Too much Tremolo??

**Cheryl Watson** · Jul-26-2012, 6:15pm

Tremolo used in the "right" place for a solo break or backing a vocalist can sound great to my ears but what sounds "right" is subjective.

At our last band practice, we were working up a new song and I obviously was playing waaay too much tremolo on the intro because my bandmates burst into laughter. I looked up and asked, "Too much?" I modified my approach on the next try.

**JeffD** · Jul-26-2012, 6:20pm

Originally Posted by Justus True Waldron

- but 90% of the time I hear people using tremolo it sounds like a gimmick or a crutch for not knowing scales and arpeggios.

I know what you are saying, and we might disagree about the exact percentage. But... by the same token I think there are a ton of lame scale and arpeggio breaks in BG jams. And that irritates me as much if not more then to frequent use of tremolo.

I guess the first law of bluegrass, as someone posted somewhere here recently is, "don't be lame". Whether its tremolo, arpeggios, pentatonics, or what ever, it should sound like its what you want to do, not like its all you know how to do.

Can't go wrong sticking close to the melody. I'm just sayin....

**Mike Bunting** · Jul-26-2012, 6:25pm

Trembling the mandolin works pretty good here.

[ATTACH]

**Cheryl Watson** · Jul-26-2012, 6:30pm

OMG! I miss the tremolo sooo much! LOL

**Mike Bunting** · Jul-26-2012, 6:51pm

More great tremolo.

**Bill Foss** · Jul-26-2012, 7:15pm

Originally Posted by Mike Bunting

More great tremolo.

Amen brother! That's the good stuff right there as far as I'm concerned.

**Laird** · Jul-26-2012, 7:28pm

Nice timing for this thread. Just this weekend I saw a well known Vermont bluegrass band at a local alternative-energy festival, and I was surprised at how much tremolo the mandolin player used in his breaks. Sounded fine to me, and the audience loved it, so right then and there I decided, "Heck, I'm going to start using more tremolo in my breaks--since I can sound like I'm doing something harder than I really am with more grace than a lot of my solos."

Bottom line: tremolo probably sounds more impressive (and enjoyable) to the general audience than to other mando pickers who know what's really going on.

**JeffD** · Jul-26-2012, 7:44pm

Originally Posted by Laird

Bottom line: tremolo probably sounds more impressive (and enjoyable) to the general audience than to other mando pickers who know what's really going on.

I have to tell ya, of all the people at a jam or venue whose opinion of my playing I care about, the fiddler, say, or the show off guitarist, the banjolator, the host, the cute red head at the bar, of all of them, the person whose opinion least matters to me is another manodlin player.

Wasn't always like that, but it sure is now.

The mandolin player, by and large, is listening to (and watching) my playing, and not so much listening to the music I am making. And what I care most about is the music.

**greg_tsam** · Jul-26-2012, 9:08pm

Wow. Of all the topics to set off a touchy debate...tremolo?

For the record, tremolo is what I love about the mandolin even more than fast, hot licks and I love the heck out of hot licks. I love the sweetness of tremolo and even played a whole song with it. heehee.. When people talk about how pretty the mandolin is or how beautiful the sound they're usually talking about tremolo. How could you have the Godfather movies without tremolo?

Tremolo haters? I would have never thunk it.

**JeffD** · Jul-26-2012, 9:15pm

Not haters, just preferrers and non-preferrers. I think its more a question of the place of tremolo in bluegrass, which is under contention. Great minds can disagree.

**Willie** · Jul-26-2012, 9:15pm

I learned mandolin playing from a tremolo master, Buzz Busby....I guess I use it sometimes now because I have no idea what arpeggios and scales are...I would much rather hear tremolo and hear the tune instead of hearing a lot of notes being thrown in and jumbled all together....

What ever turns you on and I guess if it is played on every song it can get boring but so does this modern style of mandolin playing where you can`t hear the melody....

Willie

**Mike Bunting** · Jul-26-2012, 9:24pm

Man, I love Buzz Busby. I'm not touchy at all, I just wanted to post some Youtubes and these seemed appropriate. I don't really care what people play, I just listen to see what they are putting down.

**Fretbear** · Jul-27-2012, 12:06am

Alethea sitting on a rock, playing her "manalin" as she called it. It gets broken and Cain repairs it later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC1iwMnu9Kk

**Jared Heddinger** · Jul-27-2012, 12:18am

Personally, I'm in the whole "use it sometimes, sometimes don't" boat. I feel it can bring some really powerful emotion to any song that you're playing, but that emotion only shows up if you censor yourself from using it to much.

What I can't stand though is people who think the mandolin is only for tremolo. I was playing a bit ago and everyone seemed to love how I can "make that little thing wail" but when I took a break of single notes no one even noticed. They said I needed more
tremolo in my playing, apparently thats what the mandolin is for.

**greg_tsam** · Jul-27-2012, 8:21am

Originally Posted by Jared Heddinger

Personally, I'm in the whole "use it sometimes, sometimes don't" boat. I feel it can bring some really powerful emotion to any song that you're playing, but that emotion only shows up if you censor yourself from using it to much.

What I can't stand though is people who think the mandolin is only for tremolo. I was playing a bit ago and everyone seemed to love how I can "make that little thing wail" but when I took a break of single notes no one even noticed. They said I needed more
tremolo in my playing, apparently thats what the mandolin is for.

haha.. Are you playing for attention of the crowd or for yourself? The audience is fickle and uneducated lots of time. "What is that thing you're playing? Is that a little guitar?"

**bristolpistol** · Jul-27-2012, 9:31am

I agree that a little bit of tremolo goes along way, imho. As a beginning mandolin player, I swore to myself that when I become proficient on the mandolin, I will do my best not to rely on tremolo but to try to fill in with picked notes whenever possible.

**AlanN** · Jul-27-2012, 9:53am

Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful thing, and in the right hands, can be very lovely. Jimmy Gaudreau's tune Florentine Waltz, off the underrated Classic JAG LP, is just gorgeous and he trembles throughout.

**DamonIRB** · Jul-27-2012, 9:56am

Originally Posted by greg_tsam

haha.. Are you playing for attention of the crowd or for yourself? The audience is fickle and uneducated lots of time. "What is that thing you're playing? Is that a little guitar?"

My granddaddy used to tell me that he always wanted to look at the audience and say, "Y'all are too stupid to know this don't suck, so here we go!" I really miss that guy...

**JeffD** · Jul-27-2012, 10:12am

Originally Posted by DamonIRB

My granddaddy used to tell me that he always wanted to look at the audience and say, "Y'all are too stupid to know this don't suck, so here we go!" I really miss that guy...

I would have loved to meet him. That is the attitude I find myself in during many performances.

I did a concert once, where I played all Scottish tunes, on a bowlback, at a Burns Day Supper of a local Scottish society. I had prepared and overprepared about 25 beautiful tunes, till I was strong on all of them. After the main part of the performance someone made a request that I play "Capt. Corelli". Then someone else asked for "Never on Sunday". The last request was for "Rawhide".

**JeffD** · Jul-27-2012, 10:14am

Originally Posted by Jared Heddinger

I was playing a bit ago and everyone seemed to love how I can "make that little thing wail" but when I took a break of single notes no one even noticed. They said I needed more tremolo in my playing, apparently thats what the mandolin is for.

No more than the banjo is "for" that three finger roll. Its what folks who have heard of a mandolin or banjo expect.

**Alex Orr** · Jul-27-2012, 10:32am

Originally Posted by Smiley Pockets

Maybe this is a split between older style bluegrass players and modern style players. I'm a big believer in tremolo. I just finished a workshop with Mike Compton and he talked at length how the tremolo is at the heart of Monroe's style and his own style. All the players I admire most, Monroe, Wakefield, Ronnie McCoury, Paul Williams, David Grisman, Compton all use tremolo generously and masterfully.

It's one of the techniques that makes the mandolin unique from the other instruments in a bluegrass setting. To me it's such an important part of bluegrass that when I hear a lack of tremolo, my first thought is that the player doesn't know how to do it or doesn't have the chops to pull it off. Getting a smooth tremolo in time isn't easy. In other genres of mandolin music it is an extremely important technique as well, I'm thinking of Italian music and classical.

I was going to say something in response to the OP, but it would read exactly like this.

Speaking personally, if there is one thing I could do to make me more of the player I'd like to be it would be adding more tremolo. I actually have a really strong tremolo in terms of the technique itself, but my biggest problem with trem is that I can easily lose track of the chord changes and the rhythm when I employ it, thus making it a frustratingly unreliable technique in my arsenal. I love tremolo, and I love the older style players. The younger guys sound like flatpickers who just happen to be using a mando instead of a guitar. All fast flurries of notes. Cool, you can play fast. Boring. I think that style robs the instrument of some of its soul.

**shortymack** · Jul-27-2012, 10:58am

Ah...tremolo. Being from guitar I always thought it was the slight repeated bending/vibrating of a string during its sustain but in the world of mando it takes on a whole new meaning. Personally, I think it sounds ok and havent really incorporated the technique into my playing yet but it does envoke one thing in my mind when I hear it, the vision of being taxied on a gondola down the canals of Venice.

**Bill Foss** · Jul-27-2012, 11:06am

Originally Posted by Alex Orr

The younger guys sound like flatpickers who just happen to be using a mando instead of a guitar. All fast flurries of notes.

I pretty much agree with you there. And that's one reason why I like the tremolo, because it is so "mandolinistic" meaning it's something that only the mandolin can really pull off and sound good.

Also, a few posts have alluded to the idea that tremolo is easy and so is used too much to fill up breaks when you can't think of some single notes to play. Maybe it's just me, but it was one of the harder techniques for me to learn. Maybe we are debating the difference between well executed tremolo and badly executed tremolo. I know if I don't kick off a tremolo section just at the right speed and on the right beat, it will sound like crap and it's pretty hard to recover from. If I stumble on a single note section it's much easier to recover from and get back on track.

**greg_tsam** · Jul-27-2012, 11:08am

Originally Posted by JeffD

After the main part of the performance someone made a request that I play "Capt. Corelli". Then someone else asked for "Never on Sunday". The last request was for "Rawhide".

Was your finale "Freebird"?

**Bill Foss** · Jul-27-2012, 11:13am

Originally Posted by JeffD

I did a concert once, where I played all Scottish tunes, on a bowlback, at a Burns Day Supper of a local Scottish society. I had prepared and overprepared about 25 beautiful tunes, till I was strong on all of them. After the main part of the performance someone made a request that I play "Capt. Corelli". Then someone else asked for "Never on Sunday". The last request was for "Rawhide".

...and they all need tremolo to sound like the great tunes they are!