Hi!
Recently, I've started playing with an acoustic classic rock band. Lots of Clapton unplugged, Maggie May (obviously), etc. I'm playing a lot of the guitar leads and I'm excited to realize that my improvisational speed is increasing.
I played my first gig with them last week and it was a blast.
A few times as I was trying to be Clapton-esque on the mandolin, I thought to myself "Well, this sounds great, it's a nice minor blues solo, I'm hitting lots of 7ths, but, darn it, it still sounds bluegrass to me! It does not sound like Cream on a mandolin!" Although that does sound delicious. But I digress...
And then it hit me. I realized that the issue is the mandolin's wider voicings as opposed to the guitar's closer voicings. Fast rock guitar solos are happening in those little "blues boxes" which are very close and mostly within the same octave. Fast bluegrass solos on mandolin are wide and frequently multi-octave.
So, to pretend to be a rock guitarist a la Clapton or Page, one needs to focus on closer voicings.
That was my epiphany.
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