Favorite tunes to play solo (alone)

[Tom C]

Playing with others seem to have gotten more difficult.
What are some of your favorites to play alone? For one, I really like Cloverleaf Rag. I like the combinations of notes and chords. What others are like this?

[Blueglass]

for the season i like chesnuts roasting on an open fire.

[bush-man]

I love to play Lochs of Dread by Bela Fleck. Sounds great solo. I got the idea to go solo with this piece from a live recording I have of Sam Bush giving a mandolin seminar wherein he plays it.

russell

[bush-man]

Oh! And don't forget to give Bach a try. Any of the solo partitas, or suites sound fantastic.

russell

[Stephanie Reiser]

When Mandolins Dream, and Ashoken Farewell.

[jasona]

Ashoken is a good choice. These das I'm really enjoying playing Boston Boy by myself.

[cooper4205]

i can play "cattle in the cane" solo all night. it's a fun one to play

[Dan Adams]

Tunes I may be hesitant to try with others, but are challenging to me: Jeruselum Ridge, Done Gone, Lonesome Fiddle Blues (ironic choice?), Dan

[sgarrity]

Evening Prayer Blues, A Place in the Heart, Ashokan Farewell

[John Flynn]

Goin'Down to Cairo (G)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Dm)
Greensleeves (Em)
Go Tell it on the Mountain (F)

[JeffD]

Ashoken Farewell is a good choice, as is the Lovers Waltz.

Good to have something that outsiders can recognize, however, for when your inlaws ask you to play something on that ukelele your spouse always talks about.

Yesterday by the Beatles is good, or Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel, or even Tennessee Waltz - something recognizable, pleasing to you so you enjoy learning it well.

[mando_toss_flycoon]

Here are a few that I like to play solo:

Crazy Creek (Fiddler's Fakebook version)
Moving in Stereo (The Cars)
Shady Grove (Grisman/Garcia version)
Kentucky Waltz
Norwegian Wood
Big Sandy River
And I've been working on the first part of "To Cry You a Song" (Jethro Tull)

[bush-man]

Interesting, I don't know this piece, Ashoken Farewell, which has been mentioned more then twice. I'll have to do a google. New Camptown Races is another one I like to do solo, although I'm still trying to work it up to more speed then a crawl. Sounds good anyway. Oh! and Somewhere Over the Rainbow!

russell

[Phil Jolly]

I've recently been working out a couple of solo arrangements I've come up with of Angeline the Baker (in both G and D) and Cherokee Shuffle and those have been a lot of fun

[jim_n_virginia]

To my ears there are few mandolin tunes that sound good solo. I like Ashoken's Farewell too and Simon Mayer's A Dark And Slender Boy is haunting and a joy to play.

I like Jerusalem Ridge too but that tune almost begs for a guitar back up.

Westphalia Waltz and Tenn Waltz in fact most slow tunes sound OK with just mandolion, to my ears anyways.

[Soupy1957]

I remember "Ashokan Farewell" from the Ken Burns Civil War series.

That would be a neat tune to learn..anyone have the tabs?

-Soupy1957

[Jim Broyles]

It's in D, Soup, and is VERY easy to sound out. No hard notes at all. Try it without the tab and see if you can train your ear. Here's a start - the first three notes are A-C#-D on the A string. Somewhere on this forum, I posted the chord changes for it when someone asked for them.

[Jim Broyles]

This thread has the chords.

[Alex Orr]

I've been playing for a month, and for now, I only feel comfortable playing by myself

[staggarlee]

How bout Lost Indian? I love playing that tune by myself. I also like playing Jerusalem Ridge.

[Mark Walker]

Slow Tunes:
1.) Somewhere Over The Rainbow
2.) Ashoken Farewell
3.) Sweet Afton

Up-Tempo Tunes:
1.) Jerusalem Ridge
2.) Dixie Hoedown
3.) Sailor's Hornpipe

[tree]

I've been working on Leather Britches, that's pretty fun. #Also Fiddler's Dram/Whiskey Before Breakfast. #My Own House (off the Bromberg album) is nice and modal, I like that too, and you can segue into Amazing Grace.

Best place to play alone I just stumbled across while traveling over the holidays - the swimming pool at the hotel, with all that echo. #Couple of cups of coffee, first thing in the morning, I've got the place to myself. #I ran through all of the above tunes and my family had to pry me away. #

[DryBones]

slow and easy...Wayfaring Stranger

[otterly2k]

I like "Waltz of the Dreams" by Magnus Zetterlund... you can find it in the MP3 section here on the Cafe. Simple and elegant. and A Case of You (Joni Mitchell)... accompaniment on OM can sound very close to the original dulcimer part.

[swampstomper]

A good choice are tunes where the timekeeping is flexible, in fact where some variation according to the mood of the mandolinist is good. The top example here is Evening Prayer Blues.

Another good choice are tunes with lots of double-stops and tremelo, then the mando sounds fuller. A good example is Joyce's Waltz (Sizemore) or the aforementioned Westfalia Waltz, any waltz can be done up this way, agred.

A final choice are tunes where the backing chords are superfluous or downright impossible to find. My favourite example here is Old Danger Field. Sure there are chords but it sounds better when we can't really tell if it's major, minor or modal.

And of course when my wife calls from the other room when I'm practicing and says, "hey, that sounded good, play it again" you know you're on to something.