Blessed Assurance

[Chuck Naill]

This is a popular protestant hymn written in 1873 by Phoebe P. Knapp and prolific and blind hymn writer, Fanny J. Crosby.

I wanted to try a minimalist note recording and allow the natural sustain of the oval hole Eastman to ring out helped by a good dose of reverb. I am sure some would prefer tremolo.

http://www.box.net/shared/bvrgxm8f4v

[chasray]

Thanks for sharing your arrangement. It's given me some ideas.
(I grew up on that song -- it's imprinted in me.)

[Jim Broyles]

Chuck, by minimalist, what do you mean? You have added extra melody notes to almost every measure. I found myself singing "ba ba blessed assurance...." The playing is great but I'd love to hear you do it without the pickup notes.

[Chuck Naill]

Chuck, by minimalist, what do you mean? You have added extra melody notes to almost every measure. I found myself singing "ba ba blessed assurance...." The playing is great but I'd love to hear you do it without the pickup notes.

Jim,

Thank you for the feedback.

What I meant was that I allowed some of the notes to stand alone on their sustain and decay. I did add lots of ornamentation. I had never tried playing this song on mandolin until today and I wanted to do something special.

I would not say that I am satisfied so your comments give me some important things to consider. Thank you.

[Chuck Naill]

Thanks for sharing your arrangement. It's given me some ideas.
(I grew up on that song -- it's imprinted in me.)

What ideas did you get if you don't mind sharing them. If you make a recording, please consider posting. Thank you.

[chasray]

I have worked it out as chords, not as many single notes, but just a little tremelo. Maybe a little Jethro Burns influence. Key of D.
Maybe I will record a bit of it in a few days.

The ideas I picked up were adding some single notes in places I normally wouldn't have considered.

[JeffD]

Nice playing Chuck. You have it down.

Jim does have a point. For tunes that are largely singing songs, and especially well known ones like this, folks are listening for the tune they know. If you want to add ornamentation, play it straight as an arrow the first time, and decorate the time after that. For the big finish (last time through) play it straight.

Another point I might make (please, these are not criticisms), is my philosophy on playing the tune is to do everything I know how to do to make the tune shine its brightest. I don't do anything that might tend to pull the spotlight away from the tune and on to me. I want to be the invisible channel. So for a tune like this one, I would listen a bunch to how folks sing it, and then try and emulate their speech patterns, and add the tenderness that someone singing it might add.

I would rather someone says "lovely tune isn't it", than compliment my playing of it.

All that being said, you did play it lovely and clearly, and while I might have used tremolo, you showed that it might not really be needed.

[Chuck Naill]

Nice playing Chuck. You have it down.

Jim does have a point. For tunes that are largely singing songs, and especially well known ones like this, folks are listening for the tune they know. If you want to add ornamentation, play it straight as an arrow the first time, and decorate the time after that. For the big finish (last time through) play it straight.

Another point I might make (please, these are not criticisms), is my philosophy on playing the tune is to do everything I know how to do to make the tune shine its brightest. I don't do anything that might tend to pull the spotlight away from the tune and on to me. I want to be the invisible channel. So for a tune like this one, I would listen a bunch to how folks sing it, and then try and emulate their speech patterns, and add the tenderness that someone singing it might add.

I would rather someone says "lovely tune isn't it", than compliment my playing of it.

All that being said, you did play it lovely and clearly, and while I might have used tremolo, you showed that it might not really be needed.

Thank you for for feedback. I might re-record later.