Improvising on Fiddle Tunes in A

A lot of fiddle tunes are like Kitchen Girl in that the first half starts with A major, and then goes to the G so you get a kind of myxolidian modal sound, and then in the second half they start in A minor and also go to G and other chords which I think makes them have a dorian modal sound. And then also in each part you can play pretty much straight A or A minor and G scales over the appropriate chords, plus you can play A blues scales over everything. All around there are a lot of options for improvisation - here's me messing around with some of those ideas over the chords to Cattle In The Cane, another very similar tune. You can probably hear shades of Cold Frosty Morning and Jerusalem Ridge in here too.



and here's the actual Cattle in the Cane, which I learned from the Bluegrass 95 CD:

Useful Lick - B to E

Here's a great little lick that takes you from B to E very nicely (for songs in the key of E) and will spice up the end of any break. You can take it down one string and it will lead from E to A in the key of A, and move it around a bit to make it fit in G, C or D and all the other keys. Work it up until you can play it at a good speed like 110 or 115 bpm, then slot it in your next improvised break. It has a great rhythm and feel.



You can hear this played on "You Let The Dog Off The Chain" on Junior Sisk and Rambler's Choice's CD Blue Side Of The Blue Ridge. I believe the mandolinist on that album was Chris Harris. Maybe the lick sounds like a little dog barking - that's a good way to remember it.

It's very tempting to use too much left hand finger pressure when playing a lick like this - avoid it at all costs, it hurts your fingers and makes it too hard to play the slides. I've found it worthwhile finding and practicing the minimum pressure I need to make the notes ring out, but not sound clipped or whispery. It takes me a lot of practice.

More about improvisation

People have a lot of different approaches to this, and I don't claim any great expertise in improvisation. I'm open to any suggestions of how to approach it, but here are my main thoughts, based on some discussions I've been having recently at Mandolin Cafe. I've included a couple of YouTube examples, the first kind of instructional.

When I approach an improvisation, I usually hope to be working on a tune I know well. If you don't know it well, all you can do, if you've had time to grasp the chords for the song, is play some appropriate scale runs and licks on the right chord. I play with a band who often have me go on stage with them on songs that I've only picked a couple of times. From this I have learned that both practicing and performing your improvisations thoroughly and regularly is the best way to get a successful result. I need to have played it in rehearsal four or five times, as well as practiced it in privacy quite a few more times, if the resulting improv is to be anything other than rather tedious chordal noise.

Improvisation is challenging, and preparation is essential. When I sketch out in my head what I'm going to try to do in a solo, I'll be thinking about licks I have under my fingers well, areas of the fingerboard that are good to explore in the particular key I'm playing in, and where I'm confident I can create some tension and excitement in my scale runs. While I play, I will also try to keep the melody running in my head. All of this is not easy, and the last part can be especially tricky if you don't know the song like the back of your hand. Many times I have come unstuck when the chorus of a song has a very different melody and chord structure to the verse, and I'm expected to solo over the verse right after hearing the chorus. I know from listening to other players I'm not alone in this.

I will also try to have planned out some simpler, fallback positions if things don't go well and I find my solo wandering too far out of my control. It can be very deflating to miss a few notes or hit some wrong ones when I'm supposed to be creating a soaring climax to a song, and once I lose confidence it all becomes more difficult.

I guess my main point is, people like to think of improvisation as something wild and free requiring no preparation. Well, it would be great if it were like that, but my own experience is not like that at all. For me, it's much easier to learn a fiddle tune or a solo note for note, than to work up the scales, licks and expertise to improvise a solo effectively.

Anyway, here are those YouTube examples so you can watch me struggling with these ideas:

Improvising Kit Bag 3: Steal from Other Instruments

If you want to add licks to your bag, you don't have to stick with what other mandolinists play. Fiddlers, banjo pickers and guitarists have all kinds of great licks, so I don't see why I shouldn't steal from then too. Tony Rice loves this lick, he plays it at the end of his break on "Your Love Is Like A Flower" (Bluegrass Album Band), and quite a few other places too. Try playing it in a lot of different keys, I found E was good too, but here it is in G and A:



It sits nicely over any I-V-I change. You can also use the first half in many other situations, and you can vary the second part (over the V chord) to suit the song or how you feel that day.

Improvising Kit Bag 2 - Key of A

Here are two more endings in the key of A, both of them over a standard I-V-I chord sequence. The first is in the A chop position, with your index finger at the fourth fret, and second is in the open position. For the third bar of the first example, try to maintain your position and use your pinky if it's up to it. If not, you can reposition your first finger up to the fifth fret. You can hear very similar licks to these used on many professional recordings.



The best way I have found to try to incorporate new licks into my improvisations is to first practice the lick so I can play it at almost any speed in isolation, working with Band In A Box or a metronome. Then I try it out in breaks that I do regularly, playing along with recordings of my band. And then I try pulling it off in a live situation.

When you're working on building a new lick into your reportoire, I don't think there's any shame in slipping it into as many solos as you can, just for a while. You may bore your bandmates for a few weeks, but they'll be grateful in the end to have a more versatile mandolinist. At least, that's my theory.

Improvising Kit Bag 1 - Key of A

To start packing the improvising kit bag, here are a couple of simple turnarounds in the key of A. The first can be used wherever you have two bars of E resolving to A, and the second, where you have just one bar of E. This is typical in a song like Hallelujah I'm Ready or dozens of others, where the longer V chord falls in the middle of the verse and the shorter one comes at the end. If you're just following the melody in that song, you've got nothing to say over the long E in the middle of the verse unless you're prepared. Think about where the melody falls in that tune, and then try slotting these licks in at the appropriate places. Then try them in all the other suitable tunes you know. Try them next time you're in a jam or playing a show. It's the only way to expand your kit bag.

Notice how each lick contains a little element like a slide or a blue note that gives it its character and flavor. Unless a phrase has something unique and memorable, it doesn't belong in your kit bag.

Improvising Kit Bag

Improvising's a controversial subject so I'll try not to make too many generalizations about it, but from what I've seen - especially when forced to put together a break on the spot for a fast tune - instead of hand-crafting a beautifully nuanced brand new composition right there and then, most folks, even pros, just follow the tune as best they can, and then copy and paste in their favorite licks for kickoffs and endings.

Usually the place they do this most obviously is in the joins - by that I mean the places half way through the verse and at the end of the verse, at the end of the vocal line. Often there is no clue what to play here from the melody, since it's where the singer pauses for breath. Mostly it's where either there's 2 bars of the V chord resolving to the I, or else one bar of I, and one of V, then back to I.

So, you need some licks prepared for these situations. Not only that, but if you have some fancy licks to insert here, in my view it makes it easier to be faithful to the melody in the other parts of your break. The reason is, you're not under any pressure to make up something impressive on the spur of the moment, because you have something up your sleeve, like the best magicians.

In my next few posts I'll be showing you some of the goodies I'm working on for my kit bag. The good news is, just about every mandolin break you ever hear can give you ideas to expand your bag, so you don't have to rely on me - you can rip them off from everybody.