Beatles on mando

[mandobob]

I've been working out some Beatle stuff on the mando
(While My Guitar, Dear Prudence, and Across the Universe so far). Semi successful (I'm an awful player!), but some of it sounds ok. Any know of recordings to recommend? I'm not nuts about the "Picking on..." type bluegrassifacationism CDs, but any advice is welcome.
Thanks

[mandomood]

I don't know of any books but other tunes that work well are (sometimes you have to change keys of the tune though to fit nicely with open strings....)

eleanor rigby
here comes the sun
help!
blackbird

[John Flynn]

Both David West and The Hooters have done really great mando covers of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds."

[BenE]

There is a Beatles book for the banjo that is now out of print....The banjo player in my band just ordered a copy off of ebay. I'm not sure if it is in standard notation or tab...Hopefully I'll be able to transcribe some over to mandolin.
My band does Eleanor Rigby and Don't Pass Me By....both work out really well on mando....

[AlanN]

I messed around with Martha, My Dear years ago. Because was in the repertoire of early dawg bands, done as sort of a mando opus.

[johnwalser]

I saw the Beatles back in about '65 at Cleveland Stadium and have transcribed about a dozen of their songs to TAB for my mandolin.
I have a good fake book with just about everything they recorded.
John

[Strado Len]

Check out "Beatle Country" by the New England Bluegrass Boys, featuring Joe Val on mandolin. Originally issued by Elektra in 1966, and now available on CD (Rhino), the album features great bluegrass versions of Yesterday, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone, and other early Beatles tunes. It's really quite good.

[ira]

hey john w- willing to share some of your tab?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif??

anyway, we do norwegian wood- really easy d-c-d then dm-g dm-em-a. the riff in the intro sounds great on the mando and is really easy to figure out by ear in a number of octaves.

[mandobob]

Thanks folks; how could I have neglected Norwegian Wood!!!
That's exactly the type I love.
Eleanor Rigby is hard for me to attempt; a local guy named Bobby Syvarth played a jam funk version with John Skeehan of Railroad Earth on mando that has made that tune unattainable for me. "Jam funk" doesn't do it justice BTW, don;t know what else to call it. Truly awesome.
Thanks again.

[johnwalser]

Ira,
e-mail me at johnw@inreach.com and I'll send over any files I have stored electronically (some are still on paper). I use Excel and can send them to you as a web page.
John

[Kirby161]

as i recall blackbird is pretty hard to do "mandolinized" unless you put it into a different key.
however i will check out the otherones, thanks for the info!

[Amandalyn]

Nashville mandolin Ensemble's latest CD- BACH, BEATLES, BLUEGRASS features 3 Beatle tunes- Eleanor Rigby, Here, There, Everywhere, & With a little Help fr my Friends. All tastefully done.

[Martin Jonas]

as i recall blackbird is pretty hard to do "mandolinized" unless you put it into a different key.
however i will check out the otherones, thanks for the info!
The melody line of Blackbird is pretty straightforward on mandolin, I find. I play it straight from the "Beatles Complete (Guitar Edition)" songbook in the original key, and it works fine like that. The chords may be a different story, though.

Co-Mando has cool TablEdit mandolin arrangements of "Here, There and Everywhere" and "Yesterday", which I like playing a lot. I can't get my head around the Co-Mando arrangement of "When I'm Sixty-Four", though, and their "Norwegian Wood" is fine until it dissolves into a mess of double stops and crosspicking. "I've Just Seen A Face" is almost a mandolin standard by now (although I'm still trying to find a good way of playing the "Falling" bit on a single mandolin; any suggestions?). A bit more obscurely, I find that "Your Mother Should know" is nice for some picking.

Martin

[mandogeek]

Jack Tottle's "How To Play Mandolin" has simple but fun arrangements for "I'm Looking Through you" (it's a blast just flailing away on the chords) and "Get Back". Beatles melodies are so nice that they usually sound great on the mando.

[RolandTumble]

If only somebody would tab out "Only a Northern Song" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Brad Weiss]

Check out Evan Marshall's great take on "Do You Want To Know Secret" on Mandolin Magic (you can download the cut for free at amazon...

[ira]

did norwegian wood at open mic on thurs. and it killed! people especially loved the intro riff on the mando

[delsbrother]

Kind of a tangential question here, but someone on another board told me Big Mon played on Sgt. Pepper.. Is this true? Did he play mandolin? I'm having a hard time picturing Monroe with the Beatles..

Thanks,

Darrell

[mandobob]

whoa, I was just thinking this AM if there were any Beatle recordings with mandolin at all.
Maybe Big Mon was in the cover picture not on the record?

[spud]

Hello all!
I play in a band in Indy,called ..Spud Puppies!
We are just finishing up a recording..mostly original stuff
But we did record ..Rain by the Beatle's..another great tune!

I've worked on..Just a little..because alot is going on in this tune....Being for the benefit of Mr.Kite..another great tune!

If I could only find a mandositar I could do Within and Without You!


---------
Boyd

[jmcgann]

Two Very Easy Beatles Songs:

Tomorrow Never Knows:
C 5578
Bb/C 5356
C 5578

It's All Too Much
G 0023
sometimes C/G 0230

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