mrmando
Dec-09-2004, 9:01pm
I occasionally get e-mails from new 5-string owners, asking if I know of a 5-string chord book they can use. Of course I never give the reply I'm dying to give: "If you'd spend a few measly hours learning some basic music theory, you'd understand the relationship between the chords you already know and the ones you seek. Furthermore, you'd understand the relationship between the frets and the notes, and between the notes and the chords, so you could figure out any chord you don't already know, whether your axe has a C string or not. Now leave me alone!"
Seriously, I do see the value of chord books: they're a great shortcut for people who learn visually or don't have a lot of time (building a new chord from your knowledge of theory may take a few minutes), or who just prefer not to reinvent the wheel. (I still maintain that you're shortchanging yourself if you just learn the chord fingering from the book without bothering to learn which steps of the chord are under which fingers, or what it is that makes your chord minor, major, augmented, sixth, seventh, suspended, whatever.) But there is no chord book fulfilling the specific request I sometimes get.
All of which is a rambling and unnecessary preamble to this announcement: a chord software product called Chord Alchemy 3.3 (http://www.tonalalchemy.com/index.php), which has an option for 5-string mandolin. I haven't tried this product, so I can't say I endorse it, and of course I'm not affiliated with the company selling it. But it's there. Now I'll have something I can actually tell people when they ask me that question. It's fun to be curmudgeonly, but probably better in the long run to be helpful.
Seriously, I do see the value of chord books: they're a great shortcut for people who learn visually or don't have a lot of time (building a new chord from your knowledge of theory may take a few minutes), or who just prefer not to reinvent the wheel. (I still maintain that you're shortchanging yourself if you just learn the chord fingering from the book without bothering to learn which steps of the chord are under which fingers, or what it is that makes your chord minor, major, augmented, sixth, seventh, suspended, whatever.) But there is no chord book fulfilling the specific request I sometimes get.
All of which is a rambling and unnecessary preamble to this announcement: a chord software product called Chord Alchemy 3.3 (http://www.tonalalchemy.com/index.php), which has an option for 5-string mandolin. I haven't tried this product, so I can't say I endorse it, and of course I'm not affiliated with the company selling it. But it's there. Now I'll have something I can actually tell people when they ask me that question. It's fun to be curmudgeonly, but probably better in the long run to be helpful.