Gibson A-Junior snakehead (Keep on pluckin'!)
Gibson A-Junior snakehead (Keep on pluckin'!)
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Circle of 5ths adds a # in the key signature in one direction ,
where the other way it adds a flat symbol in order, in 4ths.
FCGDAEB <...> BEADGCF
[Mnemonic BEAD Go Catch Fish .. lingers to this day]
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
FCGDAEB <...> BEADGCF
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father
Stormy Morning Orchestra
My YouTube Channel
"Mean Old Timer, He's got grey hair, Mean Old Timer he just don't care
Got no compassion, thinks its a sin
All he does is sit around an play the Mandolin"
So, a right-handed guitar player can play a left-handed mandolin upside down and use guitar chords?
A couple years in, now, and still learning!
Ratliff F-style Country Boy
Eastman MDO-305 Octave Mandolin
Kentucky KM-272
I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
I am not talking about double stops. I am talking about playing chords, though the technique can be used on double stops as well. For example an E minor chord on guitar, can be played with one finger pressing the second fret on both the fourth and fifth string if you have large fingers. Similarly an A or E chord can be played with two fingers The same approach can be used on mandolin. If your fingers are large it is done with the tip, not mini bars or flattening the finger. Doc and Merle used the ends of their fingers to do it.
I can't believe no one else has said this so I will - a mandolin is not an upside down guitar, a guitar is an upside down mandolin.
"The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
--Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."
Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos
I flatten my fingers playing Blues on guitar too. It was the vertical touch of an un-bent fingertip that I never used on two adjacent guitar strings because it could never cover both strings at once. Works a treat for two adjacent courses on mandolin though. Very useful in Irish/Scottish trad for those "modal A" 22OO and "modal E" O22O chords.
No.
It's a misnomer, and it's misleading.
OK, sure, the lowest four strings of a guitar are EADG and the strings of a mandolin are GDAE. So some guitar chords - but only those being fingered on the lowest four strings - will resemble mirror images of mandolin chords. For instance, 0023 on a mandolin corresponds to 3200 on guitar - those strings only. But that's about the only guitar chord whose appearance works in this way for me.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!
Of course it (the 'mirror imaging' of [bass] gtr and mndln 'chords') is precisely consistent throughout the entire fingerboard. Intervallic series are just that - no matter the instrument
There are innumerable relationships throughout music and 'theory' - that evince in commonalities among instruments. The more you explore, the more you'll find.
If it's a misconception, it's a useful one. I flip guitar cowboy chords for most mando cowboy chords, though you're right that some are more awkward than others. (For example, I hate the mando E 1220.)
I use flipped guitar shapes for a few bar chords, too, but for some, it's generally easier to bar the mando cowboy shapes than try to imitate guitar bar chords.
For instance, my mando cowboy D is 2002, which is just an upside-down guitar D. But my bar E chord is 4224, which is virtually useless on guitar.
Some guitar bars are easy to flip and use, though. For instance, a mando cowboy G is 0023, as mentioned above — a turned-over guitar G. A bar A, one step up, is 2245, same as a common guitar bar shape, flipped.
One way or another, I build most my mando chords based on guitar shapes — though I must admit, the mando G 4523 isn't something I'd ever have any reason to flip and use on guitar.
In short, it's all about convenience. I'm still a novice, so I take whatever shortcuts I can find.
Gibson A-Junior snakehead (Keep on pluckin'!)
The tunings are acronyms. That’s where the similarity ends. Guitar is tuned in fourths, mandolin is tuned in fifths. I would not approach mandolin learning as an upside-down guitar.
Living’ in the Mitten
Just slightly off topic, but probably helpful to those =at the level of= wading thru various chord shapes:
It took me a while to, duuh, realize that, when reading notation, guitar and mandolin, for the E and D strings, are ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL!! It's just that guitar sounds an octave lower than written (THAT only took me 5 decades to realize!), but reading/playing them is the same.
And it helps to notice that the other mandolin strings, A & G, have the same notes / locations as on guitar, but in different octaves.
Personal comment: Early on, I did find the "upside down guitar" concept helpful in finding chord shapes, especially if you remember trivia such as the D chord having an F# note on guitar's lowest string, even if it's not normally played. But as a major concept to hang all mandolin learning on? Not so much.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
Mandolin = ɹɐʇᴉnפ or Mandolin ≠ ɹɐʇᴉnפ
Maybe for a tee-shirt or bumper sticker?
Last edited by Jim Garber; Aug-31-2022 at 6:33pm.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Last edited by catmandu2; Aug-31-2022 at 9:31pm.
I don’t think we disagree, I certainly use and expect others to use all the knowledge they process. Basic music theory knows no specific instrument. But each instrument has its place in the overall structure of music. Anybody ever heard a 6 string “banjo”’ tuner like a guitar, REALLY sound like a banjo.
I don't find the notion useful, not having been a guitarist before a mandolinist. (I did go there earlier, but never really bonded. Too many strings. ) But others may find use in this. I still see the two instruments as separate, with similarities despite compelling differences. The most involving interaction betwen the two arises when playing together, and it makes more sense to learn to be able to recognize guitar chords on sight as they are, and not try to translate one or the other. This is from a mandolinist's perspective, of course.
I don't know what "cowboy chords" are. Is that another way of saying "first position chords?"
Try 1224 for E. It's easier to form, and good and strong.
I think the more you play mandolin, the more you'll learn its distinct, unique character, and not need to lean on whatever steps in the process you use to achieve easy familiarity with the instrument, in and of itself. And someday you'll realize what a vastly superior instrument it is and wonder why it took you so long to attain this enlightenment. One hopes.In short, it's all about convenience. I'm still a novice, so I take whatever shortcuts I can find.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!
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