I don’t know if this has been covered before, but this book has helped me greatly. That’s why I’m putting it in the Newbie place. It has over 1000 Mandolin chords, and is easy to read. It’s by Hal Leonard. You can get it from Amazon. It’s highly recommended my me, and only me. I just thought it might help the new people like me. I use it frequently, to find chords that the lessons on YouTube are teaching. Sometimes they go too fast, but say what chord it is, then they move on. It’s like, what was that chord? With this you can look it up. I hope this can help people new to the Mandolin, as I am.
I haven't seen the Hal Leonard book you recommend, but two other chord books I have gotten recently that seem really cool: Build Any Chord Anywhere! by Frank Geiger. Another Cafe member sent me this e-book. It's a graphical method for understanding the patterns/relationships of different chord degrees on the fretboard. It says at the bottom of the cover "This Book may be copied and distributed freely if for non-profit, eductional purposes" so I could share it. Niles Hokkanen's Guide to Mandolin Chords (and how to use them). Soon to be out of print, I think (but presently available at Elderly). "Chords connect to other chords; there will be numerous examples in progressions forms showing how to string voicings together." THe thing that gets me as a newbie is, there are so many forms or voicings of each chord - how do you determine which to use and maybe more importantly, how do they fit together in progressions?
Check out Mark Gunter’s website for some great chord charts and ideas on how to use them. Look up “illustrated chord bible” here: http://theamateurmandolinist.com/
Hi NG, it seems you forgot to mention the actual title of the Hal Leonard book you're using, but no matter, any good chord book is great! It will help you find chords that work with the songs you are learning. We all might have a personal preference for which books we use, but they're all valid if they're helpful. My personal favorite is The Mandolin Chord Bible by Tobe Richards. I bought mine on Amazon a few years ago. Sue, the best thing is to learn songs, and experiment with different voicings. After learning many songs, you'll memorize the ones you prefer and use the most. But continue to experiment, because the more voicings you internalize, the better. As to which ones to use in any progression, the criteria I use are: 1. Which sounds best to me, 2. Which is easiest to play in the context of the chord progression (what comes before/after). 3. Which chord fits the context as to moving bass line or other harmonic or melodic considerations. This becomes important as you develop musically over the years. Bottom line: Trial & error as well as experimentation will take you a long way!
> there are so many forms or voicings of each chord - how do you determine which to use and maybe more importantly, how do they fit together in progressions? That's a great question, and as it turns out, there are a lot of answers! Most of what I'm saying here are already covered more elegantly by Mark's answer, but here goes. The first and simplest answer is to use the voicing that's easiest to play between the chord prior and chord following (or whichever one you have to switch to or from the fastest.) I call this the "easiest way" rule, and it's really helpful. Often when I'm working out how to play something, I'll try different voicings for several different chords before I hit on a sequence I can actually manage to play. Second, each voicing sounds a bit different, and sometimes you want the voicing that has the tone you want for that spot in the song. Sometimes, when I pick a voicing for this reason, it'll force me to rethink the voicings for chord before and after too. Third, variety! This works two ways: 1) play different verses in different areas of the neck, using voicings in that area for all (or most) of the chords. 2) play different voicings in a section of the song where the chord stays the same. Here's a great drill: for any song you play a lot that happens to sit on the same chord for a few beats, try playing different voicings for the same chord (say, on each beat, or each two or four beats, whatever works.) For example, lots of us play blues, and we sit on that I chord for quite a while; it's nice to change things up and shift to different voicings. It's a great way to hammer home those different voicings! Here's how I think of it. * For every chord (well, most of them) I want to know the open position voicing. That's the first one we usually learn anyway, and these open position voicings are usually really nice sounding ones that work well for lots of tunes. * For every color of chord I want at least two "go-to" voicings I can play anywhere on the neck. That way with just a (kinda big) handful of things to learn, I can quickly play any tune from a chart. You need at least two because it sounds terrible to play just one voicing and slide it around the neck. Three is better, but probably only needed for the most common chords. Colors include major, minor, 7, min7, maj7, in that order, to start with. Then adding (if you ever play tunes using them) diminished, half-diminished, 13th, and then 9th and min9. Start with 3 voicings for maj and 7, and two for the others -- at least in music I play, those are the most common (and minors too, but IIRC, minor voicings are trickier on mando.) That's 12 things to learn that cover a LOT of ground. Note: I haven't been playing much mando lately, and don't recall off the top of my head whether 7 chord voicings are easy to have 3 of. But definitely 3 majors, and 3 of whatever your next most common chord is, so you can play them in different places on the neck and be near to whatever other chords you're using. Another tip: I have some voicings where I only play three courses. Cheap trick or brilliant idea? Not my idea, but it really helps.
Jeff, great additions! In some blues progressions, I'll play riff/chord progression, followed by lead lines with the chord progression, followed by the chord progression moving to different voicings for each chord every couple beats, followed by the original riff with chords to close. Moving between voicings on different beats makes a good chord solo! Also, I often choose different voicings within a song for musical reasons. As an example, when I play My Name Ain't In The Hall Of Fame in the key of F, I use the 5-3-3-x voice in lieu of my favorite 2-3-3-x voice when it is followed by the Em because I'm using 2-3-5-x for the Em ... Other such examples abound. 3 course chords are pretty much the norm for my playing, with 4 course varieties added for color or when necessary.
Thanks! Yeah, on guitar I use a lot of 4-note chords (jazz voicings, not that I'm a jazz musician.) On mando, I should be letting the bass player play the root, so I may be working up more rootless voicings. The biggest problem with them is they don't sound so good when practicing alone. So, I make a backing track! (I should probably just google to find them, there are so many online these days. But I have too much fun making them.) I may be meeting up with an upright bass player before long, in which case I might be playing more mando. It's been mostly hanging on the wall lately.
