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yoshka
Feb-29-2008, 4:21am
My 16 year old daughter is teaching herself guitar and I heard her strumming the chords to #"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Dylan. It's a easy song to sing and play. I said let's do something together (nothing like jamming with your kids) so I got my mandolin and chopped along with her. What I'm asking here is what if I want to do some double stops, maybe a bit of tremolo. Could someone suggest which double stops they use (or would use).

The chords for the song are:
G - D - Am, G - D - C (X2) #
G - D - Am , G - D -Am (chorus)
The melody is : B-A-G-A, B-A-G-E

So would I play the melody note and find a double stop that is for the chord being played at the time? Higher or lower? Third or fifth? #Seems that I could play the melody with my right hand at the closed position G. I know there is no right or wrong, I'm just looking to play something that would hold close to the melody. I know on the Mandozine site there are a couple of good articles about double stops but I was hoping that someone would give me an example and that would help me start making sense of things.
Thanks
Yossi

Jason Kessler
Feb-29-2008, 11:47am
Can't help you with the double stops issue, but:

A few years ago, I was playing mandolin in a reggae band (long story), and we did a nice, slow version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door. It was peculiarly comfortable in that genre. Maybe surprise your daughter with some upstrokes on 2 and 4...

Mike Bunting
Feb-29-2008, 2:21pm
Try them all and see what sounds good to you.

John Gardinsky
Mar-19-2008, 9:24pm
Here are some double stops that might be of interest to you. They have the melody note plus the next harmony note higher.

For "mama" try 9th fret D string and 5th fret A string.

For "badge" try 7th fret D string and 5th fret A string.

For "me" try 7th fret D string and 3rd fret A string.

Repeat the first two double stops for "I" and "it".

Then try 9th fret G string and 5th fret D string for "more".

As laborious as it is to read this it should make sense if you sit down and find them on your mando. I hope this helps you make some music with your family. Have fun, John

yoshka
Mar-21-2008, 1:08am
Thanks for the input. Those double stops sound good. It also helps me to understand the use of double stops.
To F4Fake: "Knockin'" is a song made for reggae.
Yossi

thistle3585
Mar-21-2008, 12:19pm
There's a version on the Pizza Tapes by Garcia and Grisman.

ronlane3
Mar-25-2008, 12:56pm
My Father-in-law and I play this song sometimes and I just played fill using the scales and he really liked it. Said that he had never heard a mandolin played on that song before. I used 2 fingered chords to strum with him between the fills that I put in. I also took a break and he loved it.

Kevin Briggs
Mar-25-2008, 1:17pm
My 16 year old daughter is teaching herself guitar and I heard her strumming the chords to #"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Dylan. It's a easy song to sing and play. I said let's do something together (nothing like jamming with your kids) so I got my mandolin and chopped along with her. What I'm asking here is what if I want to do some double stops, maybe a bit of tremolo. Could someone suggest which double stops they use (or would use).

The chords for the song are:
G - D - Am, G - D - C (X2) #
G - D - Am , G - D -Am (chorus)
The melody is : B-A-G-A, B-A-G-E

So would I play the melody note and find a double stop that is for the chord being played at the time? Higher or lower? Third or fifth? #Seems that I could play the melody with my right hand at the closed position G. I know there is no right or wrong, I'm just looking to play something that would hold close to the melody. I know on the Mandozine site there are a couple of good articles about double stops but I was hoping that someone would give me an example and that would help me start making sense of things.
Thanks
Yossi
This is a good idea for a YouTube video. I'll do one tonight about "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." I'll make sure to include double stops and what not. I started playing instruments because I wanted to play Bob Dylan songs. When I was a teenager, he was my idol. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" was the first song for which I could sing and play the guitar at the same time.

Kevin Briggs
Mar-25-2008, 7:12pm
Yoshka,

I made the "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" video. Just keep one thing in mind: I realize how badly I suck at tremolo. I should have used the rounded edge of my pick to do it, to get that softer sound. Instead, I ignorantly used the pointier end, and it's pretty harsh. Oh well. The positioning is good. The attack needs work.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpVgSRpEBAI

Have fun!

yoshka
Mar-26-2008, 7:18am
THANK YOU KEVIN!

David Lloyd
Mar-27-2008, 6:36pm
Kevin,
What is the mandolin that you are playing in the video?
Dave

Kevin Briggs
Mar-28-2008, 6:56am
Dave,

That's a custom Weber fern: red spruce top, one-piece back, custom neck, pearl nut. Here's a video introducing it. I got it in January:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJrsTmluSfM