Thanks! I also always start with the melody when I make up new breaks. The thing with this tune 'White Freightliner Blues' is that the melody is kind of boring to play, it's more or less one prolonged note twice, and then a little variation at the end. It's a great song, but to play the melody is just not cutting it this time.
So far I've come up with a unison e-note on the a and e strings for the c-chord, followed by some 'slidin' around' in g chord position an d chord position and then ending up with the unison e again, but fretting the a string one half step down so it get's a little dissonant at the end... It's hard to play crooked! I really love the crookedness of Monroe's playing. /Jonas 2008/10/15 Sally and Nelson Peddycoart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I am a pretty new player, with limited experience. If the tune is a > pretty quick one, I look for notes to break down (1 quarter note to 2 > eighths or 4 sixteenths). That helps fill voids. I also look for open > notes that I can move to a lower string and get a unison double. I also > look for places to add an additional chord note in appropriate places. I > like to use Finale because I can scan a melody line in and screw around with > it then get it close to where I want then start playing around on the > instrument. > > > > This month's Mandolin Magazine has a short article by Butch Baldassari on > creating bluegrass breaks. > > > > There is a decent book by John McGann called "Developing Melodic > Variations on Fiddle Tunes", which carries you through different ways to > change a tune up. > > > > Take a look at Tater's pdf of Methodist Preacher in the files area and > compare it to the fiddle version. You'll be able to see/hear the nature > of the adaptation. > > Nelson > > > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] *On Behalf Of *Robin Gravina > *Sent:* Tuesday, October 14, 2008 5:21 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* Re: Thinking up breaks > > > > I also have to produce solos for public consumption, without having the art > or technique, but my theory and it is absolutely not guaranteed, is to play > blues licks from the chords with loads of strings going- e.g. for your tune > in C, when I was working on a solo for 'Sweet love aint around' in C, I took > the Taterbug solo for 'Rocky Road Blues' which is on mandozine and tried to > just use the positions while bearing in mind the tune of the song. If > nothing else, it lets you hit some of the tune notes while playing with a > load of sound rather than fiddling around with clever melody lines, which I > have to say I cannot do, and if you do it badly it sounds really weak. > > You could also try the Monroe and Bush versions of 'Walls of time' which > are both on the mandozine website and give you rocking things to play in the > C and G chords... The Bush one just has to be moved over one string > downwards. > > > > Anyway, those ideas have made my soloing at least sound acceptable, when I > hit it right, even though the last thing it is is original! > > Best > > Robin > > > > > > On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 10:29 PM, Mark Seale <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jonas - > > For new tunes, I typically stick around the melody and the chord > progression. Then I focus on interesting transitions from one change to the > next. Usually that will get you there in an old-time style. > > Mark > > > > On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Jonas Mattebo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > Dear All, > > How do you people approach designing tasteful mandolin breaks for > songs? Start with the melody, or play out of chord positions, or just > opening the box o' tricks & licks? I'm trying to play in the Monroe/ > Compton vein of mandolin playing, and I find it hard to come up with > new stuff still within this style. How do I approach it? > > For example, I'm now trying to come up with a break to the Townes Van > Zandt song 'White Freightliner Blues', and it's not really coming > along. (The problem is I'm supposed to play this song in front of a > 'trusting audience' this friday, so I'm running out of time!) > > Anyway, the song is kind of fast (for me) and the chords are: > C/C/G/G/(X2) > D/C/G/G > > How would you approach this? > > Thanks, > Jonas > > > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
