Re: Mandolin chords chart in standard notation
Originally Posted by
sblock
The important point about learning chords has little-or-nothing to do with the actual notes themselves, which of course change from chord to chord. It's all about learning to recognize and make certain left-hand shapes.
Maybe the question is, what is the best way to learn those shapes? I learned them first on guitar, using fingering charts from the Mickey Baker jazz guitar book. That book was great because it got me up and running on jazz tunes quickly, but over time I wanted to dig in deeper to understand what notes I was playing within the shapes. Later on I studied William G. Leavitt's "A Modern Method for Guitar." Working through the Leavitt book (which uses primarily SN) was great because it helped to understand the function of notes within each chord, and how to read the intervals instead of just the notes. It also helped with the process of learning to mentally “hear” the notation.
Mandolin is way easier than guitar for building chords, because each string is the same interval from one to the next — so shapes are even easier to move around the neck. That makes reading SN easier, too, for chords as well as single notes. Now I use all these tools — standard notation, video, chord charts, and sometimes tablature, depending on the situation — but I rarely need anything beyond SN, other than as a teaching tool.
Exploring Classical Mandolin (Berklee Press, 2015)
Progressive Melodies for Mandocello (KDP, 2019) (2nd ed. 2022)
New Solos for Classical Mandolin (Hal Leonard Press, 2020)
2021 guest artist, mandocello: Classical Mandolin Society of America
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