Measuring progress

Learning to play gypsy jazz guitar is great fun but it does take quite a lot of time to make any apparent progress. Sometimes I wonder what I have been doing for the past few months because I can’t recall anything new that I have learnt. It is times like that when it is useful to have some reference point with which to compare your current level of achievement. Djangoism have a very pleasant and well-paid function job every June and that’s a good marker for us. We played that gig last week and I remembered:

• Last year we had just bought our Gitane guitars and although they didn’t have the Bigtone pickups fitted we were still able to use them for the gig because they are so loud we could play without amplifiers
• Last year was the first time I had used a Wegen gypsy jazz plectrum on a gig and although I liked the sound the fingernail of my first finger was completely worn down and I had a blood blister because I wasn’t holding it correctly
• I was still playing Freddie Green (rhythm guitarist with the Count Basie orchestra) type 3 note chords

This year:

• I didn’t wear my finger out and the Wegen pick now feels completely comfortable
• I played many more gypsy jazz type chord voicings with 4 or 5 notes and those sounded much better with more harmonic backing for the soloists and much sharper snap on the damped beats
• We played at least 4 tunes we had learnt and arranged during the past year

So I may not have become Hono Winterstein in the past 12 months but there are quite a few pointers of progress.