Closed scales?

[man dough nollij]

I've been plinking around on my new Bridger OM, trying to get used to the longer scale length, as compared with my old Trinity College OM. On the TCOM, I could manage a sort of closed scale, reaching the seventh fret with my pinky. On the longer scaled Weber, I have to jump down a ways to grab the notes on the seventh fret, causing a lot of squeek on the wound strings.

Do you real OM players even try to cover the seventh fret like that? On the mando, I try to be able to play everything from closed positions, if possible, just to make it moveable to higher frets. It this something I'll need to abandon on the OM?

Thanks in advance,

Lee

[pjlama]

I do it on my Old Wave, it's 21.5" and my hands aren't that big but I can stretch from years of double bass. What's the scale length on your Weber?

[man dough nollij]

It's 22 inches. I find that a lot of notes I can get with my ring finger on the TCOM require the pinky on the Bridger. I know a lot of this is probably finger strength and practice, but if I try to play scales totally closed, I hear a lot of string squeak as I jump down to the seventh fret. I should admit that I'm a noob player with no access to instruction right now-- just noodling around on my own.

[pjlama]

I think one of the cool things about OM is that you can really play it however you want. I'm really finding it fun since I'm not bound by an archetypical concept of what OM "should" be, I can develop my own thing. I'm playing almost no mandolin since getting my OM, it's just such a liberating instrument, pardon me if I sound dumb but it's so musical. With that said just do what feels right, stretch, shift, just play

[Bertram Henze]

I guess it will be difficult to stick to closed positions under all circumstances, even after getting used to the scale length, i.e. some will work and some won't.

My pinky is small compared to the other fingers (I always envy those who could put a wedding ring on their pinky), so I rarely use it anyway. In melody mode, I frequently change position with the whole hand and shortcut passages with double stops. In accompaniment mode, I play mostly 2-finger chords and double stops all over the fretboard, but nothing stretchy, i.e. I do what zouk players do.

Both playing modes do not exclude each other, there is a whole range of mixing, which comes in handy on a scale length between madonlin and zouk.

Position change can be done with a minimum of wound string squeaking; just release the grip in one position, shift with elevated fingers and tighten the grip again in the new position (looks a bit like what skiffle bass players do on their broomsticks).

Bertram

[Steve-o]

I'm playing almost no mandolin since getting my OM...

PJ - Gee, can I borrow your Giocomel? Just to keep it from getting lonely.

[Andy Miller]

I've had the same thought - "do real OM players try this?" I have a pretty good reach, being a bass player and guitar player as well. But on my 22 7/8" scale OM, reaching for the 7th fret from way down there by the nut as if it were a mandolin is pretty hard to do while maintaining good time and sound. Lots of focused practice would help improve that stretching and shifting, if I felt I just HAD TO be able to play the thing as if it were a regular mando.

Tim O'Brien's DVD about OM and mando talks about the scale length differences and challenges at some length, it's a pretty good DVD. One topic-related thing it validated for me is that a capo works pretty good on an OM!

Andy Miller

[man dough nollij]

So, what's the equivalent of FFCP for OM? I'm practicing ordinary mandolin scales on my new long scale OM, and I'm finding that it's a challenge. It's a good workout, though.

I'd be curious to hear what other Cafe CBOM'ers due to work out with scales.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I have short fingers and even a 20" OM (Garrison, Jbovier) is a stretch for me but manageable. On my 24" and 23" zouks (Richard Beard, Flatiron) I tend to stick to short melody bursts and counterpoint interspersed with double-stops. I don't try to play each note in a tune like a mandolin. To each his own, there's no right or wrong way...

[Eddie Sheehy]

And yes, a capo is indispensible for short-fingered folk on a zouk.

[steve V. johnson]

"So, what's the equivalent of FFCP for OM?"

I'm not sure that there is a direct equivalent, but a capo, barre chords (yep!), and (my choice) to default to the open strings, or ones in the lower registers, for notes instead of going up high for them.

Zan McLeod's instruction video has some barre chord information, I think.

stv

[groveland]

So, what's the equivalent of FFCP for OM? I'm practicing ordinary mandolin scales on my new long scale OM, and I'm finding that it's a challenge. It's a good workout, though.

I'd be curious to hear what other Cafe CBOM'ers due to work out with scales.

My cittern has a 25.5" scale and I tune it in fifths. Here's my strategy/technique: Finger a tetrachord per string, leverage half step moves with the pinky and index finger where possible. There are no set "positions". Closed voicings rule, and open strings are treated as exceptions. An example fingering strategy on 4 courses for me is often like:

===|===|===|===|=4=|===|=2=|===|=1=|=1=|===|| G
===|===|===|=4=|=4=|===|=2=|===|=1=|=1=|===|| D
===|===|===|=4=|=4=|===|=2=|===|=1=|===|===|| A
===|===|===|=4=|===|=3=|=2=|===|=1=|===|===|| E

(<-- bridge -- nut -->)

I also do standard FFcP style, with concessions. But leveraging the half steps like the example actually sounds better (for me) because I can solidly nail the note without a stretch making it fret out a bit, and you can get a lot of speed, too. Mix it up with half step slurs.