Fantaisie — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
Fantaisie by Django Reinhardt — key of D (manouche), form A. Below is the full chord grid; on Haute Gitanerie you can play along with a scrolling chord ribbon, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and switch on a rhythm backing (la pompe) to practise your solos over the changes.
About
Not an original but Django Reinhardt's swing arrangement of Norwegian Dance No. 2 by Edvard Grieg, recorded with the new Quintette du Hot Club de France in December 1940. A showcase of how the manouche language could reshape the classical repertoire.
The sound — bright D major shadowed by darker turns: the minor-fourth colour of Gm6 and a slide into G minor give it a wistful edge between the swinging passages.
Practising it — work the D major arpeggio and its neighbours, then isolate the Gm6 and A7 to nail the contrast. Build tempo slowly; the melody is trickier than it sounds.
Fantaisie chords — the grille
A : | D Gm6 | D Gm6 | D Bm | Em A7 | A° | A7 | A° | A7 | D D7 | G Gm | D Bm | Em A7 D |
Chords used
D · Gm6 · Bm · Em · A7 · A° · D7 · G · Gm
Play along
Open the interactive grille for Fantaisie: loop any section, transpose to any key, set the tempo, and play over a rhythm accompaniment — with a real recorded pompe on featured tunes. In the browser, free.