Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Best approach to pickin pattern for Mary Did You Knows

#1

Love the Mando…any suggestions for this song?

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#2

I love the sound of backing that song on mandolin. For backup, I’d start the verse with arpeggios and use open chord shapes. So (in Am) something like from low string to high string:
2 - 2 - 3 - 0
0 - 0 - 2 - 3
2 - 0 - 0 - 1
Those are all 8th notes so you would play 1 & 2 & then rest on 3 and 4. Then for the Esus/E7 measure something like:
2 - 2 - 2 - 0
1 - 0 - 2 - 0

As the song picks up in intensity, I’d switch to more strumming with accents on 1, the and of 2 and 4.

If that doesn’t make sense, my apologies. I can tab some stuff out if needed.

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#3

Be careful with this one!

Popular Christmas Song ‘Mary, Did You Know?’ Criticized For Mansplaining

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#4

Thank you for the help. I would love to have a tab if possible Again thanks for getting me started. My plan is to play this song by next Christmas. Being a beginner. I am very excited to get started.

Earl

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#5

Thanks, I’ll make sure to ask if anyone objects, before I play it.

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#6

Here is a TEF with a backing part for the start of the verse. I also included a part similar to what I might play as an intro or turnaround so that you could (hopefully) hear how the backing part sits with the melody. I hope this gets you off to a good start.
Mary did you know.tef (2.1 KB)

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#7

By the way, the Babylon Bee is (very good) satire. Just in case anyone thought there were wars breaking out over “Mary did you know” :smiley:

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#8

Thanks @Mike_R for the Mandolin Tab and thanks for bringing awareness to the article’s source Babylon Bee. :cowboy_hat_face:

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#9

Thanks for the help, Mike

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