Fiddle tunes with drones/etc for solo mandolin

[Markus]

I'm looking for some suggestions of good songs [materials/notation/tab] that use drone strings a lot - mainly of the folk/fiddle/bluegrass realm, though ITM or any other suggestion welcomed. A good song is a good song, I'm asking so that I can expand my horizons ... if you've got something from left field, I'll take it.

What I draw this question from is the tune Little Rabbit out of the Butch Baldassari `30 Fiddle Tunes for Mandolin' book. Just about the entire song has an open string being played as a drone [correct me if I'm mis-using this term] .... a sound I very much like and want to explore.

It's in A, generally uses the A and E strings as drones ... I've been noodling quite a bit with drone strings for a few weeks now, and need to expand my understanding. It sure seems like a powerful tool when I'm playing singly or with a friend and want to make one or two instruments seem `big'.

It might drive the cat away, but I can't get enough playing that tune and need more like it. It makes me want to get up and dance, so I figure with more work it will make people listening want to, or at least stop running away.

I've experimenting adding drones in some more common fiddle tunes ... and that can work but I hate to force it and still feel like I'm working on getting the `standard' version nailed perfectly ... no need to add other things at least for a few more months. Suggestions here on how to incorporate them are certainly welcome - though not really my main objective here, learning is good.

Songs like Little Rabbit also seem like they would work [kept short] solo. An appealing concept.

-Handy for when the guitarist busts a string, you need to change things up a little.
-Great minute and half short songs for when my daughter has a friend over and she wants to hear what a mandolin sounds like.
-Good for most of the time, when I'm playing solo at home - I'm in woodshed mode, playing a lot of jams but far more straight up practice this year.

I feel like I'm starting to understand how to use drone strings - would love to learn some more tunes that them use well some more before I start using them regularly.

Any song suggestions that use them well, tunefully, or inventively [or something else] are welcome.

Thanks.

[Rob Fowler]

One that I really like to play that uses the G and D strings as drones is Norman Blake's version of John Brown's March. He goes through it on his Homespun lesson on mandolin and it's also on the "Master's Of The Mandolin" compilation of lessons by Homespun. It's a pretty simple tune but takes a bit of practice to play the drones like he tends to.

Little Rabbit is certainly a great example and one that I have worked on from time to time.

[Perry]

I've tried to add the G string to Leather Britches. Here's an attempt

[catmandu2]

Check out some cajun fiddling. Also, Swedish and other scandi styles.

Oh, sorry...I see you're looking for mando stuff

[Markus]

Any specific tunes, Cat?

Cajun seems appropriate today, and is a style of music I've grown to love as the local traditional music festival always books a great cajun band or two. Don't really know squat, but a great tune or two to pursue is a good introduction.

I'm sure there are tunes right in front of me that I've never noticed [or seen someone] do this on. The first Angeline the Baker I learned didn't mention anything other than the single-note melody, yet it calls out for an open string in places - I'm working it in now.

I've tried to add the G string to Leather Britches. Here's an attempt[/URL]

That's really nice, and exactly what I'm talking about.

To my ear it adds a lot to the sound - perhaps more than wanted if in a good, tight group .. but solo or in small groups it really works the song.

Really nice rendition, makes my feet want to get moving.

One that I really like to play that uses the G and D strings as drones is Norman Blake's version of John Brown's March.

Added to the list, it's been to long since I listened to Norman Blake.

[Perry]

To my ear it adds a lot to the sound - perhaps more than wanted if in a good, tight group .. but solo or in small groups it really works the song.

Thanks Markus...and you are exactly right it IS too much when in a small group and I often forget to tone it down when playing in a ensemble. It's more for playing solo mandolin ...maybe a duo.

BTW my favorite mandolin player for making fiddle tunes sound phat in a solo context is Mike Compton. He has this knack of stripping a tune down to it's bare rhythmic and melodic essence and also using drones and clever double stops to fatten things up.

Ditto on Norman I used to own his mandolin lesson on VHS...time to upgrade.

[catmandu2]

I have this terrible habit of not even reading an OP in its entirety (or at all)...getting involved in a discussion, and only going back to actually read the OP--which I still haven't done--much later. My apologies.

I like to listen to Tim O'brien solo fiddle recordings. Of course there's much droning in American old-time -- isn't it the Round Peak style of Jarrell et al. that drones much?

Re cajun and scandinavian: a lot of the trad style of playing employs drones. I'd guess that many trad folk styles--of which fiddle constitutes at least one of the trad instruments--makes much use of drones. I really like it in old-world stuff. I occasionally play with a hardanger player -- very effective in this style are drones--gets those sympathetic strings a ringing. My colleague has remarked that he thinks the cajun style resembles the Norwegian style, in its use of doublestops and drones. I guess this is one reason why I like to play cajun style, particularly...

[Rob Fowler]

Another thing you can do is tune up your your G to A and your D to E, called "sawmill tuning."

Here's Mike Compton playing "Jenny Lynn" in sawmill tuning.


Here's fellow cafe member, Don Grieser playing the same tune



Don's got some great other videos on his youtube page where he employs this tuning, also. I don't remember offhand though what tunes he plays, though. Check it out.

I thought of another Norman Blake song (that he wrote) that uses a lot of drones on the E string: "Georgia Home." Here's me picking it a bit too fast:

[Josh Kaplan]

Mississippi Sawyer is a good one.

-Josh

[JeffD]

Scotland the Brave, into Bonneparte Crossing the Rhine, into Parting of the Waters, into 42 Highlanders. Lots of drones and drone opportunities.

[Paul Cowham]

I recently went on a Scottish music residential weekend, Dagger Gordan (cafe member) was running the mandolin class and is a big advocate of filling out fiddle tunes with either open drone strings or fretted notes on other strings which are part of the chord (not necessarily playing drone notes continuously but letting them ring out)

He can obviously give a much better description but it seems to me as though most fiddle tunes in G, D or A this can be used to some extent. I know he has a book out with various tunes in where this can be applied, and to my ear they sound good as solo mandolin pieces. (Dagger if you read this perhaps you could elaborate?)..

[Dagger Gordon]

Hi Paul,

Yes, I tend to play a bit like that all the time.

I think you summed up what I do fairly well actually.

"filling out fiddle tunes with either open drone strings or fretted notes on other strings which are part of the chord (not necessarily playing drone notes continuously but letting them ring out)"

Gives more volume and adds colour and interest to your playing.
One of my main tricks is if (for example) I were to play the A note on the top string I would often play the open A string along with it, giving two A notes an octave apart. Same for the D notes (on second string fifth fret along with the open D), and the same thing again for G on the third and fourth strings.
Easy to do and requires no extra fingering.

[Markus]

Rob, Josh, and Jeff ... thank you for the suggestions. They're on my `to learn' list ...

I know he has a book out with various tunes in where this can be applied, and to my ear they sound good as solo mandolin pieces.

I will look into it, as that sounds like an interesting collection and tunes that would work with this technique. Probably have some other good learning challenges too ... along with tunes I've never met but probably want to know.

Gives more volume and adds colour and interest to your playing.
One of my main tricks is if (for example) I were to play the A note on the top string I would often play the open A string along with it, giving two A notes an octave apart. Same for the D notes (on second string fifth fret along with the open D), and the same thing again for G on the third and fourth strings.
Easy to do and requires no extra fingering.

Thanks for the explanation, and Paul's too. While that's exactly what I've started doing ... it's nice to have it clearly stated from someone who has far more experience than I do. Sometimes it's knowing what to do, other times it's having the confidence to do it. Your advice is helpful in both regards.

And yes - those octave-doubles give quite an accent when that's what you're looking for.

I love playing around with rhythms - I hear more ideas than I can currently play ... this technique seems to lend itself for solo playing [emphasize basic beat], but also allows for strong accent/emphasis when playing with the percussive nature of the mandolin.

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas ... a very useful thread for me.

[Dagger Gordon]

That's great!

Delighted to have helped. Good luck with it all.

Dagger

[JeffD]

The letting it ring out part is something that can't be done on the violin. So when folks talk about playing mandolinny and being more than a picked fiddle, droning and ringing double stops like this is something you can do.

[Jesse Harmon]

I have been playing in a book The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island that is full of what you are looking for I think. Spin-n-Glo, others there also.

[Rob Gerety]

Might be that the larger topic here is double stops or partial (two note) chords.

[John Ritchhart]

Mark O'Connor will make you think you're in Scotland when he plays these.

[catmandu2]

Dang. That's some dam* refined fiddling.

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

I like to hear somebody play this "Little Rabbit" so i can get my head around how its supposed to sound. I found the tab here on the caf, but it's a slightly different version and I really prefer notation.