Beginner question…so much of what I am learning is bluegrass technique and playing with others in jams. However, I’ll be asked by friends and family occasionally to play them something on the mandolin by itself. The solos are pretty quick and a bunch of chops just isn’t that interesting with my very average voice. Do you change styles or add more open chords to fill the space or any other advice?
Mandolin alone
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Usually more open chords and sometimes trying to add fills or some “bass” movement on the lower strings, yeah. It’s tough but doable. Also just the way you use the right hand—rest strokes, dynamics, brushing the chords vs. strumming them, etc.
Thile is the master of solo mandolin + voice of course, just unbelievable. I know none of us will ever do something like this but I know you’ll still enjoy it:
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i struggle with this too. i think its more of a perspective thing to us as the player. it doesnt feel like we are doing anything “impressive” when we play for others, especially when we are starting out (and after watching all the pros online make it look so easy). but I can assure you anything sounds good to someone who doesnt play an instrument. and your family and friends are impressed with you just the same. I’ve only been playing a few years now and once my dad asked me to play him something and i could barely get through the song’s solo and it was something pretty simple i have played a thousand times. and as a joke he said something like, “ain’t u been playing this for a while now?” he was joking of course and said i t sounds good and he’s impressed from where i started from to that point. But the point is, just chops, chords and solos is the formula for any song when you boil it down.
So, to finally answer your question, to spice it up, what i try to do is play with the timing (slow it down /speed it up/ maybe a combo of both) or the phrasing of some of the riffs. experiment with the song to make it your own and let it become your own performative feeling of that song. You can string chords together by walking the scale a bit, or adding tremelos. slowing songs down, especially with these snappy bluegrass tunes, it can have a pretty dramatic effect in a performance when added with emotion and all that. also, mess around with your accent notes and volume of play. let a chord drift of in a tremolo that’s soft and slow or with one that feels wound tight.
so, is it a cheap parlor trick to make up for raw talent and ability with performative theatrics… um, no. its just adding emotion to your play. I mean G,C and D are a lot of songs but artists unique stamp is what make them magical. My voice is for sure less than average, haha, so i got no tips there.
funny, this makes me think of a scene in the 1978 film magic. A young anthony hopkins is doing a magic trick on stage for a bar crowd and they are barely paying attention and seemingly unimpressed, and eventually he gets mad and lashes out at the crowd and says, “thats 14 years of my life you just saw there!” He’s mad that they don’t realize the amount of work that went into making these hard things look so easy. and he thinks they are just stupid for not realizing how hard and impressive what he just did was. With mandolin, I think about this a lot. Or anything really. I might spend months working on a solo that is only 28 seconds long. when i play it for someone, they simply smile and say, “sounds good”. they don’t fall out of their chair in awe like we do watching virtuosos like Chris in this video. Its just a perspective thing. You might have felt like you are boring them or playing something flat and siimple, but they are impressed as much as they can be being a non musician. and the fact that you are playing in front of others with a full song and a solo is already impressive. keep on moving and doing what your doing and expose yourself to multiple versions of whatever song you are playing and you eventually find some things you can add to your own version that will feel less stilted and dry.
hope that helps!
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I just remembered this song I worked up years ago (Rise by Eddy Vetter). Very fun to play solo and folks seem to enjoy it.
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