If you are a jazz guitar player and you are looking for new and interesting ideas, then this is the workshop for you. Stephane is a WELL KNOWN teacher in the style of gypsy jazz and Portland is very fortunate to have him.
There are 2 workshops. One is 6 hours for Introduction and the other is 6 hours for the advanced level. It will cost $100 each 6 hour session ( only $17/hr !! for lessons from the best )
The schedule is:
Saturday, Nov 27th, 10:30am-1:30pm, Introduction to Gypsy Jazz part 1
Saturday, Nove 27th, 2pm-5pm, Advanced gypsy jazz workshop part 1
Sunday, Nov 28th, 10:30am-1:30pm, Introduction to Gypsy Jazz part 2
Sunday, Nov 28th, 2pm-5pm, Advanced gypsy jazz workshop part 2
Please call Rip McCollough at (503)810-4275 (or email me) and reserve a seat in the workshop. Visit Stephanes website for additional info.
The location of the workshops is at my house in inner SE Portland. Call my phone if you need to know how to get there: 503-913-7735 .

I came up with a run which I use in Minor Swing (or J’Attendrai sometimes) where I will run a diminished scale and a minor 6th scale into each other. The following tablature shows one way this can be done. Of course, I have a thousand different ways to really do this but when you run through this pattern in particular, you should be able to recognize the visual and audible relationship between these arps.
——————-12-14-|—-8—————
—————-13——-|-13—10————
———-11-14———-|———9———-
——-14—————-|———–10——-
-12-15——————-|————–12—-
————————-|—————–12-
-11-14——————-
——-13—————-
———-14-11———-
—————-13-10—-
———————-12-
————————-
-11-14—————————8——-12-14-12——————-
——-13———————10—10-13———-13—————-
———-14-11————-9————————14-11———-
—————-13-10—-10——————————–14——-
———————-12————————————–15-12-
——————————————————————–
In the first line of tablature above, I show two different Am6 patterns. The second line is a diminished pattern that is movable by every 3 frets and notice how it ends on the “A” note. Finally, the last line is where I mix these arpeggios into each other.

This isn’t the prettiest La Gitane you will ever hear, not by a long shot, but I just finished memorizing it. It will take a few more months of work to finally make this really presentable.
But for everyone who is interested, I have prepared a track of me playing both rhythm and lead. I recorded this with my laptop.
Right click on this link and choose “Save As”, if you want to listen to it.
La Gitane by Jon Thor Williams
Please leave comments… im open to criticism or praise.
Next on my list of waltzes to learn is “Dolores”, by Tchan-Tchou Vidal. While I work on memorizing “Dolores” I will continue to work on La Gitane and improve my playing.

For the last 3 weeks, Pere Soto has been in town, visiting from Spain. He has a band called Djangos Castle.
He played 2 gigs with Rip and myself and they were both a lot of fun. We even played “Appel Indirect” and Pere showed us his 1 finger soloing on “All Of Me”. He turns out to be an extremely nice guy and really easy to play with. I hope he plans to visit us again next year. He also came to 2 of our weekend jam sessions and I think he played at least one time with “The 12th Avenue Hotclub”, another gypsy jazz band here in town. In any case, a few gypsy jazz locals came out to see us at our show last night and one of them even made a video recording of our first set.
I have come a long way since the first time I played live, where Tracy Kim of the “12th Avenue Hotclub” allowed me to sit in with him. That was a huge milestone for me and a few months later, in Febuary 2004, Rip and I formed MY first band and now I have exactly 9 months experience as a performer. I owe a lot of people quite a bit for helping me out. I owe Rip McCollough a lot for actually giving me real world experience and advice. I owe Ted Gottsegen for teaching me many things about gypsy jazz in general and listening to all my crazy ideas and questions. I owe Michael Horowitz for being a guide and reminding me that “rest stroke picking technique” and “la Pompe” are the best way to go, regardless of other temptations to take shortcuts. I owe Stephane Wrembel for a good deal of things on soloing. In any case I hope that I can “pay it forward” and help a lot of other people out on their journey as well.