I'm only starting at this, and it is fun. I bought a mandocello somewhat impulsively a year ago, which led to joining the local mandolin orchestra. Almost all our music lacks the mandocello part, so I have written my own. Most of them are very simple -- manifestations of the old joke: "How does a bass player count to three?" "One, four, five, one."
I just finished a more interesting project. About 20 years ago when I was in a barbershop chorus, I arranged two gospel songs to be sung together: I'll Fly Away and Will the Circle Be Unbroken. They have the same chord sequence. This month I dug up that old arrangement and worked out a version for our orchestra.
Our orchestra's instrumentation is made up of whoever has joined, so it is somewhat abnormal. We have first and second mandolins, a tamburitza that plays the second mandolin part, no mandolas, some ukuleles, a classical guitar, and one mandocello (me). I play octave mandolin on one or two songs, in which case there is no mandocello.
The mandolin and mandocello parts were fairly straightforward. First mandolin gets the melody, except for eight bars where I selfishly gave it to the mandocello. Second mandolin harmonizes with a lot of third and sixths. Mandocello -- yeah, mostly one, four, five, one, with the odd run and one or two chromatic swipes. Hey, I used to be a barbershopper, so that's what happens.
The guitar was harder, because I don't know how to play it. I resorted to simple bass notes and chords for much of the arrangement. In an effort to not bore Anita to death (that's all she gets in most of our music), some sections consist of arpeggios or runs.
The big problem is the ukes. What can you do with them other than have them play chords in rhythm? Even George Formby didn't do much more than that.
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