Don, GDGD was perfect for that tune. It really gives it that old time ringing through the holler sound. Eric
Thanks, guys. I sure enjoyed watching/listening to everyone's versions of this good chicken tune. GDGD/AEAE crosstuning can be addicting on these kinds of tunes.
I agree, i really like that sound but, for a newbie, how would you go about changeing the fingering from TABs, etc. you would move the normal AE notes up 2 frets ? maybe i should stick to the standard tuning till i get more familiar with it. just curious. thx mc
Actually, I'm playing it in the key of G. If I had tuned up to AEAE, then it would be in the key of A. I just like to sound of this mandolin better in GDGD than AEAE. To play in crosstuning, you find the tune on the first 2 strings. Anything you play on the first 2 strings can be played with exactly the same fingering on the bottom 2 strings. The only thing that throws you off is when the melody falls on more than 2 strings. But you'll figure that out pretty quickly. Crosstuning/alternative tuning is also a great justification for another mandolin.
Don, thanx. i see what you mean. I already have 3 mandolins and my better half is ok with that, or so she says, but Maybe...... i'll crank one up, (down) tomorrow. BTW, really like the CD, even put it on Carol's iPod and she agrees. NFI mc
I've experimented a couple of times with cross tuning. I would think that you couldn't easily come up with how to do it if you are used to reading tab. It's much easier if you start with a tune that you already know how it goes. Then, with your mando in it's new tuning, experiment with playing the scale (if you've tuned it GDGD, then the G scale) up two octaves, to familiarize your fingers with where the 2nd octave falls differently from the regular tuning. Then play the D scale starting on your low D string, to familiarize yourself with that. I think of that as quickly training your brain as to which finger you're going to use to get that sound. Then, play a tune you know without having to think much. For me, it doesn't take long to make the adjustment.
Barbara, it definitely helps to know the tune--to be able to sing it or hum it--when you're first starting out in crosstuning. I learned Cluck Old Hen in standard tuning first, then transferred that to crosstuning. mculliton, thanks. I've been really pleased with response to my CD.
I think that knowing a tune so that you can 'play it in your head' while you are playing it with your fingers, is a key to playing an instrument well. That way, you can instantly tell when you've hit a wrong note! I'm now just learning to play rhythm on my OM, and it's to tunes that I already know how to play the melody, so I play the melody in my head, while I'm playing the chords on the OM! Works for me!
OK, thanx to Don and Barbara for the GDGD tutorial. here is my first try at it. sorry i get out of sync towards the end and the mic was too close but i think i got the basic idea.thx again. mc
And, i just had to try this on the Tiple the bottom 2 strings are GC so i had to play it backwards way around, i think also, you may notice that I am now recording in my Secret Underground Lair. Well, actually it's just a corner of my basement, near my wine cellar, where i can play in the evening w/o bothering Carol while she's watching CSI. ( i swear she is just using it to learn how to hide the evidence when i finally push her over the edge,,,, can ya blame her?) mc
Michael, very nice on both accounts! Are we supposed to NOT bother our significant others? hmmmmmm
Well, if ther's one thing i've learned in these last 37 years it is that 'prudence is the better part of valor'. and thanks for the nice words. i'm really likin' how this group just pushes me out of my comfort zone and try all sorts of new things. thanx to all. mc
Better late than never. Here's my rendition of the tune, and yay I'm back in the living room with the fixed up laptop, and as you can hear we still need furniture in this room... (recognize the empty kind of sound ??)
Susi, is that a mando you're playing? You MUST be tiny.... it looks like a full size OM next to you! Great version, by the way!
Very nice version, Susi !! It's good when someone is late because that's what bumps up the oldies mc
Probably a camera trick, or I lost a lot of weight during this bad-stomach-awaiting-a-diagnosis period of time (I need to play LOTS of music to forget that I'm waiting for a gastroscopy some time soon). Actually in this video you only see the thinnest part of me.... The version is mainly from the mandolin picker's fakebook mixed with something I got from Tim O'Brien or something from a tef file long ago..
Sounds great, Susi. Everyone should have a room in their house without furniture. Enjoy the fun sound while it lasts
Susi, hope you get WELL soon! I don't look that thin, even behind my cittern! (I'm jealous!)
Barbara, I'm jealous of everyone who doesn't have to do a gastroscopy!! Seriously I don't even think that I've lost weight, at least the scale doesn't say so. I think the Apple store guy did something weird to the webcamera when he repaired the laptop.... something similar to the funny mirror or something! Btw Barbara, if the cittern doesn't help, you should get an Orsa bass. It's a weird kind of instrument they invented in Orsa where I grew up, something like a double bass that you play like a guitar. Even Dennis Caplinger would look small behind one of them!
Ages ago, someone of you saw a fiddle in one of my photos and requested a fiddle video... here it is!! I'm not great at all and haven't been playing the fiddle for AGES! But i took it up again last weekend when I, very spontaneously, decided to go to a fiddle tune workshop. So inspiring! And now midsummer is coming up and we're going up to Dalarna to the usual celebration, and even if I work the night before we plan to be there in time! Anyway, here's my humble fiddle version of the tune. I make a lot of mistakes in the second A part, that's why it sounds so weird... Here the fiddle definitely looks huge! But it's probably because the fiddle is closer to the camera than I am.
Susi, thanks for posting! If that's you 'rusty', I'm sure you'll wow us when you get refreshed on it!
Susi, for what it's worth, I had both Endoscopy and Colonoscopy eight years ago when I was diagnosed with Coeliac's Disease (intolerence to Gluten). Although it's not great to look forward too, they are not painful and all you suffer from is discomfort to your dignity! The worst thing for me was being told I couldn't drink Guinness anymore.....no beer......although I can drink Cider.....been Gluten free for eight years, no bread, pasta, noodles....and the result of the diet was I put on three stone!!!!! That depressed me more than anything!!!!! My jeans size went from 30 inch to 36 inch.....I wasn't that impressed with being 'better'!!!! It's probably the choclate as that is gluten free!!!!!! Keep playing and take your mind off it as doing things you love eases the tension........
Will do, Tosh. There's nothing else to do anyway. Playing music and hoping for decent sedation Anyway, today I learned that it may take up to 3 months before I'll have it done and I can't go around in anguish for 3 months, so playing music and doing other nice things is the thing to do. I have some nice events coming up and most likely I'm still on normal food when I go to Italy in the end of July which means I can enjoy the pizza alla diavola and pasta of all sorts. Actually, didn't think of the fact that beer and stout contains gluten... not that I care though!
I never knew I wanted it or that it even existed until I heard David's Mandonator. In today's mail was a resonator mando and ukulele all the way from Republic Guitars in Texas (and I guess China before that). They're not the Mandonator by any stretch, but Jeff's loving his yuke and I'm having a blast with the mandolian for a night. Tomorrow we'll turn them over to my mom who got them as our Christmas/birthday gift. I made a quick video tonight to remember it till then. As you can see, the 15" scale length takes more than a night to get used to.
That's a mean machine Marcelyn! Look forward to more post's with it after xmas!!!! Jeff didn't get a resonator Uke did he? That would be interesting!
He did, Tosh. But I'm thinking we'd better not play them at the same time. The shere volume might knock out a wall or worse--wake up our kids.
Wow, Marcy, that sounds soo good!! Both your playing and that ugly machine. A friend of mine here in Sweden has one, and although I don't really like it (I prefer the usual mando sound), it is so, so cool! I realize my old vids are gone since they were on the old YT channel (I've been messing about quite a bit with accounts lately but now have one that will STAY) so I should record some new videos with all these neat old tunes.
That's funny Susi. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. My six-year-old little girl for example, thinks it's the only mandolin a princess would have because it's the shiniest. And I was about to write you on those disappearing videos. I was so excited to see the post about your fiddle version above and then...nothing. What a let down. Get some more up soon.
Hahahaha! So typical little girl stuff! I promise to make some more, new videos soon. I definitely need to practice fiddle this week, since my fiddle workshop group is going to play for dance next Friday and I don't know all the tunes decently yet. So while I'm warmed up, I can also try to re-record Cluck old hen
Nice axe Marcelyn! I like the way it produces a slide. The first mandolin player I ever heard in person played a similar instrument. The body was all metal, but a bit smaller than your resonator. He was an older fellow and he could really whail on that thing. He and a flatpick guitar player were the anchors of a regular Friday night open mic in rural NW Missouri. He passed away a number of years ago, but I think the open mic survived him and is still going strong.
A new fresh Cluck old hen from me
Susi, when you said "soon" you weren't joking. You sure don't seem like you've let your mandolin playing get rusty if you can whip out a video like that on a moment's notice. I love the double stops and will have to throw those into mine. Good luck on your Friday Performance. Martin, that sounds like such a fun jam session. I'd like to have heard it.
Nicely executed Susi!
Thanks guys! Hahaha, Marcy, no joking here! My mandolin playing seems to get better if I take a break...as weird as it may sound. This was actually one of the first bg/ot tunes I learned so it's not really new to me. I've made a list of all the tune of the week tunes now that I can possibly learn.. to get my mandolin playing going again.
Nice reso-mandolin Marcelyn! Can't get this tune out of my head because of you so I had to go get the banjo, mandolin and guitar and record it. No video but a slide show about chickens, eggs, railroad men etc. Like Susi, this is one of the first old time tunes I learned. Susi: nice version of 'Cluck' and glad to meet you!
Nice job, Michael, and it's nice to meet you too!
That's awesome, Michael, you never played it twice the same. And I don't even think I've heard your banjo yet. What type is it?
Thanks Marcelyn. No one has heard my banjo in years cause its been out in the garage resting. It is a "vintage" 1970s Harmony bakelite 5-string banjo -- probably the best plastic banjo ever made. (Which isn't saying much...but it seemed to record okay.) It cost $49.95 brand new! At auction I could probably get maybe $15-$20 for it. That reminds me...what do you have when you find a 5-string banjo half buried in sand? (The answer is: .dnas hguone toN)
Too funny. I'm thinking you could come up with a whole new series of banjo jokes by substituting the word banjo for lawyer. I am glad you got that thing out though. You'll have to let it make guest appearances more regularly.
Very well done Michael, it's a true testament to good musicianship when someone can make an inexpensive instrument sound great and you've clearly done that. I see you also found my secret stash of fowl photos.
Yeah, it's nice, but Michael's proven plastic banjos are definitely not a sound investment (pun intended)
Here's the story of the plastic banjo. It was retired years ago when I purchased a hand-made one from a kid on the street for $50. This banjo was probably stolen and I paid for it to keep it from being destroyed. I had it about 6 months and it was a killer -- the best clawhammer banjo I'd ever played. Kept showing it around to all my friends in town in the hope that someone would recognize it (actually secretly hoping they wouldn't). Eventually a good friend of mine, whom I trusted completely, said he knew whose banjo it was. He'd even helped him build it. Well, I immediately gave it to him and told him to return it to it's rightful owner. Well, I thought that was that! But, lo and behold, about 6 months later at our annual Christmas pickin' party my good friend, David is his name, approached me with an old beat up guitar case in his hands. He gave it to me and said the original owner of the banjo was so stunned and pleased to see his instrument that he wanted to reward me. Well, when I opened the case, inside was a 1964 Guild Twelve-string acoustic Model F212. Talk about a surprise at Christmas -- I'd always wanted one. Anyway the plastic banjo sat in the garage unplayed and neglected for about 10 years until I joined this social group. I brought it out, cleaned it up, bought a new head for it (probably worth more than the banjo) tuned it up and tried it out on Cluck Ol' Hen. It's not as good as the one I once had for a short time but, I sure give thanks for returning it to its rightful owner. It may not sound that good but I feel like a million dollars when I played it on Cluck ol Hen. (Now don't go crying 'fowl' on me -- it's a true story...)
That is a great story. And what a happy ending. Now you definitely have to keep that banjo out and play it more. I'd play a plastic mandolin for sure if I could get it to sound half as good as your banjo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlbJkiu3pkM Ithink it sounds a little like they are playing a mix with old joe clark on the allison krauss video?
Here's a new fresh Cluck old hen from me! Celebrating that I have time to play again...and that I've fixed up the intonation of my mandolin so that I can play double stops on the same note (you know, the Monroe thingy, 7th fret and the next open string).
Really nice one, Susi. I like that seventh-fret double stop too, but have to keep reminding myself to use it more.
I just learned using it, when learning to play Gold rush. It gives a cool sound, it almost sounds as if I could actually play...
Yeah, More than once, I've learned a song then heard how much cooler it can sound in David H's version with the seventh-fret double stop slides and kicked myself for not remembering to use them... again. Hey, since you've got time on your hands, you should record Gold Rush. I want to learn that one too.
Yeah, I certainly will!! Maybe even next week, I'll see how it goes
Here's mine with a Kala uke tuned DADA. Going for getting the melody more from the right hand than the left and I thougt I'd try the open tuning for the first time. I don't know if it's good or bad but I'm learning from it.
