Denis Chang

Denis Chang, a.k.a. MichMich on the forums, is a young polyvalent guitarist who starts to be known in the world of Django's music, notably with his DVD "The art of accompaniment". His next series of 4 DVD about improvisation has really lonng been awaited. He made a first very promising CD in 2006, "Nature Boy", and has already played with great musicians such as Andreas Öberg, Les Paul, Frank Gambale, Chris Campion (non-exhaustive list)... Here are a few videos of Denis Chang:

- DVD excerpts
- Danse Norvégienne
- Nature Boy

Check out his official Web site

How old were you when you started playing guitar? How long have you been playing? Why did you choose guitar?

Well, I chose the guitar because all my friends played it. I started really seriously practicing the guitar at age 15 when I saw on TV a guitarist named Eric Johnson. At that time, I had never seen anything like that and something happened that day, I started practicing a lot. I never really studied his style too much, but just seeing someone like him for the first time did something to me. Unfortunately back then, the internet was not what it is today, so I had to look hard for information and practice material. I practiced very hard but it took me maybe 4 yrs to get maybe 1 yr's worth of practice. Also, even though Montreal (the second biggest city in Canada) has many wonderful musicians and good guitarists (I hope I won't offend anyone), there are very few guitarists, regardless of style, who really really stand out on an international level the way (see my reference to Eric Johnson), for example, many do in New York, Paris, Stockholm, London, etc... Oh well!

How did you get into Django’s music? You have been quite far in terms of learning since I gather you have spent several months within the Sinti community in Netherlands a few years ago. You have learned Romanes language. I even think you hou have earned your MichMich nickname there. Could you tell us more about this experience? How important is immersion to you to learn either a language or a musical style?

I got into the Django thing because it was a sound that I always loved but did not initally know that it was associated with Django. It wasn't until I was about 19 that a friend of mine made me listen to Raphael Fays and Stochelo Rosenberg. That's when I really discovered the music of Django Reinhardt. Again, around that time, there was no youtube, no djangobooks or anything so everything I learned was by ear and from watching the Django Legacy video and a few Rosenberg Trio bootleg tapes. It took me 3-4 yrs to accomplish what many of my students accomplished in one year. But doing it the hard way allowed me to develop certain observation skills that have helped me as a teacher and student. My first live exposure to this music was Stephane Wrembel who helped me a lot by encouraging me, and since then I somehow befriended many other musicians. I never officially studied with any of them (except Fapy Lafertin), but being with them and watching them was a tremendous help. Studying with Fapy was interesting because it was not Django style lessons, it was a lot of philosophy about music in general and it was a very good experience. We especially worked on various aspects of rhythm playing.

Anyway, I do not speak the gypsy language, I understand many words and phrases because I hear them all the time when my friends speak it. For some reason, I am able to learn extremely fast just by listening; and also, from logic, I am often able to deduce the meaning of phrases or words. Immersion is fundamental to learning anything. The one thing I try to get my students to do is to jam as often as possible with each other and to listen to the music.

You have also been a student at the Berklee School of Music both in non-credited summer programs and full-time scholarship. You also studied musical theory at the McGill University. What did you gain from these experiences? How could you compare the Berklee system with your experience among the Sinti community? How do these experiences complete one another?

I never really went to Berklee, they gave me a lot of money to study there but it didn't happen. I studied classical music theory at McGill University because I love classical music and I thought that it would be a good idea to study something that I probably would not have been able to learn on my own. I learned about harmony, counterpoint and all that. There was a particular course called Schenkerian analysis that was rather fascinating. It has to do with stripping any tonal (music that has logical chord progressions) piece into its bare essentials; that is the I chord, the V chord back to the I chord. It's actually more complex than that, but the basic theory applies to a lot of jazz music.

Playing wise, I did not really gain anything from a formal training, but as a teacher, I learned a lot about how music works in technical terms. I can sightread pretty well, I can read charts very well and play most tunes in all 12 keys on the spot. This has nothing to do with playing music and sounding "good" but it allows me to answer almost any theoretical question about the Django music that people often ask. It's fun to know, but it's important to understand that it is not fundamental to learning most kinds of music. I do not regret going to music school though, because I love music and I love learning.

You seem to have a huge appetite for learning, and learning the right way. Where does such motivation originate? How much time do you spend practicing guitar daily? And how do you conciliate music at your level with family or girlfriend?

Even though it is my fulltime job, I don't really consider myself much of an "artist" in the traditional sense; mainly because I am too critical and harsh with myself. I like to think of myself as someone who is just very curious about music. I also have a bit of obsessive behavior when it comes to music, I can easily play and practice for hours and hours. I am also extremely meticulous, I am able to notice all the little details that most people don't notice. So it allows me to practice "the right" way. Unfortunately though, because of my obsessive nature, I sometimes have trouble focusing. Most people don't know this but I have basic skills on the piano, violin, bass (electric and upright), classical guitar, electric guitar, Django style, etc. but, unfortunately, I don't master any of them; the django thing is the thing that I was able to focus on the longest for some reason. Since music is my career, I also have to think about making a living, and I'm good at coming up with ideas (I have many upcoming projects - top secret hehe) and understand the importance of long-term investments and personal sacrifices.

You speak several languages (English, French, German, Romanes...). Do you think there is a correlation between languages and music? If yes, how?

The two languages I speak best are English and French. I also speak a bit of Taiwanese (where my parents are from) but only at the level of a 6 yr old. I understand German pretty well but I have trouble speaking it. I think language, at the base, is the same as music, it is all about immersion and osmosis. That is really the best way to learn, there is no shortcut. Learning theory/grammar and all that is great too and can possibly open a lot of doors but it is not necessary either. It's a very interesting topic and one that I often think about. When it comes to music and language, it's not always about the licks or vocabulary, there is also articulation and accents. If you look for example at the French language, you'll notice different accents in different regions and even different vocabulary. One thing that I've always been good at (if I may say so myself) is capturing the essence of these articulations. When I'm here in Quebec, people think I'm Quebecois; when I'm in France, people who don't know me, think I'm French. I've also been able to fool Germans into thinking I was German! It's something I was always good at. And I try to do the same in music; it's not that I am trying to copy someone or be someone else but it's just fascinating to try to see things from a different point of view. When I was in the Netherlands with members of the Rosenberg family, they told me "I played with the soul of a gypsy", which was a very nice compliment. Of course, I'm not that good of a guitarist, and I'm not trying to be gypsy but it really just has to do with my curious nature.

According to you, what characterizes a good guitarist? What does it take to become a good guitarist?

Well to be a good guitarist, you just need to have good technique; but to be a good musician is completely different! A good musician is someone who understands the music, who understands his role in the music and the space that he should or should not be taking. It's something that I should've spent more time on with my students (I don't teach much anymore) because musicianship really is the most important thing, and it's something that very few people teach; even in music schools. Most people are interested in the flashy stuff. In most situations in the professional world, no one really cares about how well you can solo. For example, a good guitarist will know to limit or control his rhythm playing if there's a pianist backing up the soloist. A good drummer will know not to play fusion-style fills when backing up a pop singer, etc... Let's put it this way, let's pretend you're jamming with Bireli. You play all your fancy licks and tricks, then when it comes time for Bireli to solo, instead of keeping straight rhythm, you slow down, speed up, add all sorts of annoying effects... Now, I don't know Bireli personally, but something tells me that he would just put his guitar down and leave..... As far as soloing goes, a good musician knows how to tell a story rather than just playing fast and playing a whole bunch of licks. That is the most difficult thing and something that I constantly try to work on! I have to say that most of the time, I disappoint myself! It doesn't matter too much, I try to learn and have fun.

As a teacher with great reputation and gaining more and more credits, how do you distinguish talent? I have heard a few tunes recorded by some of your students with just one year of practice, and I must say I have been quite impressed. Do you think students are equal in terms of learning? How do you prioritize things in the way you teach? Strictly rhythm first (traditional approach) or do you think it’s valuable to tackle rhythm and solo at the same time?

Like I said, I really don't care how well someone can solo, I care about how they interpret the music. Not everyone is equal in terms of learning, but everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. When I teach my ultimate goal is to get them to develop their sense of awareness and observation. When you've reached a certain level of observation, you can start to learn on your own and don't really need a teacher anymore. I really do try to encourage rhythm playing and just sitting in with better musicians.

You are very involved in teaching: teacher at the conservatory, at the Montreal University, private lessons, master classes, and more recently, the DVDs: "The Art of Accompaniment", and the upcoming four volumes of "Technique and Improvisation". I have really loved your first DVD in that it is a paragon of pedagogy. What makes the difference between your methods and the others’ such as Romane or Michael Horowitz? What does teaching bring to you?

I don't teach much anymore, I'm focusing a lot on expanding my DVD business, I'm in negociations with many fantastic artists. We just finished filming a DVD on authentic gypsy violin with Carmen Piculeata, a world-class Rumanian gypsy violinist. This is the first products of its kind, I did some research; there are no method books or videos of any kind that talk about gypsy violin that isn't -to put it bluntly- bullshit. This is the real deal, and I'm very proud and excited to release it, practically all the gypsy violin secrets that people are dying to know are revealed. This June, we will begin filming a Swing/Jazz violin DVD with Tim Kliphuis (Fapy Lafertin, Rosenberg Trio, etc...) similar to my own Jazz Manouche DVDs. My role in this business is to recruit the artists and produce the DVDs. The production part is especially important, because, in general, many artists don't know how to teach or how to organize their thoughts. Sometimes they don't even know what they're doing, and that's where my formal training comes in, I tell them what to say and explain to them what they're doing. For example, when we were filming the gypsy violin DVD, Carmen did not know the names of some of the scales, so I had to tell him. Sometimes he wasn't even sure what bow strokes he was doing, so I had to have him play them for me and I would tell him, down, down, up, etc... I am really working hard on this aspect of my instructional DVD business because quality production is what is lacking in most pedagogical videos. I own maybe close to a hundred of them! In all sorts of styles too. As a student and as a professional musician with formal training, I can confidently say that I know what's good and what's marketable. The problem is that the lessons are either too short, too superficial or the teachers don't know what they're talking about and it just ends up being a demonstration (which is, nonetheless, always fun to watch). Anyway, I work hard with the artists to focus on their strong points, and then I help them organize it in a coherent way so that it is easy to understand and so that the lesson plan is informative, progressive, dense and challenging. I want my DVDs to have both quantity (so far each of my DVDs last well over two hours) and quality. That said, I'm not trying to give the impression that my products are the only ones worth having. Far from it, a serious student should seek out information from any source (good and bad) and form his own opinion. Romane is really a fantastic guitarist, and he's one of the first to be putting out quality instructional materials; he's also got the authentic django sound down very well. Michael Horowitz's books are also really great. So I definitely recommend them.