The publisher’s booklet jointly credits Grappelli and Reinhardt for Nocturne, although a simplified track listing credits only Grappelli. Follow the violin’s sustained line and the guitar’s support beneath it.
If you study one thing
Choose a short sustained melody note and locate the bass or chord movement underneath it by ear.
William P. Gottlieb / Library of Congress Aquarium, New York, N.Y. · circa November 1946 · Photo credits
Chart keyNot established
FormNot established
FeelLyrical duet / arrangement-dependent phrasing
MeterConfirm against the chosen arrangement; no historical metre inferred from the title
MusicStéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt
Guide coverage8 / 12 sections present
Owner content reviewed — 2026-10-19T21:28:49Z by admin. Coverage measures presence, not accuracy. Content review does not certify rights or musical perfection.
See what is here and what is missing
✓ Recording evidence
○ Key & form
○ Chart
✓ History
✓ Playing notes
✓ Practice plan
○ Backing track
✓ Django recording
○ Django solo study aid
✓ Photograph
✓ Sources
✓ Difficulty
Django's Recordings
Django recordings for this tune. Uploader dates and take labels remain source claims; only an evidenced exact association enables a row’s Listen control.
1 historical recording entries · source text preserved
Entry
Year
Recording / session / release evidence
Listen
01
1938
Nocturne,DTB 3534-1 ,"Fremeaux 307, JSP 342, Classics 708, Music Memoria 87948","1/2/38 - London - Django Reinhardt (g), Stephane Grappelly (v&p)"
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A dash means no video has been associated with this exact historical recording. Tune-level listening resources remain available above.
History & Listening
The publisher’s booklet jointly credits Grappelli and Reinhardt for Nocturne, although a simplified track listing credits only Grappelli. The inherited 1938 violin-and-guitar setting is the focus. This is not Chopin’s Nocturne in F minor.
Tune details
Music: Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt
Documented in archive: 1938
Original key: Not established
Study level: Intermediate listening study; arrangement and source awareness
Melody & head
Follow the violin’s sustained line and the guitar’s support beneath it. Romain Bridot’s solo-guitar version offers a comparison of how those roles can be combined on one instrument.
Several Gypsy-jazz search results concern Chopin’s nocturne, a different work. No such video has been used to fill this guide’s performance collection.
Follow the violin’s sustained line and the guitar’s support beneath it. Romain Bridot’s solo-guitar version offers a comparison of how those roles can be combined on one instrument. Source-attributed credits: Stéphane Grappelli; Django Reinhardt — joint booklet credit
Chart & Form
A complete harmonic route is not established here. First sing the melody and mark phrase endings; verify the underlying chords from a reliable edition before adding substitutions.
No verified complete chart is supplied. The listening and practice notes do not stand in for a chord chart.
No readable chord chart has been added for this title.
Play along
No backing track has been added.
Study Django's Solo
Performed studies, transcriptions, TAB, notation and lessons for studying Django’s solo. Inclusion does not certify note-for-note accuracy.
No Django solo study aid yet. Know a useful resource — or want to record a study of this solo?
Similar tunes
Follow a shared key, a harmonic idea or a familiar form. Keys refer to this site’s chart editions; other recordings may use a different key.
Related chord movement
No sufficiently supported harmonic comparison has been added yet.
Same chart key
No match is established in the current chart metadata.
Same form
No match is established in the current chart metadata.
Behind the photograph
Editorial portrait from the documented Gottlieb public-domain collection. It does not depict this tune or its recording session.
Part of William P. Gottlieb’s documented Aquarium photographs in New York, circa November 1946. The catalogue supplies the location and approximate date; this is not evidence of a particular tune being played.
Public, processed and embeddable when checked; creator-described identity.
Performer and tune attribution follow the named creator/distributor metadata. Proposed listening selection; no ranking or exact historical-take equivalence is implied.
Follow the violin’s sustained line and the guitar’s support beneath it. Romain Bridot’s solo-guitar version offers a comparison of how those roles can be combined on one instrument.
Once a harmony is independently established, sing its destination note before adding an approach. Do not infer a progression from the tune title.
Pitch choices
Establish the actual harmony before choosing a scale. Begin with the melody and the destination note; no tune-wide scale formula is asserted.
Choose a short sustained melody note and locate the bass or chord movement underneath it by ear. Practise holding that melody note while moving only one lower voice, keeping the melody louder.
Comping & voicings
Treat the accompaniment as a second voice with its own breathing. Use gentle releases and avoid a heavy continuous pompe where the chosen arrangement calls for space.
Voicing note sets
Treat the accompaniment as a second voice with its own breathing. Use gentle releases and avoid a heavy continuous pompe where the chosen arrangement calls for space.
Keep the accompaniment clear
First rehearse the specific phrase entry and release described above; add a chord pulse only when it supports that phrase.
Several Gypsy-jazz search results concern Chopin’s nocturne, a different work. No such video has been used to fill this guide’s performance collection.
Practice room
Slow phrase study with flexible releases; keep the source’s phrasing rather than imposing a fixed chorus
Your assignment
Choose a short sustained melody note and locate the bass or chord movement underneath it by ear. Practise holding that melody note while moving only one lower voice, keeping the melody louder.
Loop these changes
Choose a short sustained melody note and locate the bass or chord movement underneath it by ear. Practise holding that melody note while moving only one lower voice, keeping the melody louder.
Return to the selected recording after each short loop. Confirm the entry, release and next phrase cue before extending the passage.
Metronome
Use a quiet quarter-note click for short loops. Keep the preceding rest and the next entry in the loop; remove the click briefly to test internal time.
Transposition
After learning the chosen fragment and its actual harmony, move that fragment to one nearby key by naming the target notes. Do not transpose an unverified progression.
At the session
Confirm the composition identity, concert key and complete arrangement before calling the tune. Agree pickup and ending together.
Start together
Use the chosen recording’s entry cue only after checking its phrase length.
Finish together
Agree a plain final arrival and a visible cutoff; do not assume a live video’s tag is universal.
Several Gypsy-jazz search results concern Chopin’s nocturne, a different work. No such video has been used to fill this guide’s performance collection.
Several Gypsy-jazz search results concern Chopin’s nocturne, a different work. No such video has been used to fill this guide’s performance collection.
Arranging the tune
Solo guitar
Begin with the melody alone, then add only independently established bass arrivals. Treat the accompaniment as a second voice with its own breathing. Use gentle releases and avoid a heavy continuous pompe where the chosen arrangement calls for space.
Trio or larger group
Treat the accompaniment as a second voice with its own breathing. Use gentle releases and avoid a heavy continuous pompe where the chosen arrangement calls for space.
Vocal considerations
Follow the song’s breathing where a vocal version exists. Establish the singer’s key independently; lyrics are not reproduced here.
Sources & credits
This player guide combines inherited recording evidence and editorial study notes. Musical study notes are editorial suggestions; compare them with the recording.
Used to illustrate Django’s life; no connection to this tune’s recording session is claimed.
Research & rights notes
Several Gypsy-jazz search results concern Chopin’s nocturne, a different work. No such video has been used to fill this guide’s performance collection.
Exact video-to-recording matrix/take associations are not established. Historical rows remain inherited evidence.
Complete chart, concert key and full form are not independently verified; none has been invented to increase coverage.
No qualifying tune-specific backing was confirmed in the bounded search.
No qualifying complete Django solo recreation is selected. Other players’ solos, theme lessons and virtual transcriptions do not fill this gap.
