Making melodies more interesting

[smolloy]

Hi all,
I've been learning mandolin for a month or so now, and am starting to nail a couple of relatively simple melodies. At the moment, these are just simple one-note-at-a-time pieces, and even though they're recognisable to people familiar with the tune, they don't sound all that interesting.

My question is what should I do to dress these pieces up a bit? That is, what is the standard mandolin way to add complexity to a simple melody?
Should I be strumming chords, or should I be adding chops? What are my options?

For info, the music I play is usually Irish traditional, but our wee group likes to play around with a bit of old-time & bluegrass.

Thanks for any tips you can offer, and apologies if this question is a little dumb.

Steve

[Jill McAuley]

In irish traditional music played on mandolin/tenor banjos we use things like ornaments (triplets, trebles, slides hammer ons etc) and variations (subtle alterations to the notes played). I wouldn't be strumming chords (though we do use two finger chords played in the place of a single note to add texture sometimes) or adding chops to irish trad stuff. Variations and ornaments should be used in moderation though, so as not to obscure the original melody too much, and also so that you don't throw off any other folks you may be playing with (such as in a session setting) by veering too far from the familiar framework of the tune.

[Dan Krhla]

Check out John McGann's Developing Melodic Variations on Fiddle Tunes. Very helpful.

[Mark Wilson]

Add double stops to the melody you already play

[sblock]

Irish traditional music usually sticks very closely to the melody and offers little opportunity for variation of any kind. As you have read, they mostly tend to think of ornaments, double-stops and minor melodic changes as their "variations." Oldtime music offers a bit more of an opportunity to explore -- but not that much more! In addition to the above, you can also vamp chords, play counter-melodies, and -- with the agreement of co-conspiring/consenting musicians, might even introduce entirely new melodic variations, verses, and alternative arrangements. A small amount of improvisation might be permitted from time to time in an Oldtime setting, but your chances for soloing are few and far between. Usually more than one instrument is playing the melody at any given time, and you don't want to clash with that.

But bluegrass is another world, altogether! Here, you can actually take a lead break -- you can solo. And when soloing, you have maximal freedom to explore the musical structure of the tunes. Make up your own break! Follow you own muse! Use any musical device you like! You're are limited only by your own skill, musical imagination, the boundaries of accepted taste in the genre in question (these boundaries change over time as the genre evolves, too). Both bluegrass and jazz are exceptionally free in that regard, especially when compared with ITM, Oldtime, and even classical music (unless you're improvising a cadenza or something; this is very rare these days). Indian ragas and Carnatic music can also be improvised, for example. To my mind, musical improvisation is the highest form of performance art. Go for it!

[JeffD]

Listen a lot to the musical genre you are interested in. Listen especially to different players playing the same tune, and how they phrase it and ornament it and decorate it. Get a feeling for what kinds of things work within the genres you like.

Soon enough all that listening seeps into your playing. You get a little tired of playing that war horse tune straight like you learned it, and you will know what to do.

[smolloy]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply. Very useful information!

[JeffD]

Of the thousands of pieces of good advice from teachers and helpful players, to cure the 1.5 million stumbling blocks to playing well and interestingly, there are three things that, to me, are the most effective most important things one can do.

In my opinion, actually, a lot of other pieces of good advice kind of depend on these three, or at least are enabled and gigantically enhanced by these three:

Listen a lot.

Practice regularly and often.

Play regularly with others.


If one can do those three things, the mental shelves and architecture get built to house every other good idea and piece of advice out there. And if those three things are the only things one can do, still, progress in inevitable.


Just my thoughts.

[T.D.Nydn]

Learn to go out of your box and take chances with your playing

[Posterboy]

Check out John McGann's Developing Melodic Variations on Fiddle Tunes. Very helpful.

Would this book help me understand some of the concepts and approaches people take when I hear them playing a tune like Red Haired Boy and wonder why it only sounds slightly similar to me playing it? :D

[jshane]

Would this book help me understand some of the concepts and approaches people take when I hear them playing a tune like Red Haired Boy and wonder why it only sounds slightly similar to me playing it? :D

Maybe. Probably. The book takes a number of popular tunes, and walks each out, in a series of increasingly complicated variations. The variations are explained-- that is, McGann tells you what he is doing to achieve the effects of each variation. If you internalize the theory/approach presented in these tunes, you will, with lots of effort and practice, be able to apply them to other pieces of music.

John McGann was a genius and an accomplished musician and teacher. The only caveat for this book, in my opinion, is, like for all other books/methods/approaches, the real onus will still be on you to make it all work.... this isn't a magic bullet.... there AINT no magic bullets.

[Pittsburgh Bill]

For an easy exercise try playing the basic melody to ROLL IN MY SWEET BABY'S ARMS in Key of A 4/4 time. Then play every half note except the F# and G# with tremolo. Then add a double stop to every C# quarter note.
This is the easiest tune I can think of to add octane to the basic melody.
hope this helps. I can often use as much help as I can get.

[Pittsburgh Bill]

For an easy exercise try playing the basic melody to ROLL IN MY SWEET BABY'S ARMS in Key of A 4/4 time. Then play every half note except the F# and G# with tremolo. Then add a double stop to every C# quarter note.
This is the easiest tune I can think of to add octane to the basic melody.
hope this helps. I can often use as much help as I can get.

I just wanted to add that to keep this exercise simple, approach it as a layering process. Moving ahead add tremolo to the whole notes. Proceed one layer at a time.

[smolloy]

Then add a double stop to every C# quarter note.

Sorry for the dumb question, but what is a double stop? Is it playing the 5th above the note? The same fret, but one string higher?

[JeffD]

A double stop is fretting two adjacent courses and playing them both simultaneously. Can be any interval, a fifth, a fourth, a third, whatever.

Some double stops can be done with one finger, many cannot.

[Mark Wilson]

Sorry for the dumb question, but what is a double stop?

If you stay with this video he gets around to explaining what makes double stops. The whole lesson is pretty good but this demo video is a good start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQrDIy6hUuQ

I like his example of playing triplets on double stops. Works really good on slower stuff