Django wasn't all that widely popular at the very first - he was 'doing it all wrong' according to the experts - but then after that accident he only had 2 working fingers, so 'he made it up as he went along'. Now there are seminars to which hundreds of people of all ethnic mixes travel from all over the world to "play his particular type of "Gypsy Music"'.

Funnily enough, many good guitarists say that the easiest way to try to play his style, especially at first, is often to bind up the rest of their right hand fingers so they can't be used.... trying to do that style with all four fingers seems to 'break it' :-)

"Yes, the extreme "virtuosos" can be irritating and leave people cold, simply because they've got their priorities wrong. The singer with the "oh-what-a beautiful-noise-I'm making!" voice but no feeling for what the song is about; the guitarist who over-embellishes a simple song to the point where both the lyrics and the melody are overwhelmed with fancy riffs and twiddles; the session player who keeps on doing show-off individual pieces with way-out chord sequences that no one else knows and can join in - they're all just missing the point of it all. They're not "too good" - they're still not really good enough, and could be so much better if they realised how much they had still to learn."

You've all heard the 'Irish play as fast as you can' sessions....

I've previously mentioned about when I first got a bit good - showed off to my dad how fast I could play... he laughed, took out his violin, then pulled the bow from frog to tip in one stroke that took ages - and produced a soft steady note that went on for ages....

then told me that any fool can play fast and loud, but to play with music with real feeling, it takes far more talent, control and practice to play slow and quiet.