Pagan Man

I was fortunate enough to get a visit from Peter Jenner of Blackheath, Australia last week, who's been traveling around the US visiting some luthiers and other mandolin people, on his way to a choir performance in Cuba and then the completion of his world tour. He brought with him the first mandolin he built (under the name "Pagan"), and was kind enough to let me use it for a rehearsal and a show. He also left it lying around here long enough that I was able to make a studio recording of it. Here's some video of those events:

Sweetwater Creek at the Ponce De Leon Beer Festival 2013:

Bach Cello Suite #1 Prelude:

If you're looking for tab for the Bach, I found it at this link:
www.mandozine.com/music/tabledit_files/1_Preludeto1stCelloSuite.tef
But there are lots of other versions out there.

Doc and Dawg

Here's my attempt at Doc and Dawg, the title track to a wonderful album that Doc Watson and David Grisman made together. It was released in 1997 from tracks recorded over many years, mostly at Grisman's home.

You can download the tab here.

Bury Me Beneath The Willow

I played a version of this for the Mandolin Cafe song a week group and someone asked me to tab it out, which made me look at it again of course and play it in a slightly different way. Anyway, here's more or less the version I tabbed out, and here's the link to the tab. You'll have to let the notes ring a little more than the tab really shows, but if you look at the tab and watch the video hopefully it becomes clear how I'm intending it to be played.



Here's the link to the thread on Mandolin Cafe.

Eighth of January

And here's the Eighth of January, because tomorrow it will be. And here's the tab. My own version, mostly from the version on Rhonda Vincent's recent CD, with a touch of Monroe in the downslides.

Christmas Time's A Comin'

Here's an old Bill Monroe Christmas hit, written by Tex Logan. I made my own arrangement based on several I have heard. In the vocal version there is an extra half-bar of B in the middle section which is often left out when playing breaks or doing an instrumental version (I guess for obvious reasons), so I left it out too. I've embedded Bill's version below too so you can see how the full thing works out. Here's the tab for my version.

Jingle Bells

Here is my arrangement of Jingle Bells, you can download the tab here. Merry Christmas.

Old Joe Clark

Here's that old warhorse fiddle tune, Old Joe Clark. It's another one in the key of A.

And here is the tab for most of what I play in the video.

The Wolf Is At The Door

Here's another tab with a canine theme again from Rambler's Choice's Blue Side of the Blue Ridge CD. This time it's in B, and it's a fairly straight ahead break. I think it demonstrates nicely how to create some interest and variety while keeping mostly around the same position on the fretboard. It contains a lot of the classic staple stuff you need to play in B.

Tab for The Wolf Is At The Door.

Sausage Biscuit

Here's a new tune I wrote this week. I've called it Sausage Biscuit. I'll develop a nicer version with an improvised section eventually, but I just wanted to get the main head down and see what people think of it. Here's the tab.

Rawhide - John Duffey version

I've been thinking about this tune for a while and worked out some of John Duffey's version from the Country Gentlemen's Smithsonian Folkways live CD "On the Road (And More)", which I recommend to all bluegrass fans.

I tabbed out his first break from that, and played it slowly - I'm doing it about 105 bpm here, Duffey plays it at about 165bpm. Monroe played this up to about 190bpm. Those speeds are the true technical challenge of this tune and I'll try to work up to them and post a fast version some day. Working on tunes like this really helps when you have to play breaks in fast banjo tunes like Shuckin the Corn.

Here's the tab.



And look, here's me playing it now at a reasonable speed with the Buncombe String Band (July 2010)

Salt Creek, Adam Steffey

Here's a link to the TablEdit file of Adam Steffey's break on Salt Creek from the CD "Mountain Tradition", by Mountain Heart's Clay Jones. It's a great album full of traditional tunes like this, and a wonderful place to learn Steffey's approach to fiddle tunes (as is his AcuTab DVD).

Adam Steffey Salt Creek mandolin tab.

Ricky Skaggs is clever

He really is, and here's why: he always manages to sound absolutely impressive with the minimum amount of effort. This is a talent that is well worth emulating. In this snippet, playing with Boone Creek in the early 70's, Ricky only has a half a break on Head Over Heels to make his statement, but he does it perfectly.

Even though, when you break it down, this is seemingly a rather ordinary selection of stock Monroe-style phrases, the slides, hammer-ons and syncopations somehow convince you that a virtuoso has just stepped up to the mic. Here it is:



Notice in the third bar how he's moved on to playing out of an A chop chord shape while still on the D chord (the A chord is in the next bar) - often a very effective move.



The song is on iTunes, and well worth a listen, as is the rest of the album, One Way Track, an absolute classic. You will also notice Ricky's tone, which is fabulous.

Squirrel Hunters

Here's my version of the Squirrel Hunters, along with the tab.





Have a look for Mike Compton playing this with John Hartford to see how it should really be done.

Here's a slow version with no backing:

Closed position movable solos

Here is an example of a great little closed position solo, in this case in the key of C. The wonderful thing about these is you can play them in just about any key by moving them around, so it's really well worth putting in the effort to learn to play a number of these really fast, and to develop licks to embellish them.

Keeping this solo on the same strings but moving it up or down by one or two frets you can play in keys Bb through D. By transferring it to the next set of strings down you can play in E through A.

When I first started playing on stage, that was pretty much how I played every tune. It's surprising how often I hear something that sounds very cool and new on a recording, and when I start to transcribe it I find it's built out of this position.

The example below is from Wanda Vick's charming album "Bluegrass Hymns". It's about 19 bluegrass gospel standards but with no singing, just instrumental breaks, and I think Wanda plays all the instruments. Her fiddle playing is fabulous, and the rich variety of mandolin breaks is very instructive. She also has a perfect chop. This is played over the verse of "Shouting On The Hills of Glory".



Notice how in bar 6 and 7 when going to the G chord, she uses what I suspect is (and play as) a 2nd finger bar at the fifth fret over the 2nd and 3rd strings, and then comes out of it with a slide - a great little move. For the last 2 bars you'll want to back up with your 2nd finger on the 2nd fret.

Lonesome River Band - Heartless Love

Should it just happen that you are the one bluegrass mandolin fan who doesn't yet own a copy of "Carrying the Tradition" by the Lonesome River Band, face up to the inevitable now and make the purchase. You will not be disappointed.

Here is a transcription - in a TablEdit file this time - of Dan Tyminski's solo on Heartless Love. For my money, you can't do a better bluesy mandolin solo than this, so I don't know why Dan bothered to learn to play all those other instruments and sing so well too.

Heartless Love TablEdit File.

If you're anything like me, this will take at least a week or so to get under your fingers, so don't get discouraged.

Finally, here is a YouTube of it:

John Duffey, Redwood Hill and triplets

Here's a nice little triplet workout. Redwood Hill is a very pretty tune. Written by Gordon Lightfoot, the Country Gentlemen made it bluegrass. Eddie Adcock's banjo part in the first part of the break is beautiful, as is John Duffey's 2nd half. I have two recordings of this, and on each they do much the same break twice in the song - and why not when it sounds this good. On the "Live in Japan" album, Duffey goes triplet crazy towards the end of the second break. Notice how he uses hammer-ons, especially in the first triplet in measure 6, to keep his pickstrokes orderly. That particular passage is difficult for my right hand, and I think most people who aren't John Duffey would need to work that up slowly to nail it like he does at 220bpm.

In measure 10 I shift up to A position (fourth fret) because I think that's how it sounds like he did it, but you may find a better way.

Sliding exercises

Adam Steffey is one of the great sliders, and this exercise is inspired by his style. It's a whole break in G, but it's mostly just repeating licks to get your fingers into shape for Steffey-style sliding. Listen to him doing something like East Tennessee Blues, or just about anything really. Notice how I vary the note order slightly over the G chords to add interest. Experiment with sliding or not sliding wherever it's possible to get different effects.

Note how I use the open E string to facilitate the movement up the fretboard for the D position towards the end of the 4th measure - but there are other ways to do that, equally valid. It ends with a classic bluesy, sliding G lick. Get this up to around 240 bpm and you can wow the crowds.

I try to work these kind of new licks into just about all my breaks for a few weeks until I really get them solidly under my fingers - after that I try to pull them out only when they will actually sound tasteful.

Walking in Jerusalem - just like John Duffey

Speaking of awesome pickers, what about John Duffey. People talk about his great vocal range, but what most impresses me about his work is the tone and taste of his mandolin playing.

Here's his intro to "Walking In Jerusalem" from when he was with The Country Gentlemen in the 60's. Ricky Skaggs uses almost the exact same licks in his Boone Creek version of the same tune. Maybe they both got it from Bill Monroe, of course, I don't know because the version I have by Bill, he doesn't even bother to get out his mandolin (Anthology).

Anyway, here's the tab, the tune is in A.



Here's a YouTube of me trying to play it:


Just a note to say I finally figured out where Duffey got the idea from: it's basically the second half of Monroe's break from Uncle Pen - wouldn't you know it.