I'm two songs in. Which bluegrass standards should I learn next?

[kencollapse]

Hi there, I'm a little new to mandolin and bluegrass but I love them. I have been playing electric bass in a rock band for quite some time, and piano and guitar on the side, so I basically know my way around music theory.

I love the mandolin, and so far have learned Whiskey Before Breakfast and Blackberry Blossom. I especially love the 'devilish' parts in bluegrass, like how you can land on that E minor in Blackberry Blossom in a very evil way.

Any suggestions on some standards I should know and could have some fun with?

My apologies if I'm being way too newbie.

[billkilpatrick]

check out the "song a week" social group:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/group.php?groupid=67

... lot's of old-time and BG tunes, learned on a weekly basis.

- bill

[swampstomper]

If you like "devlish" parts, of course try Devil's Dream (A) with those Bm licks. Seriously. Although none of these are originally bluegrass, they can of course be done in bluegrass style. Real bluegrass instrumentals begin with Monroe (of course). A very easy one to start with is Bluegrass Stomp (D). Another simple one is his first, Tennessee Blues (A). These can have fancy variations but the original statement of the melody is straightforward.

[John Gardinsky]

Spooky soundin' instrumental? Try Lonesome Moonlight Waltz or Kentucky Mandolin by Bill Monroe.

[lefty mandoman]

If you're wanting to learn just some straight standards I would suggest The Bluegrass Fakebook. It has a lot of standards i've heard for years at festivals. Another good resource would be Steve Kaufman's four hour bluegrass workout. It has a ton of standard fiddle tunes that you won't get out of the Fakebook, and it comes with four instructional CD's to play along with. Between those two, that's gonna keep ya busy for awhile! They helped me a lot when i was just a young'n in BG;-)

http://www.amazon.com/Bluegrass-Fake...ref=pd_sim_b_2
http://www.homespuntapes.com/shop/product.aspx?ID=1044

Good Luck, and enjoy the journey!

Jim

[kencollapse]

Wow. Those are excellent suggestions. That helps way more than I was expecting. Thanks!

[Pete Hicks]

Hey Kencollapse,
Check out playingbyear.com, the Abbot family learning site. You'll be glad you did.

[swampy]

I must agree with Swampstomper on Bluegrass Stomp and Tennessee Blues.

Everyone needs some "gateway" tunes, and I think these would be great for someone coming from a rock background.

You should be able to pick up the melody fairly quickly, and then you can shift some focus to getting the feel and timbre of bluegrass down.

Both of these tunes have a bluesy, rockabilly-type structure about them, and you can really work on the right hand technique. (Which is just as important to getting awesome bluegrass tone) The structure also makes improvising fairly simple for someone with a rock background.

I think these two would be a nice compliment to the 2 tunes you already have learned, which have a more traditional fiddle-tune structure.

Careful, this mandolin thing is addicting!

[doc holiday]

Here's a plug for the book/CD and DVD offerings from our late Butch Baldassari. When you're starting out on the mando, everything is helpful, and I highly respect Steve Kauffman as a teacher, but to my ear his arrangements sound too guitar-like. Come to think of it...you can't miss with the Roland White mandolin tab/cd book which covers a lot of ground.

[Kevin Briggs]

I agree with all of the above. I also think that you can seriously increase your repertoire by using Steve Kauffman's Two-Hour Bluegrass Workout, Vol. 1.

I used it to learn the basic melodies of a bunch of songs, and you can play rhythm and lead along withe his makeshift band (of him on each instrument). The band is pretty vanilla, but the melodies are nice and they are accurate, plus he plays them at two speeds so you can essentially play the song four times, twice very slow, and once at a more brisk pace.

Once you start learning some of the melodies, you start to be able to improvise a little bit, because you begin to recognize how licks will fit into different songs. I think everyone here will agree that learning this instrument is all about learning lots and lots of songs. They sort of mesh together after a while, and then you one day realize that you feel fairly comfortable moving around the fret board in most keys. Now, playing clean and well in those keys is another story....

[journeybear]

So far you've avoided straight-ahead 1-4-5 songs, and maybe that's just as well ... but you can hardly go wrong with taking something basic like "Rollin' In My Sweet Baby's Arms" and trying to make it your own. For something bluesier try "Sitting On Top Of The World." Or if you want to stay away from "standard" chord progressions, there are songs like "Salty Dog" and "Don't Let Your Deal Go Down" that lean heavily on the circle of fifths. Then there's "Blue Moon Of Kentucky," with its time signature and tempo change. That should keep you busy for a while ...

[majorbanjo]

http://www.elderly.com/books/items/01-965153.htm

try fiddle tunes for flatpickers mandolin.....best arangements of the tunes I've found....

Go directly to page 20 and work on Old Dangerfield.....

That's my recommendation....

Trey

[Kevin Briggs]

You could always check out my YouTube site. I have a bunch of instructional stuff on there. I'm no master, but it's a hobby of mine and I thought I could answer a bunch of questions I remember having when I first started playing.

[wellvis@well.com]

+1 on "Fiddle Tunes for Flatpickers Mandolin" by Bob Grant (of the Bad Livers). It's very well done.

[Mandolin Mick]

Well, Journeybear beat me to it ... I was going to recommend "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" and "Salty Dog" ...

How about "Mountain Dew" and "Hot Corn Cold Corn"?

[mrkrgr]

If you are going to be playing by yourself, learn anything you want to learn, but if your going to be playing with others (jamming, friends, etc.) find out what they play. I have found that I can learn mandolin tunes that very few people play, and they help technique wise, but are of little use when starting out to play with others. Find out what tunes are being played in your area and learn them. I moved from the Baltimore area to Augusta, GA and we used to play fiddle tunes galore but not so much around here. One more thing is really work on the rhythm aspects of mandolin playing. Learn the chords and the tune. Learn to drive the band with your little mandolin and step up confidently when its your turn to play.

[journeybear]

Mick! I didn't recognize you without the Century - or is that feller playing one?

Anyway, I just saw this thread is a year old, and we haven't heard from the OP. Wonder how he's coming along, or if he's gone back to punk music ...

[LarryMando]

This may be a topic for another thread, but re Blackberry Blossom and other tunes as well - I'm focusing on getting the pick direction absolutely perfect and this sometimes drives me nuts - - How important is it to get the pick direction down pat?

[Brent Hutto]

If you can learn to make your upstrokes sound exactly like your downstrokes, wouldn't that make direction not matter at all? How about if you could at least come real close...

[Mike Bunting]

This may be a topic for another thread, but re Blackberry Blossom and other tunes as well - I'm focusing on getting the pick direction absolutely perfect and this sometimes drives me nuts - - How important is it to get the pick direction down pat?

Very important. Check this link, http://www.mandozine.com/index.php/t...ing_exercises/

Not learning this will lead to problems further down the line.

[Mandolin Mick]

Journeybear ...

I like some of the avatars that members have that have a comic character playing a mandolin.

I really like this guy ... kinda looks like a cross between Tiny Tim & Alice Cooper with a mandolin... my long lost twin brother ...

[Markus]

Very important. Check this link, http://www.mandozine.com/index.php/t...ing_exercises/

Not learning this will lead to problems further down the line.

I strongly agree.

I'm migrating from guitar, where I've played for well over a decade and always went by the `if my picking sounds the same, why bother?' line of thinking.

Problem was, I kept on running into walls - flatpicking I could get to a certain level, but never clean smooth and fast together - any number of places I ended up limited by it after a while. Swimming upstream is fine sometimes ... but do you want to be the guy with reverse picking from EVERYONE else at the jam, every time, wherever you go?

So, I'm going through the painful, slow, frustrating process I should have nailed 20 years ago on another instrument. Either that, or I'll only eventually get to be a decent mandolin player. If I want to excel at all, technique needs to be down cold.

I've got hours and hours of slow metronome playing to rid myself of a limiting bad habit. Then again, I can also take that time to make sure every note is rung well, that tone is great and every bit of each strike is done perfectly. I could play quite fast right now, but realize that it's better to take 3 months of frustration to do it correctly and with great tone - top speed IMO/IME requires good technique [excepting a very small list]

[journeybear]

I really like this guy ... kinda looks like a cross between Tiny Tim & Alice Cooper with a mandolin...

He does seem a rather jovial fellow. I am trying to translate the inscription, but my high school French and seven language dictionary can only do so much - more than babelfish though. The printing (Chanteurs des Cours - Emporte moi brise legere) says, I believe, "courting singers, bring me a light breeze" - perhaps a mocking reference to his size or apparently loud singing. The handwritten comment (if I'm reading it right, ton douse parfin que mon adore quand tu sort des cabinets - histoire de rire une peu) seems to say - well, something something "when you leave your room" and then "story of a little laugh." French is a very idiomatic language and I doubt Im getting this right. Hopefully someone who actually speaks French can do better.

Anyway, he does seem to be enjoying himself very much without a care - a fine avatar indeed!

[Mandolin Mick]

I took French in high school and brush up on it before I go to Paris, so my French is only conversational. You're doing better than me!

[LarryMando]

Thanks for the responses (re pick direction). My teacher is pretty strict about it, partly because the rhythm/sound, but mostly because I will be limited in speed. It is frustrating though.