Chords and Lead

**Soupy1957** · May-29-2006, 7:23am

You know, when it's all said and done, I realize that the difference between being a guitar player and a Mandolin player really is that, as a guitar player, I could choose to be a Rhythmn or Lead player; and with Mandolin, it is almost comenserate that you be BOTH!
So I find myself learning both "chords" and "runs" from various sources.
My imput is coming from a monthly gathering of musicians, and in the interrum I'm using a book of tablature music that came with learning Audio CD's and a DVD instructional video for Mandolin beginners.
I don't know if I will ever be "good" at the Mandolin, but I want every advantage I can get, so my question is:
are there any avenues I'm missing, that would really help me be a "reasonably good Bluegrass Mandolin player?" (Practice, practice, practice......I know), but I'm just wondering what brought YOU to the point of being "respected" for your skills?
-soupy1957

**jmcgann** · May-29-2006, 7:35am

time, patience, determination, lots of hard work daily, and a good sense of humor

How you practice is important- I always suggest working with a metronome; once you get it, it is one of the things that separates the OK sounding players from the really good sounding ones feel-wise.

Honor tone above speed.

Learn a bunch a tunes, but learn the first one really well before moving on. Better to have six tunes down well than 12 wobbly B parts!

More Technique Tips Here.

Last week I shot 2 instructional DVDs- "Sound Fundamentals: Developing Good Tone and Technique" and "Rhythm Mandolin from Bluegrass to Celtic to Swing". It'll be awhile in the editing room but I will make an announcement once they are out of the oven...

**Jim Broyles** · May-29-2006, 9:59am

Soupy, I'm not trying to pick a fight with you, but I think I disagree with your premise a little bit. I believe that one should strive to be a "guitar player" or a "mandolin player" rather than a "lead" or "rhythm" player. The thinking that a rhythm guitarist just strums chords is one I abandoned years ago in favor of preferring a 2nd guitarist, who knew what to do with his axe, to play the rhythm parts. I've always been the lead player in bands, but when there was more than one guitar player in the band, I just wanted to play the rhythm part on some songs just because they sounded so cool.

Improvisation is part learned skill and part natural talent, but you have to know the instrument before you can begin to try to learn to improvise on it. I have a head start because improvisation was one of my strong points on guitar, so I have to learn some licks and learn where the notes are on the mando, but I already have the "musical" part of it in my head.

My best instrument by far is electric guitar, but I want to be a good bluegrass mandolin player, so I have taken my inherent skills, and my 40 + years of guitar learning and tried to translate that to the mandolin. I think one of the most important things about being a bluegrass player is to "think bluegrass." Listen to the masters until you can almost feel how a new song you've never played before is going to go because it's bluegrass and you're thinking bluegrass. Learn various ways of playing rhythm - the chop, of course, but also the double-stop tremolo and the back-up fills.

Learn your scales and learn at least the basics about music theory and harmony, listen to jmcgann, and as you said, practice, practice, practice.

**Soupy1957** · May-29-2006, 10:05am

jmcgann,
Thanks for the imput and the website stuff. I'll look them over and glean from them what I can.
I noted a section about right hand position and I'll pose a question based on fact:
Typically I find my pickie resting along the neck edge at the end of the neck and it seems to give me a good platform for stability but I don't know if it will bite me in the glutimus maximus in the end. Thoughts?
-Soupy1957

**Celtic Saguaro** · May-29-2006, 10:39am

If I remember correctly John is not a fan of planting a finger. I'd say be flexible. It sounds like you are playing the strings up on the end of the fret board. #No problem with that, but you may want to try picking other places on the strings and that will require moving your finger. #Generally, I think playing chords works better if you don't touch the mandolin with any 'right-hand' fingers. #When playing lead it's more of a matter of choice and personal comfort.

**jmcgann** · May-29-2006, 1:42pm

I don't believe in anchoring (EVER) myself, but if you look across the spectrum of players you'll find many who do. My advice is to think long and hard about it. I took my cues early on from Andy Statman, who I feel is one of the most evolved mandolinists of our time. His advice works pretty well for me, and I like to pass it on for people who are willing to try it out.

My upcoming DVD "Sound Fundamentals" will dig into this at length...

**Soupy1957** · May-30-2006, 5:05am

I've been using Mickey Cochran's "Intro to the Mandolin" as a baseline for now, along with a Song Book from Folk Of The Wood Entitled: "Bluegrass Mandolin Jam Tunes" by Rick Williams (comes with audio CD's that provide basic Jam Tunes with three different learning tempos to correspond with the Tablature in the book), as an additional source, along with (of course) attempting to play along with music CD's and songs on the radio (Sirius Satelite Bluegrass, if you guys want a great resource), and MY 40+ years on the guitar as well, as a translatable skill.
As an example, the slower "learning" tempo of Arkansas Traveler is probably painfully slow for professionals such as yourselves, but I'm proficient (good tone and accuracy) at about 60% of that tempo, (lol) using "Transcription!."
I'll get there fellas and gals......just watch me......lol.

**Soupy1957** · May-30-2006, 5:08am

Sorry: P.S.: the program is more accurately entitled "Transcribe!"
-Soupy1957

**250sc** · May-30-2006, 7:12am

I have to agree with jbmando that learning to be just a rhythm or lead player isn't teaching you to play the instrument. Can you imagine a piano player only playing single note lines but not chords or vise versa?

Soupy,
It's a good thing that learning mandolin is forceing you to get a better understanding of the instrument as a whole. Now you'll probibly start to see that they are just different ways of approaching the same thing. Single note stuff is based on the chords and often chord shapes that they are being played over. You'll start to see how this works the more you do it.