I'm sure all guitarists at some time, have been amazed when listening to Django Reinhardt. We all wonder at his inventiveness, speed and navigation of the fretboard. How did he manage to weave such incredible musical webs, and at the same time do all this with only two working fingers of his fretting hand? It's a bit like bluesman, Robert Johnson down at the crossroads - all we can assume is they were both touched by the devil called genius.

For years I've dipped into his style, working out patterns and mixing them into my own playing of Blues, Ragtime and Jazz. I imersed myself in chords, scales, arpeggios and Django style doodles on the road to solving a little of the mystery. I know there are many volumes of transcriptions available which will help you but It can take years of study to become fluent in this style, and like many players, I felt I didn't have the time or patience. I wanted to take the essence and some of the skills in his playing and make it my own.

So, in 'Let's Django', I will share with you some of the Django secrets I have learned on my journey as a guitarist. The exercises and tunes will give your playing a whole load of gypsy flavour and, whatever the style of your playing, you will gain extra panache and appeal. Like I said earlier, I know there are many note for note transcriptions of Django's famous tunes and I didn't want to reproduce them again here. The tunes here are fairly simple and are in the Django style, using the exercises you will learn on the way. Feel free to adapt them and most importantly use them in your own playing.