Week #435 ~ The Sloe

This week's winner is The Sloe, submitted as an English Polka.

Here is a link to mandolin TAB and notation

The Session says it's also known as The Slave... here's a link to seven settings on thesession.org

Videos!







and this last one isn't The Sloe.. but I found it on YouTube when searching... and it's got Sloe in the title... and I love Joe Bonamassa!

Good old Will Fly shows us how its done. Here it is on an Irin

Thanks for your submission, Maudlin, it has a nice snappy step to it. I am playing the same version as you, and I'm finding Part B to really be fun. I'm not doing anything special with the tilde notes yet, though; gotta work on that.

I just did a hammer-on for the tilde but probably hammer-on/pull-off would be more correct.(or even better picking each note individually.)

Ok, here's mine. I'm playing it once through, rather slowly, then again slowly using double stops (because it's fun) then one last time, faster, on my Collings MT2O mandolin.

I stumble on the faster version. I'm picking all the notes, but I think the key to playing it really fast, is to use hammer on/pull off.

I'm no expert, but I am a believer in watching pick direction. If you watch WillFly's video, you'll see how much of the time he's picking down!

Nice one Barbara!

Thanks Barbara.
I like the way you show that there are different options to perform the tune.

A multitude of variations is a sure sign of mastership Barb
Maybe it's supposed to be played sloe, not fast

Sounds great, Barbara!

I'm back from holiday and will get practising now, since you voted for this nice tune! I know it from several local sessions and a Spiers & Boden recording, where they pair it with an original tune called "Frozen Gin" ... sloe gin!

The two contributions so far are really nice. Maudlin plays it just the way I know it from sessions. Barbara's double stops are a great idea and sound very good.

Now, let's see if my mandolin and I are still friends after a couple of weeks apart!

I mentioned my potato bug mandolin in another thread. My mother inherited it from an aunt, who used to play it during the thirties of the last century. Its neck is very small with a nut width of 25 mm (less than one inch) and the frets are tiny. On the contrary the action is very high.



I had the hope to make at least one recording with this heirloom. It’s done.

Nicely done especially after the noted advantages. I too have a bowlback mandolin with a skinny neck, thin frets and really high action that I inherited from my grandmother but I am not brave enough to play it.

I like the sound of that lil tater bug. I'm in the camp of have one but don't play it, but this makes me want to dig it out and give it a whirl. Maudlin, I have now added the hammers and pulls and enjoy the tune even more; sounds better and is more fun to play.

Thanks for the nice comments, David and Kay.

Hi, can someone tell me how to post a video from Vimeo. I keep getting the statement "oops the embedded code for this video is not valid"

Brian560, if no one that uses Vimeo is able to answer your question, send a private message to Scott Tichenor, and he should be able to help you!

Well, I'm having all sorts of trouble with my laptop at the moment, so a sound recording from my phone is the best I can do this time. I like SoundCloud actually: much more straightforward and less daunting than the video recording and upload.



I can't work out Barbara's nice double stops, but I can manage some drones.

I like all the above versions!

Brian560 wrote: "Hi, can someone tell me how to post a video from Vimeo. I keep getting the statement "oops the embedded code for this video is not valid" "

Hi Brian, I made a new thread to try to maybe help answer that, in case you haven't already got the info from Scott or whoever.

here is my attempt at the sloe, and success in posting it

Brian... way to persevere! You've got to learn to play something slowly, before you can speed it up! I went ahead and got rid of all those deleted posts of yours!

Brian, well done for getting this recorded and posted! I think we're all familiar with the curse of recording: It never seems to go as intended.

Learning it slowly is the way to go. Get the rhythm right before you speed it up. The best advice I've heard about learning tunes (and there's a good new thread about that in this group) is that you need to hum a tune and feel the rhythm before you can play it well. The other versions here in this group are a great way to get the feel of a tune without getting bored.

I noticed that you play some extra notes at the beginning of the B part. It's a nice upbeat, which I've never heard before. But I wonder if these notes may become a problem for speeding up. Something to keep an eye on, maybe.

Frithjof, aren't those triplets coming along well? You're almost channelling gortnamona there! And good hammer-ons too, with that high action! I'm impressed.

Brian, well done for getting started. Record as often as you can.

Gelsenbury, thanks for the nice comment.
Shure enough I got some inspiration by Gortnamona and Jill McAuley.
I like ornamentations and suffer from lack of ability to play them as fast as are necessary. Second problem: all my regular triplets are to short ore to long.
Hence the general warning: Don’t dance to my music without a medical emergency case in touching distance!

Thanks for the comments and for helping me to get the video posted. I think the extra notes came from my memorizing the sheet music. I had it off to the side and would occasionally glance over at it, unfortunately I had thought the triplets had 4-notes. One goal was to timely post what I practice .

Nicely done, Brian!

Just catching up on all the lovely contributions here - great stuff all!