OM Chords

[John Flynn]

Even though I've had an OM for nearly 10 years, I still find myself struggling with regular mandolin chords on the longer (22.75") neck. But I'm still continually discovering "Wow, how did I miss that all these years?" variations that work on OM, but I would never have thought to try on regular mandolin.

One I ran across tonight was Am. I have never liked 2235, because it is hard on my wrist and that high A seems shrill to me. 5200 sounds better, but it can be hard to hit on the fly also. If I am up the neck, I will also do 5700, but if I am following chords on sheet music in church, I can miss it moving up the neck from first position in the blind. So I was messing around and came up with 2230, AECE. It is really easy to hit and I think it sounds every bit as good as 5200 and 5700, maybe better.

So, two questions:

1. Do you have any good chord tricks like that on the OM that generally wouldn't be found on regular mandolin chord charts?
2. Do you know of a good chord book or app for easy-to-play OM-specific chords, especially first position?

[fox]

Gdae

[Jacob]

GDAD
ADAD
GDAE
ADAE

[Marcus CA]

For Am, I generally use 2200, which is really an A5 chord, but I like how it sounds when an Am is called for.

[Shan Andy]

For Am, I generally use 2200, which is really an A5 chord, but I like how it sounds when an Am is called for.

Oddly, when I was playing sessions in Glasgow, I got told to use that in place of A because it was less bright".

[Bertram Henze]

4400 (B7sus4)
4005 (D6)

[Jacob]

FWIW, 2200, (AEAE) is a dyad. A chord requires 3 notes.

[bobby bill]

FWIW, 2200, (AEAE) is a dyad. A chord requires 3 notes

A triad requires three notes. "Chord" is a more generic and inclusive term and I have no problem calling 2200 a chord. It seems guitarists call a chord made of only the root and fifth a power chord: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_chord

[Lord of the Badgers]

Tune it GDAD, then play 7050. It might be all D but I still consider it a chord LOL
Surely a chord of four notes is valid too?

[foldedpath]

For Am, I generally use 2200, which is really an A5 chord, but I like how it sounds when an Am is called for.

I use the heck out of that chord shape on my OM as an "A modal" that works for tunes in both A minor/dorian and A major/mixolydian. Technically it's a dyad, I guess. Take the same shape and move it over to X220 without hitting the G strings, and it's an all-purpose "E modal" chord.

These "chords" are great for holding two courses down with an index fingertip, if you can manage it, freeing up the other fingers for melody lines above it.

[John Flynn]

I just wanted to follow up on this. I considered the book recommended above, and I may still go for it, but I decided to try "The Big Book of Octave Mandolin Chords" by Harvey Reid. I just got it and at first glance, I am impressed. It is massive, with over 2200 chord forms. One real innovation in this book is he has a whole section on partial capo chords. He offers 11 different partial capo configurations and shows a full range of chord variations for them. I can't wait to try them!

He markets his invention of the Liberty "Flip Capo" which he invented specifically to be used as a partial capo, but I see they are currently unavailable. He claims other capos don't work as well and maybe they don't, but I can see how a Kyser, Shubb or some other designs could be modified to work. The main thing is if you can come up with a partial capo, this book opens up a whole world of chords you can use.

This will keep me busy for a while!

https://www.amazon.com/BOOK-Octave-M.../dp/1630290505

[Jacob]

Kyser partial capo & Shubb partial capo

[bobby bill]

It is massive, with over 2200 chord forms.

Quite timely, since we were just discussing the 2200 chord form.

[John Flynn]

Kyser partial capo & Shubb partial capo

Any experience using these partial capos on an OM? Reid has chord forms for capo-stopping the top three strings and also for the bottom three, which could be done with the same capo flipped the opposite way around.

He also has chord forms for stopping the middle two strings. Would partial capos from either of those manufacturers work? I have an email into Shubb already, although they may or may not know the answer for OMs.

I have a Kyser guitar capo I cut down for OM. It would be easy enough to cut it down further for just three courses, but it would be nice to get something ready-made. Also, I have no idea about stopping the middle two courses.

[Jacob]

SpiderCapo Mini

[John Flynn]

SpiderCapo Mini

Jacob: Do you have experience using the SpiderCapo on an OM? Harvey Reid says in his book that the Spider does not work on paired strings, There is also the problem with string spacing. But if would work, it might be idea.

[Jacob]

No experience with any of the Spider capos. Spider website claims the mini works for mandolin & bouzouki.

[John Flynn]

No experience with any of the Spider capos. Spider website claims the mini works for mandolin & bouzouki.

Thanks for the lead. I looked into it, but one of the reviews of the Spider mini on Amazon was a guy who tried it specifically on OM and said it just wasn't strong enough to hold down the strings. Too bad, it would have been a nice option.

I got a response from Shubb and they offer what that looks like promising options, but I have decided to go with Kysers.

I just ordered:

• A Kyser "Short-cut" capo that is made to skip the low E string on the guitar and stop the A, D and G strings only. I will use that for stopping the middle two courses on the OM, which is one of the options in the Harvey Reid book.
• A Kyser "Drop D" capo that skips the low E and stops the rest of the strings on the guitar. I will use that to stop the D, A and E strings on the OM without affecting the G string, which is another of the options in the Harvey Reid book.
• A regular Kyser guitar capo that I will shorten to only stop on only the G, D and A strings, which is the third Harvey Reid option I plan to try.

I will likely have to do some "minor surgery" on all three to make them work well, but I have experience modifying Kysers, which is one of the reasons I went with that brand. I'll let everyone know how it turns out!

[jesserules]

TOP TWO THINGS TO REMEMBER WHEN PLAYING CHORDS

1) You don't have to play all the strings.

2) You don't have to play all the notes.

[John Flynn]

A quick update:

I got the Kyser capos and tried them on my OM. YMMV depending on the neck width of your OM. Mine is 1 5/16" at the nut and 1 1/2" at the fifth fret. The string pairs are about 3/8" apart at the nut, measured from the centers of each pair, and about 7/16" at the fifth fret.

• The Kyser "Short-cut" capo skips the G course nicely and stops the D and A courses well to do the "Middle two" configuration from the Reid book. The only problem is that on first few frets, the end of the capo impinges on the E string closest to the A string. I will have to shorten it by about 3/16" to solve this.
• The Kyser "Drop D" capo also skips the G course nicely and stops the rest of the strings well to do the "Top three" configuration in the Reid book. I will have to shorten it just so it doesn't hang over the side of the fretboard as far as it does.
• The regular Kyser guitar capo works great to stop all the courses, so will just have to shorten it to fall short of the E course, to do the "Bottom three" configuration in the Reid book.

I also plan to mark each modified capo using a label maker, so that I don't grab the wrong one. As I said, I have done this kind of "surgery" on Kysers before, so I feel comfortable with the process. I also find that in addition to shortening the "business end" of the Kysers, I like to shorten the part that goes against the back of the neck, just so it is more out of the way.

[John Flynn]

So I got the Kysers and cut them down. They stop, in order top to bottom, the top three courses, the middle 2 courses and the bottom 3 courses. Mechanically, they work really well on my Mendel OM from the first fret to the seventh fret. it only took about 20 minutes with a hacksaw and an X-acto knife to do the "surgery." The work is still a little rough, I admit. If I use these long-term, I will clean all that up and even touch up the paint.

I tried them with the chord forms in the Reid book. I got some really interesting sounds. Some are very drone-y, ethereal sounding and fun. It will take a lot of experimentation and practice to see how practical partial capo'ing is for me. The chord pallets for each configuration in the Reid book are limited and learning the new fingerings and getting them in muscle memory will be challenging. I'll post back, but it may take awhile.

[ondrej]

I just wanted to follow up on this. I considered the book recommended above, and I may still go for it, but I decided to try "The Big Book of Octave Mandolin Chords" by Harvey Reid. I just got it and at first glance, I am impressed. It is massive, with over 2200 chord forms. One real innovation in this book is he has a whole section on partial capo chords. He offers 11 different partial capo configurations and shows a full range of chord variations for them. I can't wait to try them!

He markets his invention of the Liberty "Flip Capo" which he invented specifically to be used as a partial capo, but I see they are currently unavailable. He claims other capos don't work as well and maybe they don't, but I can see how a Kyser, Shubb or some other designs could be modified to work. The main thing is if you can come up with a partial capo, this book opens up a whole world of chords you can use.

This will keep me busy for a while!

https://www.amazon.com/BOOK-Octave-M.../dp/1630290505

I also use cut capo. More often on Tenor Guitar, but also on Mandola. Check out my YouTube channel. Cut Capo is inspiring.