I can't seem to get the run quite right by ear. Can someone point me to a tab for it?
Tanks!
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I can't seem to get the run quite right by ear. Can someone point me to a tab for it?
Tanks!
You mean the famous guitar G run used by Lester Flatt and Jimmy Martin? Do you want the same run tabbed for mandolin? Try singing or scatting it over and over until you have it firmly imprinted on your brain, then pick up your instrument and sound it out. It's one of the most basic licks there is.
Yes that's the one. I seem to have the notes but still am having trouble making it right. I guess I'll just keep at it. Your right of course, it's basic but it's my bug-a-boo for some reason.
Try This for fun
(G) Run & (G) run a little higher up the neck
E ____________________ E ___________________________
A ____________________ A ________ 5 7 5 ___(10)_______
D ________0 2 0__5_____ D 5__7 8 9 ___________________
G 0__2 3 4_____________ G ___________________________
You're not the only one. Not every bluegrass guitarist can nail it. Lester and Jimmy had different versions, Del has his own take on it. The notes are one thing, the timing, attack, slides are another. Some guitarists play it with rest-strokes (when going from string to the next highest string, don't use D/U but just keep the D/D after a brief rest), others D/U. Some pick every note, some use slides or hammer-ons. Lester (following Charlie Monroe) used a thumb pick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Canister
In short, fool around till you get the sound you like.
In "Earl's Breakdown", Lester's "G Run" consists of only the two notes E-G during the D-tuner parts. Del often uses F-G for the last two notes. The G run in "Uncle Pen " doesn't start on a G. Many variations.
Thanks guys! I think your right. It's my timing. I'll keep listening and working on it.
Woodwizard that's interesting.
Indeed. One of my all-time favorites is in Tony's version of Freeborn Man, right after he sings "Well I got me a Martin guitar" . . .Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Broyles
Yeah, Rony Tice idealized the G run, and it always was worth waiting for to see/hear him zing it at the end. He has a few flavors of it.
Funny, to take the pure G run (guitar lick) and apply it to mandolin, well...it certainly can be done, but to my ears, sounds a bit hokey, or something.
We're on the same page there. But, to reach that conclusion I had to do it myself, and there is some value in going there and then deciding you don't really like it.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanN
I do like a minimized, 2 - note pulloff that's probably not close enough to the "pure" version to even be recognized as a G - run. :grin:
yeah the thing the G run does won't be the same on the mandolin because of the rhythmic drive that is usually provided by the guitar or maybe the bass when you land real hard on that 1... won't sound quite right on the mandolin because there's no sustain... not that it's not a good thing to learn, because it's basically just pentatonic stuff that always sounds good anyways... it just won't really do what the G run does on a guitar, i.e. send the song into the next verse...
On one of the BGxx series things, a later one, the bunch does a tune called G Runs and Scruggs Licks, or something like that. Having a bit of fun with it, they make a number out of the litany of tags/endings/G runs. I need to go back and listen again, but I don't think the mandolin (Wayne?) does the G run, per se.
Although Jimmy and Lester, both had great G run/licks, to me, their's get somewhat monotonous. Charlie Waller had a better one,...one that was NOT monotonous! ...and then even better,....-the person who had the all-time best G run/lick was my hero,...-RED ALLEN! The secret to making a superlative G lick is to dwell on the 3rd note in the line up, A string open is the 1st note,..-A string 1st fret is 2nd note, then slurred to 2nd fret on A string,...that' the one you hold a little bit longer. Try it, this is what Red Allen does, and its sooooo GREAT!!Quote:
Originally Posted by swampstomper
Agree, Red was rock solid. I was just listening to his work on Bluegrass Holiday (JD Crowe, 1968), the backup guitar is just ... there! Train 45, Black Jack, and especially in the songs like Philadelphia Lawyer.Quote:
Originally Posted by mando-tech
Another great Red thing he was on is The Kitchen Tapes. Just guitar and mandolin, you can really hear/feel the groove (even with the crying baby...wonder who that was?) One tune on there is just Red, singing with his D-28...where he goes "Aw shucks, guitar" before the tag. Love that.
The G run is a somewhat dogeared cliche in Bluegrass - really, there is so much more you can do on the guitar. It's a bass run
and there's no bass on amdnolin - the highest note of the run is the lowest note on the mandolin. So, instead of trying to play guitar on the mando the relevant question is what to play against the G run. Listen, experiment.
Actually, in the G run, the ending G note on guitar (open string 4) is one octave above the lowest G mandolin pitch. There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.
Make that open string 3 (G).Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanN
Agreed.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanN
It's also nice sometimes to pound the root chord on that last note, on the 3rd beat (instead of normal 2 and 4) in conjunction with the end of the G run.
I appreciate the occasion change of emphasis to a single downbeat every now and then instead of the backbeat. It's a nice way to add emphasis to the start of a verse or chorus, sometimes to add emphasis to a particular lyric. Cold Sheets of Rain comes to mind, (Clay Jones's version).
Quote Originally Posted by AlanN View Post
Actually, in the G run, the ending G note on guitar (open string 4) is one octave above the lowest G mandolin pitch. There is nothing like a well-placed and executed G run, sparse or not, always forceful. It gets my hackles up and spurs me on to greater heights.
Check out the third string of your guitar with the 4th string of your mandolin and I think you'll find that they are the same octave.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanN
On some songs (mostly Jimmy Martind songs) when my band plays them I play the G run along with the guitar player at the end of the song, sort of like a harmony style and sometimes I run it backwards while he does it forward....My favorite guitar run is the way Red Smiley did the D run...Of course it helps to have a 1937 Martin herringbone guitar or one that sounds a lot like it....
Any runs that are played on guitar can be played on a mandolin also, it just takes a little practice, which I have had plenty of through the years....
Willie
It's still wrong. The open G on a guit is the same s the low G on a mandolin.Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanN
...let me amend what I said...(too bad , the creaters of this forum won't allow editing or deleting,)...so what I should have said inre to a GREAT G-run/lick;--the dwell should be on the FIRST note instead of the third. as I mistakenly said. When I got home from the library I grabbed the guitar, and soon saw I had made a mistake. -This is what makes Red Allen's G lick sound soooo much better!Quote:
Originally Posted by mando-tech
What kind of practice will extend the range of the mandolin downwards by a minor tenth?Quote:
Originally Posted by Willie