Camp Prep For Novice Fiddle Players (Page 4 of 4) in pdf

Camp Prep For Novice Fiddle Players Page 4

‘modern’ players (for example Adam Steffey and Jimmy Gaudreau) go for melodic interest.

When not taking breaks the mandolin often emphasises the off-beat with a cut-off ‘chop’ chord.

One of the basics is that the right hand always picks downwards on the quaver-notes 1,3,5and 7

of a bar and upwards on notes 2,4,6 and 8 [example 1 below]. However there is a style invented

by Jesse McReynolds, known as ‘cross-picking’ which imitates bluegrass banjo syncopation [see

2 below]; Jesse McReynolds and most other players pick this style as shown – ‘down-up-up’ –

but other players still stick to regular ‘down-up-down-up’.

[3] below shows the standard chord shape – this is for ‘G’, but you can move it around to get

other chords – up two frets for A, across to the bottom three strings for C etc.. You only play the

strings you are actually fretting with your left hand. A lot of classic bluegrass mandolin licks are

based around this shape – for instance [4].

Most bluegrass mandolin decoration is, as for the ﬁddle, ﬁlling out the spaces in the tune – try

runs up and down the scale or up and down the arpeggio (the notes of the backing chord at the

time you are playing); you can be as creative as you like.

Tremolo – useful for slow tunes, and occasionally for fast ones too. It does take practice: I have

found it really helped to try and relax my right wrist as much as possible. You don’t have to keep

to the rhythm of the piece – in fact it’s rather nice if the tremolo is ‘against’ the time of the other

instruments. Try it ﬁrst on just one string, then on two. You may even want sometimes to use

even three or four strings for special effects.

Camp Prep For Novice Fiddle Players Page 4