Acoustic Guitar Magazine | 5 years ago
See the full lesson with tab and notation here: https://acousticguitar.com/how-to-play-swing-gitan/
Not much is known about “Swing Gitan”; it’s so old it’s attributed to “Anonymous” (who must get a ton of royalty checks, just sayin’). But it may have had its origin in a tune called “Stephane Stomp” from an LP made in the ’70s by André Dedjean. [You can find the music for “Swing Gitan” at the bottom of the article here: https://acousticguitar.com/how-to-play-swing-gitan/.]
Many Gypsy-jazz tunes are in G minor, and this one is no exception. It’s an A/B tune, which means it has no bridge (like “Minor Swing”).
Its A section is deceptively similar to the B section, so it’s easy for players who can’t keep track of such details to get lost. Suffice to say, this detail of A versus B separates the players from the fakers at many jam sessions. Don’t be one of the fakers: if you have difficulty with this, the best solution is to concentrate on the last four bars of the tune for a while until you really have that turnaround down cold. That way, you won’t get lost.
