BLUEGRASS, A MANDOLIN LESSON

BLUEGRASS, A MANDOLIN LESSON

That is the title of a FACEBOOK page of the IBMA.  It is from mandolincafe.com and is chock full of great tips for playing mandolin in a BLUEGRASS band and I am sure many local area players do not follow these. (Of course there are other playing styles for mandolins in other genre.)  A main theme in these four pages is to study how the great originals played: Bill Monroe, Jesse McReynolds, Bobby Osborne, the Louvin brothers, bluegrassers all. There have been many other excellent players like Jethro Burns, but he was a jazz mandolin player. That style does not work so well in a bluegrass band. You must listen to their recordings and learn to play note for note with them. Don’t try to jump ahead.  Listening to the masters is how David Grisman, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Doyle Lawson, Butch Baldassari and others learned. You have to get the sounds in your head if you want to play them on your instrument.  (That is true of fiddle, guitar, banjo, etc. as well.)

 G, C, and D are the three main chop chord positions for bluegrass mandolin. The G is one of the first and also the hardest chord to master (just the opposite of some other instruments). Don’t get discouraged if it takes some time. (Finger stretching exercises may help: Roger’s note.) With the chop chord the mandolin takes the place of a snare drum in other bands. IT SHOULD BE PLAYED ON THE 2 AND 4 BEAT. If you are playing on the 1 and 3 you will never be a bluegrass mandolin player. Listen to any GOOD BLUEGRASS CD and you will hear that percussive “pop” on the 2-4 beat. In order to get it DO NOT hold the strings down constantly on the frets like on a guitar. Your fingers should be RESTING on the chord you are preparing to play.  Then as you are moving the pick toward the strings to strike them, quickly depress the strings and let OFF as soon as the pick strikes all of the strings.  In other words you’re quickly dampening or muting the chord once it is played. Your ability to cut off the ringing sound defines the amount of “pop” sound you want.

Roger’s Note:  Try to read the entire lesson on FACEBOOK or by googling Mandolin Cafe.  It is available in an easy print version too. In this summary I have edited a lot, but tried to convey the basic message which you need to follow in order to become a GOOD bluegrass mandolin player. Thanks a lot Mandolin Café.