Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
It's been nearly a month since my last update ... I've just a few moments ago finished updating the movable chords page. I've been doing this piecemeal over the past month whenever I've had the time to work at it, and now glad to have it completed. The following improvements have been added to the movable chords page, largely based on the feedback from forum members earlier in this thread:
1. Orientation of nut vs. bridge direction is now shown
2. All the diagrams have a consistent six fret background
3. "Cafe Shorthand" i.e. the useful four-digit TAB reference has been added to each diagram
4. In the table that appears beneath each diagram listing chord names at each fret, I've added a center column indicating the "cafe shorthand" spelling at each fret.
These changes have been a bit time-consuming and free time for doing it has been short on my end, so it may appear as though little has been done at the new site in the past month. Actually, I've been pretty busy doing this "upgrade" and will soon be free to add more material. Stay tuned!
Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to view the page and look for errors or make suggestions for adding movable shapes that I haven't yet included, the page is at https://theamateurmandolinist.com/20...-chord-shapes/
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Very nice job Mark. Enormous amount of work very nicely presented.
My own bias is toward 3 note chords, showing the basic 3 shapes of the triads, which I think is very powerful. But folks think and learn differently.
Three notes are also much easier to play in ‘changey’ arrangements.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Understood Bill, my playing is a healthy mix of three string chords and four string chords, I agree with your concept but believe in learning and using as much as possible. A person can take a four string voicing and eliminate any note of it that he or she chooses, so showing the four string voicings is good practice for what I’m doing in this project, I think. Thanks for the comment.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Love the charts Mark. The additions really make them click in my brain, much more intuitive for me.
I am struck by how many of the shapes can be multiple chord names depending on context.
Noticed two minor typos I think… on Major 6 chord shape 3, the “6” is missing on all the chord names.
And on Minor 7, the fourth moveable shape discussion starts with describing minor 6 (should be 7).
Now I just need to figure out WHEN to use all these great chords :)
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Don, I really much appreciate the errata report, more than you know! I’ll set those images right as soon as I have time to do so. Many thanks for your contributions.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
reposted elsewhere, apologies...
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Bumping this back to the top so it’s easier to find… I’ve been working on some of these shapes. I really appreciate this, Mark!
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Thank you Don, I’m glad it’s helpful
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Just noticed another typo Mark… the fourth set of moveable 6ths, the pictures and diagrams are correct but the cafe shorthand notation appears to be showing two fret difference (1-1-3-3) where it should be one fret (1-1-2-2), all the way through the chart.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
The moveable shapes page is updated, I fixed those errors. Again, a heartfelt thanks, Don! It's much easier to just play music than to teach or write about it. You've been a great help to my most recent efforts.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Incredible resource. Thank you!
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
I really like this tool and refer to it often. It’s really helping my understanding of how to construct various chords and I am finally able to puzzle out various chords when I can’t remember one and don’t have access to the internet :)
Now the next thing I need to internalize is… when and why do the various chords “make sense”? When would you expect to encounter a sus2 or sus4 chord, why would you want to add a maj6 or maj7, when is it okay to substitute or hammer on one of these to enhance a chord progression, etc? So many questions!
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Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Just a quick announcement:
In case anyone has noticed a lack of activity at Theamatuermandolinist.com in recent months ... the reason for this is that I took on a project to build my own tiny travel trailer around November of last year, and I have been working tirelessly at it since January. With monthly gigs, the occasional paying job, and the bulk of my time devoted to finishing this camper, I've had to put website projects, recording projects and transcription projects on hold temporarily.
Coming later this year: A page for the Chord Bible illustrating the Jethro Burns' movable three string chord "grips".
In the meantime, anyone interested in following my progress on the tiny travel trailer is welcome to visit this build journal, The Gunter L'il Standy at this web address: https://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=75291
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I look forward to resuming work on the Chord Bible and other mandolin content at my site in the next couple months.
Anyone interested in commenting or discussing my camper build, please do so via PM. I don’t wish to hijack the thread with non-mandolin content. Thanks!
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
As a former teardropper, I just love your project and I'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it. Another Mando buddy finally retired their tiny (4x8) home built rig for something larger, as maybe you're considering down the road. Those trailers tow really easy as well.
Looks lovely, nice job.
Re: Illustrated Mandolin Chord Bible
Thanks Bill, I’ll send you a PM
To anyone interested in my build, please comment with a PM. I felt it was okay to post a reason for my inactivity on the chord Bible project, but I don’t want to get in trouble for being off topic, so let’s have any discussion about the camper itself via PM
Thanks everybody!