La Gitane — chords & grille (gypsy jazz)
La Gitane by Paul "Tchan Tchou" Vidal — key of D (manouche), form A A B A' C A' 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
La Gitane is a celebrated piece by Paul "Tchan Tchou" Vidal (1923-1999), the great master of the southern French "Gitan" school of gypsy guitar - a cousin tradition to Django's Manouche style.
The sound - a sweeping D minor journey that keeps modulating: ii-V-i cadences, a lift into E♭ and F major, a brief brightening to D major, and a dramatic A7♭9 hauling everything home.
Practising it - map the D harmonic minor scale first, then chase the changes chord by chord. Nail the A7♭9 arpeggio resolving to Dm - that tension is the tune's heartbeat. Go slowly through the modulations.
La Gitane chords — the grille
A : | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Aø | D7 | Gm | Gm | E♭ | E♭ | Dm | Dm | E7 | A7 | Dm | Dm |
B : | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | A7 | E♭ | Dm | Dm | E7 | E7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | E7 | A7 | Dm | Dm |
A' : | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Dm | Aø | D7 | Gm | Gm | Gm | C7 | F | B♭ | E7 | A7 | Dm | Dm |
C : | D | D | D | D | F#m | Fm | Em | Em | Em | Em | A7 | A7 | A7 | A7 | D° | D | D | D | D7 | D | B7 | B7 | Em | Em | Em | A7♭9 | D | B7 | Em | A7 | D | D |
Chords used
Dm · A7 · Aø · D7 · Gm · E♭ · E7 · C7 · F · B♭ · D · F#m · Fm · Em · D° · B7 · A7♭9
Play along
Open the interactive grille for La Gitane: 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.