down picking (u=up, d=down).

-u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d
-2—–2–5—–5–8—–8—-
—–1——–4——–7——
—2——–5——–8——–
——————————

That particluar riff gets overplayed, but there are variations, as in Neil Andersson’s version over an F#7 chord on “Avalon”

-u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d–u-d-d-d-
-2—–2–3—–3–5—–5–6—–6–8—–8–9—–9–
—–2——–2——–5——–5——–8——–8—-
—3——–3——–6——–6——–9——–9——
——————————————————-
Second, is all downstroke arpeggios, usually ascending the triads of a major or minor chord, ending with a the root note, kind of like an exclamation point to end a sentence.

——-5——–12—-17—-
—–5——-13————–
—5——14—————–
-7—————————
(two Amin triads)
My struggle with the second form is not in the picking, but in jumping positions on the fly. The fingering itself is easy, but landing on time in the right position requires almost a physical and mental pre-planning. A phrase such as the one above has two hand jumps, and the accuracy (to me) seems to be a factor, of where on the neck I have focused my eyes, while my hand movements almost neglect planning the first jump as much as it has to plan the second jump.”

I purchased this book at my local music store. Its called “The Chord Wheel: The ultimate tool for all musicians” and its written by Jim Fleser. I has a plastic slide-rule-esque rotating wheel on the outside of the book that helps you identify chords for a key in the different positions. This is helping me understand and memorize the circle of fifths, but I have yet to actually make a correlation between it and more than a couple real songs.

I have tried to pick some gypsy jazz tunes and compare them to the chord wheel. I have tried this and so far I cannot find evidence of a tune that actually follows this chord wheel strictly. At first I thought by simply learning the wheel, that I would never need to memorize songs, but it seems that I have much more to learn. I guess I have to think about this for a while longer.

On the gyspyjazzguitar group Michael Valentiner posted this excellent suggestion for beginners who are trying to solo to the song “Djangology”:
For A part, I play these changes:

A9 / D7b9 / | Gmaj9 / Gdim7 / | Amin7 / D7 | G / / / |

If you start at the 5th position for the A9 and play arpeggios on the top 4 strings, some nice little shapes emerge as the chords descend:

||*|** V
|||*||
||*||*
||||*|
||*|*| IV (dim arp subing over D7b9)
|||*|*
||||||
||*|*|
|||||* II
||||*|
||**||
||*||*
||*|*| II
|||*|*
||||||
||*|*|
|||*|* open
||||*|
|||*||
|||||*

Look at how notes on one string move (or don’t move) from one shape to the next. In particular, notice the chromatic descending notes on the g and b strings. When soloing, I finger those with my index finger on the b string and middle finger on the g string and its a simple one fret shift to get to the next shape/chord (forget about the f# on the e string in the Gmaj9). You can apply this to other positions on the fretboard and work out how the shapes connect.
For example, any place you can find c# and e for the A9, you know they descend all the way to the Am7. Once you get the shapes under your fingers and make the ear to hand connection, you can improvise music rather than just run arpeggios. The moving harmony of Djangology is what makes the tune so great.
In other words, I tend to improvise around Key of Em for first part of song and then to G as it ends with the ii-v-i progression in G (Am / D7 / G69).

Appel Direct is a song that functions as a great 2 finger picking exercise. I am using it to build speed and accuracy. Most importantly, is a necessary exercise to get used to playing fast with your first two fingers. By doing this, and learning it well, we can better emulate our two fingered idol. Also, this is the only song I know that can be played with two chords. Those chords are C6 and C#6.

e ———-4/5——————–4/5——————–4/5——–
B ——-4/5—4/5————–4/5—4/5————–4/5—4/5—–
G —-4/5———4/5——–4/5———4/5——–4/5———4/5–
D -4/5—————4—-4/5—————4—-4/5—————4-
A ——————————————————————-
E ——————————————————————-
1st time
e————8——11–8–15—I
B——–7/10——————-I
G—–5/8———————–I Coda
D–4/5————————–I
A——————————-I
E——————————-I
2nd Time
e————8——11–10–8—I
B——–7/10——————-I
G—–5/8———————–I
D–4/5————————–I
A——————————-I
E——————————-I
e———-5/6——————–5/6——————–5/6——–
B——-5/6—5/6————–5/6—5/6————–5/6—5/6—–
G—-5/6———5/6——–5/6———5/6——–5/6———5/6–
D-5/6—————5—-5/6—————5—-5/6—————5-
A——————————————————————-
E——————————————————————-
e———-6———–5———-4/5——————-4/5———
B——-5/6———4/5——–4/5—4/5————-4/5—4/5——
G—-5/6———4/5——–4/5———4/5——-4/5———4/5—
D-5/6———4/5——–4/5—————4—4/5—————4–
A——————————————————————-
E——————————————————————-
e———-4/5———————8——11–10–8—————–
B——-4/5—4/5————–7/10——-11—9–8—————–
G—-4/5———4/5——–5/8———–11–10–7—————–
D-4/5—————4—-4/5—————————————-
A——————————————————————-
E——————————————————————-