So, I’ve been trying to transcribe some Django licks (my lifelong quest…), and I always run into trouble on some of his long runs like the one below:
(Excerpt from Dark Eyes/Les Yeux Noirs, at 27 s. Please excuse the crude handwriting, it was supposed to be for my eyes only…)
How do I pick it?! Sure, USX, 2nps and so on – but I’m not entirely convinced. The descending D harmonic minor scale is difficult to play that way. If I start the run (on the Bb) on the first string I will end up on the 10th fret on the sixth string before turning around and ascending with the diminished 2nps “arpeggio”. And the right hand will have to play upstrokes on the downbeats which feels odd. Is this really the way Django did it? I can’t figure it out!
Looking at Stochelo Rosenberg (see below), he does seem to play upstrokes on the downbeats, at least on the ascending part. But the descent is played using some 3nps fingerings with (at least to my eye) consecutive downstrokes. Perhaps this is the way to do it? What would Django do?! (Perhaps it doesn’t matter, but I like trying to figure out things…)
Another way of doing it would be to use pull-offs instead of consecutive downstrokes but it’s hard to get the articulation right.