"Good improvisation communicates harmonic progression melodically. Effective melodies manipulate harmonic content through the use of guide tones and preparatory gravity notes, masterfully woven in systematic tension, release, and transparent harmonic definition."
Many students come to their jazz mandolin lesson wanting to learn about advanced chord substitutions and leave with an assignment that challenges the student to develop better timing. This seems to be an area of study that most aspiring musicians tend to skim over. Maybe this happens because talking about altered notes, arpeggios, tri-tone subs, and modes can be really fun and somewhat sexy, where a discussion on eighth notes seems downright dull or boring.
Please allow me to introduce you to the most important musical idea in jazz. The Mighty Eighth Note! The eighth note is the standard unit of measure in jazz and many other musical forms. A quarter note is merely a note that lasts for the duration of two eighth notes. A half note lasts for the duration of 4 eighth notes. Most jazz melodies are built primarily out of eighth notes because eighth notes used in a syncopated style is a fundamental part of what we call "swing". If we are playing a quarter note based melody, and it just won't swing, we can displace some of the melody notes by an eighth note to create some syncopation, resulting in a better swing feel.
The best advice I ever received about improving my jazz feel was to practice playing a steady stream of eighth notes while the metronome clicked on beats 2 and 4. This is not anywhere near as easy as it sounds. Most people struggle with this at first, but those who stick with it will eventually get it. The end result will be a much smoother delivery of eighth note passages whether they are written or improvised. This ability to relax and stay in sync with the metronome should also make it possible to play much faster.
As mandolin players, we need to take a close look at pick direction and decide how pick-strokes can relate to timing. I believe at slow to medium tempos, playing notes with all down-strokes provides a rich, full-bodied sound. At higher tempos we will need to use alternate picking but remember that alternate picking is not just down-up-down-up. Alternate picking is a technique where all strong beats or numbered beats are played with a down-stroke and all weak beats (ands) are played with up-strokes. This makes many jazz lines tricky due to the fact that many melodies are syncopated and begin with the up-beat (and). The general rule of alternate picking is "numbered beats" are down, "ands" are up.
I have put together this short video demonstrating this practice technique. You may want to do yourself (and your band mates) a favor and spend a little more time on the Prince of all notes, The Mighty Eighth Note. You will be glad you did.
November 17, 2011 | Pete Martin: Bebop Scales for Mandolin and Violin
New from Emerald City multi-instrumentalist and JazzMando fave educator Pete Martin, a terrific study in the rich vocabulary of jazz musicians of the later half of the 20th century, the Bebop Scale.
Like his preceding print materials, Bebop Mandolin: Target Notes and Chromatic Approaches and Jazz Chording for Mandolin, he takes some pretty esoteric theory concepts and puts it into the fingers of the musician through brief explanation and thorough exercise, painstakingly transcribed in traditional notation and TAB for the mandolinist.
Regarding these scales, he writes, "In the 1940s, Jazz evolved in a new direction. Players such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach and countless others evolved a new language. That music, called Bebop, influenced all Jazz styles that followed. One of the innovations was the way these players used scales in their improvised solos. This book will explain those "Bebop Scales" and give you a method of practicing them."
He divides the material in to Major, Dominant 7th, Melodic Minor, and OtherBebop scales, later injecting familiar tunes to help apply a sound and fingering that will likely be unfamiliar to the folk/Bluegrass musician. Possible variations are mentioned and a helpful music theory summary at the end of the 262 page book make this a must-have for any seeking to explore the rich language of this more mature incarnation of jazz.
The book can be electronically downloaded for free, but we strongly encourage you to reward him for his efforts by paying the $10 suggested donation, especially if you find tidbits useful for your own study.
Check out his other fabulous materials or download here.
November 10, 2011 | 5-string chording. A different way of thinking...
Thinking CGDAE
We get this inquiry often, and although not everyone is a 5-string owner, these are still some principles worth applying to a 4-string. The question is about chord charts for 5-string. It makes sense, someone adds a string and wants to know, what are the new fingerings I need to know to get the most out of the instrument? Where is there a chart?
Our approach is different, so much about moving chord blocks around the fretboard, transposing chords, thinking relationships, that we wouldn't necessarily refer to a comprehensive "chart." Knowing that you aren't often going to hit all five strings at once, you stick to the chords you know already, move them over a string and think them down a 5th. (See circle of 5ths below.)
The other concept we suggest is using less 4-note chords and more 3-note chords. It sounds counter-intuitive, you purchase an instrument with a wider range and you naturally want to begin adding extra sonic real estate, larger chords with the 5th string, but instead, you'll ultimately end up increasing instead the area to apply the chords. It's just a matter of learning your 3-note chord blocks and being able to manifest them in new positions.
Worth considering, the extended low (tenor/baritone) range of addition of the C-string gives you richer harmonic field than you find on an 8- or 4-string mandolin. As a rule, start with the thickest three strings for chording, and move them linearly up the fretboard--NOT across the strings. Our last three Mandolin Sessions articles (links below) give you the V7 and Major 7 blocks that can start you down that path. Of course, you'll need to transpose them down a 5th (A7 block becomes D7 block). It takes a little thinking at first, but it all becomes 2nd nature as you repeat them over and over.
It's not a table of chords, rather an open system of thinking the fretboard. A whole new "process."
The links below are a start to the 3-note block way of getting around the new terrain. If it's trouble thinking transpositions, use a Circle of 5ths chart as a cheat sheet:
As an aside, this approach has been invaluable in adapting to a baritone electric mandolin in which the strings are GDAEB.
November 3, 2011 | Right hand considerations for flatpicking--John McGann
We've had the pleasure of knowing multi-instrumentalist/educator John McGann for most of a decade, and have always appreciated his words of wisdom in personal correspondence as well as the generous public free resources on his website. Though his tenure at the Berklee School of Music has supercharged his pedigree the last few years, he was already well established as performer, recording artist, author, and clinician years prior.
We've borrowed the following treatise on picks from his site for you to read, and we encourage you to dig deeper into his brain and visit his site for even more gems.
Right hand considerations for flatpicking John McGann
The right hand makes the instrument speak, so you can consider it the source of your voice on the instrument. Wind instrument players refer to " embouchure" when discussing tone production--the way the mouth and lips fit on the mouthpiece to create their personal sound. Awareness of right hand position is crucial to achieve a great tone on your instrument.
Pick material--the choice of material and thickness of the pick has a huge effect on your tone. A medium Fender pick, played in a traditional fashion with the point, has a totally different tone than a 1.5mm Dunlop Tortex (synthetic tortoise shell) pick played on one of it's upper, beveled edges.
Explore the options of tone by trying different picks. You'll find a snappy, trebly attack from the thinner picks, and a warm, burnished tone from the thicker ones. Irish musicians tend toward the thin picks, as they like the quick snap for fast picked triplets. I DO NOT use thinner picks for Irish music, or any music for that matter. My favorite American acoustic musicians (Tony Rice, David Grisman, Sam Bush, Russ Barenberg) all use the rounded corners of their picks to get their individual, amazing sounds. Experiment with different picks until you find what you like best.
My belief is that thicker picks make acoustic instruments do what they NEED to do to project the best tone- RESONATE. The thin pick deflects off the string, and the string does not take the full energy of the pick attack. A thick pick delivers all the energy to the string, which vibrates fully, making the bridge and top resonate, creating the sound waves that bounce around in the box and pour out of the soundhole(s). With a thin pick, the string plays the pick as much as the pick plays the string!
It is my opinion the thicker picks allow you to maximize tone production and volume.
Also consider acoustics--bass frequencies travel further than highs. Thin picks do not bring out the low end of an instrument, but the brightness gives the player the illusion they are creating volume. Walk down a city street and wait for a car with "bass tubes" blasting hiphop (it won't take long!) and listen to the drive toward the hills. You hear that "thump" in the bass long after the shimmering audio detail :) in the upper freqencies is inaudible.
If you play electric, you may want a thinner pick to go with the lighter string gauges.I use the 1.5 Dunlop Tortex 500 Series Delrin on acoustic AND electric (regular .010 set). You may want to go lighter on electric; I used to use a Fender Extra Heavy but have grown to like the feel of the Dunlop on electric.
On the "Django" guitars I use a custom made 3.5mm tortise shell pick. It is a school of tone production peculiar to the "Gypsy Jazz" idiom, and certainly brings out the best tone these guitars have to offer. Gypsy Jazz Guitar is a whole 'nother world of right hand technique. Downstrokes, rest strokes and all: Check out www.djangobooks.com and Michael Horowitz' "Gypsy Picking".
Pick angle--if you hit the strings with the pick at a flat, perpendicular angle, you'll be slapping the string. I like to get a loud,warm sound by picking at a slight angle, tipping my right thumbnail toward the floor.The idea is to draw the pick through the string, much like a fiddler draws the bow across the string.
The "window of travel"--visualize a window starting on the 5th string (A). The pick can reach back to the 6th string and up to the 4th string. If you stay within that window while attacking the A string, you'll achieve economy of motion. To continue this concept to the other strings: imagine the window on each string. To deliver the pick to the string, you must have mobility. You should have your elbow relaxed enough to drop your hand down to the 1st string, and back up to the 6th string. Any kind of anchoring of your hand will limit your mobility and ability to deliver the same stroke, with maximum effect, to each string.
Remember turntables? The early ones had a pivot point, and the needle would be at a much sharper angle on the last song of the LP than the 1st. Then, the "linear tracking tonearm" came along, that allowed the tonearm to move laterally, so the angle of the needle remained the same. Try to imaging your pick as the needle, and your "tonearm" moving to deliver the pick to each string at the same relative angle, without twisting to reach any string. It is really comfortable and easy when you get the hang of it!
The pick motion comes totally from the wrist, and the elbow moves only to deliver the pick to the string. Gravity allows you to "fall" through the string with very little effort. Picking should not be like driving a nail!
Pick motions made solely by the thumb and finger produce tiny tone and volume, because there is no support behind it.
I touch just above the "karate-chop" edge of my hand on the bridge pins (acoustic guitar) or just below the saddle (mandolin, electric guitar) and let it move as I play. I can retain a sense of where I am, without impeding motion. Many great players play "freehand" with the right hand never touching the top. The universal tip is that you should be as loose and relaxed as possible, even at maximum volume.
BALLING YOUR HAND INTO A FIST will create tension and limit mobility and the ability to generate a rainbow of tone colors. You may get a lot of volume, but the tone is sure to be brash and nasty -and if that's what you are going for, then go for it!- but good technique should not make you a one trick pony.
The fingers that aren't holding the pick should feel 'numb' and relaxed, they will curl about halfway to the palm. This allows gravity to work in your favor. Keep the 'novocained' feeling in your wrist joint as well. Tension is the enemy!
If you do make a fist, you have to expend more effort to make the pick stroke (try it!)
"Should I plant a pinky?" There are some players who do this "posting" and make it work. I don't suggest it, as I feel it can limit mobility and create tension.
Mobility--To alter the tone quality of your sound, you'll want to move your hand from just above the bridge (most bright and trebly) toward the neck (increasingly warm and dark). There is a huge range of expression available in tone color, with the pick or with bare fingers (or nails, as in classical guitar). One of the great tone colorists on the guitar is Julian Bream. Listen to any of his recordings, especially his interpretations of Bach-- it's hard to believe it's all coming from one guitar played solo.
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November 24, 2011 | How to make your playing swing!
New from Emerald City multi-instrumentalist and JazzMando fave educator Pete Martin, a terrific study in the rich vocabulary of jazz musicians of the later half of the 20th century, the Bebop Scale. 
Bebop Scales for Mandolin and Violin
We get this inquiry often, and although not everyone is a 5-string owner, these are still some principles worth applying to a 4-string. The question is about chord charts for 5-string. It makes sense, someone adds a string and wants to know, what are the new fingerings I need to know to get the most out of the instrument? Where is there a chart?
