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Thread: Strumming like guitar?

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    Registered User mobi's Avatar
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    Question Strumming like guitar?

    Is it possible to strum chords in mandolin like guitar?

    I understand mandolin is predominantly a melody instrument but can we do chord strumming somewhat guitar like (where one signs and strums chords in guitar)?

    I have seen people doing it but then the chord sounds quite different from those of guitars and I think guitar chords sound better.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    One can do anything one wants with the mandolin. The instrument itself is perfectly capable of playing chords, single note melody, or any combination or permutation of the two. The only limits are the imagination and technical abilities of the player.

    That said, the frequency range of the mandolin makes it less useful for straight singer/songwriter-style vocal accompaniment than a guitar. One of the reasons that guitar and piano are so omnipresent as vocal accompaniment is that their timbre and range closely matches that of the human voice.
    Mitch Russell

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Yes the mandolin sounds different than the guitar, if it didn't we wouldn't need both. The major thing is sustain, if you are using mandolin as your accompaniment you have to use several chord shapes as well as runs and riffs to fill the gaps that a guitar doesn't seem to have with its longer sustain.

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    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    For me, an instrument an octave lower than the mandolin, like a guitar, octave mando or mandocello works better for vocal accompaniment. You certainly can accompany yourself on mandolin, and some do it pretty well. To me, it often comes out looking and sounding like an 'ukulele when people do simple strumming on a mandolin while singing.

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    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Well, simple mandolin strumming worked for REM on the tunes they used it on.

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    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    Well, simple mandolin strumming worked for REM on the tunes they used it on.
    Yes, but there was more going on than just a mandolin strumming chords and a vocal. And they did play a lead-type riff on "Losing My Religion". I was really into REM when they first started in the mid-80's, don't listen to them as much now. At the outset they were kind of proto-grunge. Did they use mando on many other tunes?

    It is just my own bias, but I don't really care for the acts I've seen where a band member picks up a mando and plays it like a little guitar (four course down stroke strums, no real rhythm inventiveness, no arpeggios or single notes, etc.)
    Last edited by Mandobart; Jun-26-2016 at 11:07am.

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    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    I don't strum a mandolin the same way I do my guitar, with full chords, but I'll sometimes do a partial "strum" hitting just a few strings to sketch out the chords if I'm playing accompaniment to the pipes in a Scottish traditional session, or sometimes in an OldTime jam. As you noted though, for most things it's better suited as a melody instrument due to the higher pitch. Or in the case of Bluegrass, the percussive emphasis of chop chords.

    It's not a common instrument for vocal accompaniment, but if you use a combination of strum with some melody notes added, it can work pretty well. Here are two examples below. Both rely on an idiomatic approach to the mandolin so it fits the style of music, and the strum is broken up with melody notes. This takes full advantage of the mandolin's range and timbre:





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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    That's how I started. 25+ years ago I wound up in a church music group with four six-string guitars. Pretty boring. So I used a small bonus from work to buy an cheap mandolin. I learned some basic chords and that's exactly how I played it. It took me years to learn to be a "real mandolin player," whatever that means. Now I rarely play anything but melody, arpeggios, cross-picking and the occasional chop. I save my strumming for my OM and even then I listen to the ensemble and change up the pattern accordinagly throughout a tune. I never do the "metronome strum" that a lot of guitarists do.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandobart View Post
    Yes, but there was more going on than just a mandolin strumming chords and a vocal. And they did play a lead-type riff on "Losing My Religion".
    That's part of it - the mandolin was used well in the arrangement.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Mandobart,,I agree with you,,now,its just my opinion, but one of my big peeves are rock guitar players who 'double' on mandolin,and really don't have much of a clue on what a mandolin really is. The peeve is watching them strum and hit it like their playing a guitar. On one side,, I'm sort of grateful that more bands are just making the mandolin a known instrument, but at the same time also playing it kind of all wrong..

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    One of my favorite examples of simply strumming a mandolin can be found on this video of Levon Helm strumming the mandolin.

    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    When I play solo, I do more strumming. When I play with a guitar player, I do more melody. Arpeggios and such do help
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Quote Originally Posted by T.D.Nydn View Post
    Mandobart,,I agree with you,,now,its just my opinion, but one of my big peeves are rock guitar players who 'double' on mandolin,and really don't have much of a clue on what a mandolin really is. ..
    OK, I have to relate my journey. Because it started a revolution in my head. I was exactly in agreement with you on this issue. The one for me was Steve Earle doing "Galway Girl", with these simple two finger chords and guitar like simple strumming. That's not playing the mandolin.

    But, I think it was Niles Hokkanen, right here on this forum, who called me out. I don't remember the specifics (I was so embarrassed.) But the gist of it is while Steve Earle was not playing the mandolin in a very mandolinny fashion, he was certainly playing music. He was much more musical than I was, here in my pseudo mando technique skweek. And, as I think I remember Niles pointing out - Steve Earle is there playing it on the stage, I am here at my computer commenting on it. So who is the one who "gets" it?

    Same discussion with Paul McCartney's "Dance Tonight", and Eddie Vedder's "Rise". They did not play very mandolinny, IMO, but they played a great deal more musically on the mandolin than I was playing.

    It brought me to realize that getting good on the mandolin is not the important thing. Getting musical on the mandolin is the important thing. And the extent that good mandolinny technique contributes, well that's great, but there is one heck of a lot that is missed when getting good at the mandolin is your only goal.

    Actually, if I were to man up about it, I owe a lot to Niles and his various comments on this forum, and I do appreciate his contributions, and his style of commenting. He is often the Zen Slap one needs at that particular moment.

    Nothing limits growth like thinking you know something. A full cup cannot accept any more input. You have to stand under to try and understand. All of that stuff.
    Last edited by JeffD; Jun-26-2016 at 8:02pm.
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    I love strumming my mandolin. My band just tells me to chop more

    I really like that song Atlantic city but I think it sounds better with the melody https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0eZwpHtcK4

    "Nothing limits growth like thinking you know something." Nice! This should be the new MC sticker that every member puts on their case.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    There was a bluegrass band on the scene several/many years ago, mostly gospel based. They were good and fairly well-known, and the mandolin man did a lot of strumming in a very hip way, it fit perfectly. Forget their name, dagnabit.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Quote Originally Posted by AlanN View Post
    There was a bluegrass band on the scene several/many years ago, mostly gospel based. They were good and fairly well-known, and the mandolin man did a lot of strumming in a very hip way, it fit perfectly. Forget their name, dagnabit.
    Alan, this isn't the thread about forgetting things when you get old.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    As a practical matter, to my taste, other than the chop and its various degrees and variations, I really like the ukulele strum on the mandolin.

    One of my favorite folk singer song writers, Jez Lowe, plays mandolin and sings in a very delightful unique style.

    Here is a great example, and great song.



    Oh, and yea, more musical and entertaining than anything my mandolinny technique can accomplish. I really know that I got the wrong things right, and I am working to move this boat in a better direction.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeEdgerton View Post
    Alan, this isn't the thread about forgetting things when you get old.
    Who are you and why are you looking at me?

    If I'm expected to remember every furshlugginer bg band to have come down the pike....

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    The Amateur Mandolinist Mark Gunter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Musically I think it's always possible to turn a weakness into a strength. It's often expressed that the mandolin lacks in sustain - but in music, "empty space" can often be used to advantage. Maybe setting up a good strumming riff with some three-string chords and double stops and empty space, and throwing in a melodic lick here and there, would work very well for solo vocal accompaniment on mandolin?

    Ry Cooder makes that mandolin sound approximate the sound of old acoustic blues slide guitar riffs, and uses the unique mandolin tremolo technique to fill it out . . . sounds masterful to me. And Levon's strumming is perfect for accompanying his vocals. Great topic here with some wonderful examples.
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    "Its not a weakness, its a feature."
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Jimmy Gaudreau made good use of strumming on the opening bars to What About Me, on his terrific 1989 release Classic J.A.G., Webco label.
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Jeff'D,,I agree with you,,I mean how can you not,,there are loads of people out there that are "musical" ,but not technical musicians. They pick up any instrument and make music however they can, right or wrong. I keep thinking of that guy that plays guitar with his feet because he ain't got no arms. It depends who you are. I'm not musical, I'm a technical maniac,,every instrument I play. But I can't write a darn song in my entire life, I don't know why. I played lead for a guy once who couldn't play at all, really, but he wrote a song every day, one a day. I actually think its some kind of magic or something to write a good tune. But I can play jazz in any key!!,

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    In order not to hijack the thread with a parallel discussion, I have blogged my thoughts, peripherally related to guitar strumming the mandolin, here.
    Last edited by JeffD; Jun-28-2016 at 12:27pm.
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    Irish Zouks are also GDAE, but have a Guitar like scale length, and are an Octave Lower than the mandolin.

    One of my picking buddies uses one as his vocal accompaniment..
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    Default Re: Strumming like guitar?

    just sam and hoss. sailin' shoes -> crossroads



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