Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Discuss the Mandolin lesson: Mandolin POV Pickalong: Nine Pound Hammer

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/mandolin-pov-pickalong-nine-pound-hammer-mandolin-intermediate

Let’s pick! The point of the Pickalong lessons is not to teach you a tabbed solo or backup, but to get you actually playing along by using your eyes and ears! Don’t forget that you can slow down the video!

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We gotta show the mando version some love too, don’t we? lol

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This is awesome! I like this format a lot. Do you have a video about the alternate chord shapes you are doing for backup besides the chop chords? The one where it looks like you are alternating between the index and pinky fingers?

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Hey Denny! The Modern Mandolin Rhythm lesson is in that vein. In this video, Ben looks to be using the bottom two strings of each chord (all of which are your standard first position shapes). For the snare beat, he brings his pinky/ring fingers down and chops on dead strings. The exception is for breaks in vocals, where he occasionally strums that open A chord.

Here are those chords (notated as they correspond to your strings):

A- 22xx
D- 20xx
E- 42xx

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Thanks Mark! This is super helpful. I will check out that lesson.

*edit - Apologies, I see your name is Michael. Thanks again!

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