When to switch Positions

[onassis]

With the tuning in 5ths, I don't need to know the name of the note/notes.

One of the magical attributes of the mandolin. It's so satisfying to see those patterns (double stops, arpeggios) spool out up the neck, merging into one another. The names of the notes become secondary - only the starting point matters.

Perversely, though, these days I'm trying to be more conscious of the actual note I'm playing, thinking about them as intervals and chord tones instead of just licks. The study never ends.

[JeffD]

The study never ends.

Yes. Lets hope not anyway.

I would say it differently: The discovery never ends.

[farmerjones]

I just learned piano a few years ago @ fiftysomething.
Finding out, with inversions, there are three ways to make each simple tri-tone chord, sort of blew my mind. There's harmony wherever you go on a fingerboard. Combine this with slash chords, and I needed a bucket and mop for my brains.

[David L]

I just learned piano a few years ago @ fiftysomething.
Finding out, with inversions, there are three ways to make each simple tri-tone chord, sort of blew my mind.

Actually, with open and close voicing, there are way more than three.

[UsuallyPickin]

Well ... changing positions is like changing strings. What does the tune "call for" to make the playing of it most efficient. In other words what comes next. If the melody ascends and you are already playing with your pinky then it is time to either move up a string or a position / fret or two. Economy of motion helps keep the music " in the pocket " with good timing and tone. Whenever a musical phrase is difficult to play I investigate another way, position , string or technique to play it. Sometimes it helps and then sometimes I just have to work that phrase until it become smooth where I am at ..... Play on. R/

[ralph johansson]

I don't think of first or second position, I just do whatever it takes to play the tune. Maybe this helps a newbi but I think one should ween himself from thinking position as sone as possible. The fretboard is the position, move over it as needed. YMMV

Well, you gotta start somewhere. One possible beginning could be to learn all major keys in first position, without using open strings, to get a feel for the relationship between keys (e.g., E is not C shifted up two steps, but, e.g., the dominant of the relative minor) establishing a vocabulary of scale forms and figures to combine, or take apart, moving up and down the neck. One will discover all kinds of devices in the process.

Among the first tunes I learned on the mando 50 years ago was Brilliancy, which I had transcribed a couple of years earlier. The 1st and 3rd sections sit very naturally in first position,;the 1st half of the 2nd section is of an ad hoc nature, staying mainly on the e course and exploiting the open e, whereas the 2nd half fits most naturally into 4th position. Right now I'm working on the instrumental part of Champagne Polka (in Bb) where the 1st section sits naturally in 2nd, the 2nd in 1st and the last section moves a figure involving the interval of a sixth stepwise downwards. And the vocal refrain (in Eb) is something else again, as I use a lot of doublestops, in 3rds.

There are a few other devices that I've found along the way, and keep finding, but I did have to start somewhere.