Faded Love - Asking a Favor

[Sherry Cadenhead]

I'm playing a Faded Love duet (with violin) at a recital on January 20th. I'd really like to play it with double stops, but, after adding them, I find they don't sound very good. I'll attempt to add the PDF below - the first page with double stops I've added, the second page just the simple melody.

I'm trying to learn to add double stops from studying Pete Martin's materials, but don't know that I've gone about it correctly. I would really appreciate some on the forum attempting to play my version and tell me what you think.

Thanks.

Sherry

[Jim Garber]

I didn't check your double-stops (don't want to wake anyone in my house right now), however I would think that playing every note as a double stop would be overkill especially if you are playing it in a duet. Check out Donal Baylor's site for this pdf which has three versions of Faded Love at the very beginning of the file. The second one has some tastefully added doublestops.

Double stops and ornaments should be considered like a spice -- you don't want to add too much or you will overload the music and the taste.

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I just took a closer look at that 2nd version in the PDF I linked to above. Each of the sections indicated above are for different instruments. I would look at the fiddle parts, A, B, and E. The double stop are sparse in A & B but more intense in E and that one is probably a fancier solo. You can pick and choose but I would still not play quite as many.

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Thanks, Jim! I'll definitely check these out on my desktop computer this weekend. What is your resource for this music?

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Never mind. I see it's Donal Baylor. Will check out the website for more tunes.

[ralph johansson]

I'm playing a Faded Love duet (with violin) at a recital on January 20th. I'd really like to play it with double stops, but, after adding them, I find they don't sound very good. I'll attempt to add the PDF below - the first page with double stops I've added, the second page just the simple melody.

I'm trying to learn to add double stops from studying Pete Martin's materials, but don't know that I've gone about it correctly. I would really appreciate some on the forum attempting to play my version and tell me what you think.

Thanks.

Sherry

Basically I believe the problem is your reluctance to leave first position.

Not sure how I would do this song. One possibility would be to play mainly in thirds which would have me moving around quite a bit. There's also the possibiity of adding a chord note above the melody line, e.g., a d in the first bar, and an a in the second, etc. The link posted above has some nice touches but note that it suggests further chords, such as G#dim, B7 and em. ("suggests" because those chords are never stated in full).

If I were to play this song in public I would concentrate a lot more on embellishments, but then the question is how you conceive the role distribution between the mandolin and violin.

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Basically I believe the problem is your reluctance to leave first position.

If I were to play this song in public I would concentrate a lot more on embellishments, but then the question is how you conceive the role distribution between the mandolin and violin.

Thanks, Ralph! You hit the nail on the head re: first position! I'm just now learning third position and am in no way ready to attempt it in public.

Both the violin student and I will be working with our teacher this week to figure out the arrangement. Our teacher is a good friend of mine. She's a classical violinist and I'm her only mandolin student. I reach out to you guys for mandolin specifics.

[jesserules]

Coming up with arrangements is fun. One real obvious basic one would be

first time through - all single notes
2nd time - double stops on the downbeats, single notes elsewhere
third - all double stops, mixing thirds, fifths, sevenths

Those are just ideas, to maybe get you started. Have fun!

[Sherry Cadenhead]

Coming up with arrangements is fun. One real obvious basic one would be

first time through - all single notes
2nd time - double stops on the downbeats, single notes elsewhere
third - all double stops, mixing thirds, fifths, sevenths

Those are just ideas, to maybe get you started. Have fun!

Thanks for this. I had considered single notes first time through, then adding double stops on half notes, especially when playing this at the senior center jam. 3 beats and longer get tremolo.

[jesserules]

Thanks for this. I had considered single notes first time through, then adding double stops on half notes, especially when playing this at the senior center jam. 3 beats and longer get tremolo.

Absolutely. Go for it!