In lots of gypsy jazz there are those really fast chromatic runs. You can see Django playing them by sliding one finger down the fretboard and still fretting and picking each note in old film of him. But he had superpowers.
For a descending chromatic run from G (3rd fret E string) down to a landing with a pinky on the C# (6th fret G string), so using the first three frets of the E string, first six of A and D strings, how would you play it if you wanted to go FAST?
The conventional method of pinky on the sixth fret and then third finger on sixth fret and 4-3 with 2 finger and 2-1 with index finger? That’s a lot of shifting.
I’m trying fingers 3-2-1 on E string, then 4-3-2-1 on A string from frets 6 to 3 with a shift to the 2nd fret with the 2 finger, then index finger on the first fret, same on D string down to open which permits landing on the 6th fret of the G string with the pinky (necessary for the following arpeggio. This goes a lot smoother, but is still murder to get clean.
Thoughts? And any pointers to any video of any of the masters who play fast, like mg chromatic runs on mando? I know I’ve heard Andy Statman pull it off perfectly, but don’t know where.
Cheers!
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