On the subject of soloing by using major scales, try these ideas I put together. The first example is a G dominant 7/9 pattern. Try this pattern and compare it to a dom9th arpeggio and a dom7th arpeggio. The second line of tablature is also in the key of G. The first segment is a Gmaj7 stacked arpeggio. The second segment is a Gmaj7 4 string arp that connects to the first segment. The third line below is a Cmaj7 arp which “connects” and serves as the 4th of G in the key of G major and the second segment of that line is the 5th, or the Ddom7 arpeggio that sits just next to the Cmaj7 as a brother. These connect nicely from the Gmaj runs and that is how I discovered them aside from having a slight knowledge of basic major scale harmony.
——————————–9-10-12-
————————-7-8-10———
——————-6-7-9—————-
————-4-5-7———————–
——-4-5-7——————————
-2-3-5————————————
———————7-10-|————-
—————–7-8——|——-3-7-8-
————-4-7———-|—–4——-
———4-5————–|-4-5———
—–2-5——————|————-
-2-3———————-|————-
-6-7——————-|-10———————
—–7-8—————|—-10——————
———8————-|——-11—————
———–10-9——–|———-12-10———
—————-10-7—|—————-12-9—-
———————8-|———————10-
This next section starts with a D major 7/9 pattern I believe (I could be wrong). This pattern is “stacked” and similar to the first pattern I mentioned above. The second segment is a regular Dmaj7 arpeggio. Try playing somehing in D major, like Daphne, and connecting these arps. The final line below contains the VERY important small major arp which is “essential” when playing Daphne (as shown) and Douce Ambience (in that case it is Fmaj then F#maj in the bridge). The second segment of that last line is the D Dorian arpeggio used for Swing42 in the key of C major.
————————–7-9-10-|———-10-13-14-
——————-7-8-10——–|——-11———-
————-6-7-9—————|—-10————-
——-4-5-7———————|-12—————-
-4-5-7—————————|——————-
———————————|——————-
———————-|———————–
—————–9-10-|———————–
————9-11——|—————9-10-12-
—-9-11-12———–|——-9-10-12———
-12——————-|-10-12—————–
———————-|———————–
As a bonus, try playing a standard Dmaj7 arpeggio starting on the last note of the first D major pattern that I show above and end it on the 10th fret of the low E string (i cover this arpeggios in http://djangology.net/archives/000101.html). Of course, all of these patterns also fit with my earlier weblog entry concerning the “maj7 circle pattern” but you have to transpose the movable arp.

I noticed huge similarities between Lady Be Good and Dinah. It can be useful to study these two songs and analyze why they are similar. It is also important to study how the melody lines are related to each other.
I also noticed huge similarities between Coquette and Lulu Swing that should be noted.

The Espirit Manouche book has an incredible amount of information, but you really need to study it to leech the information out of it. I get by by entirely “guessing” what they are talking about and it works for me. I can understand about 70% of it and if you speak English youll understand at least 50% of what they are saying. I bought the book and then photocopied the “relevant” pages from that book, like arpeggio runs and tricks, and then studied those pages until I had them memorized. The “scale stacking” concept was the largest epiphany I ever had. The book helped a lot and is worth more than a $40 guitar lesson.
The Robin Nolan licks book matches up with Robin Nolan book 1. If you buy book one and the licks book also, youll be matched up pretty good.
The Espirit Manouche book and Robin Nolan licks book will complement each other nicely as long as you are smart enough to pay attention and figure out how they “cross paths” in their teachings. The Ian Cruishank gypsies book also crosses a bit with this “soloing” topic and may be worth the $15 for you to buy. Also the Romane Nashville video helps a little also mabye. If your rough on picking technique and rhythm, look into the books that Michael Horowitz created or the upcoming Wremble book.
My advice is that with each thing that you buy that you really listen to what they say and “extract” the information you need from their teachings. I created a book of “photocopied snippets” from everything I have bought so that I can bring all the ideas together. I suggest doing that also. I am just starting to really understand this stuff and have reached the sparse beginnings of soloing ability in only 6 months and you will too. There is hope and good luck. Like Robin Nolan says, “Things will iron themselves out after a few thousand hours of practice”.

I have a huge amount of Django related materials that I have purchased in the last few years. The first was probably Robin Nolan book one. Since that time, I have read in multiple places how important “leading tones” are when soloing with arpeggios. The concept is simple, by playing the note just beneath a note in an arpeggio you create tension and resolution in an otherwise dry and boring arpeggio.
Up until this weekend I have never been able to pull it off nicely. I have understood the concept and a few of my guitar teachers have mentioned it but it never quite worked for me. I would never be able to think about the leading tones while soloing and I only would think about the arpeggio itself because there was too much to think about already, like chord changes for example.
Today, for the first time, I am starting to be able to play the leading notes subconciously, and that is a tribute to hard practice. Perhaps partially inspired by finally watching some video of Hot Club of New York. Hard practice soloing over the Robin Nolan tracks using Transcribe has finally brought me into the beginnings of this new realm.
One of the funnest things about playing guitar is setting goals, even goals which you don’t understand, and finally achieving them either purposely or by accident. If I can do it, a beginner with no natural talent, then anyone can, so stick in there.

I think that in some cases we substitute non-perfect chord substitutions when playing gypsy jazz. For example, fingering the Robin Nolan style Dm6 triad at the 10th position is a chord that can also be called a G7. Normally, a perfect substitution for a Dm6 would be a G9 dominant chord, but in this case the 7th is an imperfect substitution that still works and sounds good to the ear.
Another non-perfect substitution might be the Emin7b5 chord for the Gm6 triad that we usually make at the 3rd position of the fingerboard. If you play through the typical Gm6 arpeggio, you will notice how it hits all the notes in the Emin7b5 chord that is played at the 7th position except for the root note. This creates a not so nearly perfect substitution and still it sounds great.
Going back to my first paragraph, take for example a tune in the key of D minor. While soloing not only can you play a Dmin6 arpeggion of the D minor chord in the tune, but you can also play a good substitution which would be the G dominant 7th arpeggio. Also, for a tune in the key of G, which has the D dominant 7th as its “FIVE” chord, you can substitute the Amin6 arpeggio. Basically, start the Amin6 arpeggio at the same fretboard position as the root of the “FIVE” chord.
Like I mentioned before, the most important arpeggio to learn might be the min6th.