Been burning to get an OM for a while. Saved up my birthday money, sold my old electric bass and amp, and that was enough to take the plunge. My new Trinity College TM-325 OM from Elderly Music showed up yesterday. My big surprise was the scale length felt longer than I anticipated. I have freakishly big hands so I figured I could still do regular mandolin chords on the OM, but no! Gotta re-learn my two finger chords. Took it to my weekly jam last night and played a little. Sounds terrific on Turlough O'Carolan tunes, especially on Shebeg and Shermor. One question: when just playing along with the jam, do I attempt chop chords or what?
Welcome, Phil. Glad you've taken the plunge. There is scope on the octave to use bar chords as the spacing is a bit easier, so your two-finger chords can become four-finger - E major can be barred at the second fret and then the 1st string fingered at 4th fret with 4th finger and the 4th string at 4th fret with 3rd finger, leaving 2nd finger out. Many of the 2-finger chords can be replicated just by using a bar and then fingering the original shape with your other fingers. But I'm sure you have worked this one out anyway. Re jamming, I find that the octave can add a lot to the slower tunes, slow airs and waltzes, if you play arpeggio chords rather than chops, but in the faster stuff the chops add a great lift to a tune, especially on the off-beat. HTH, John
I'll second the use of barre chords on OM and mandocello. For me it works better than on a guitar, as there are four major shapes and three fairly easy relative minors to use up and down the neck. You can do a 1-4-5 without moving hand position, unlike barres on a guitar.
