un5trung - Posted - 12/26/2010:  10:26:56

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Does anyone here play blues mandolin? Would love to share tips, licks, shuffles, turnarounds, etc.

fred davis - Posted - 12/26/2010:  10:37:36

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yes I do took lessons for a year Ialso play slide on it ( I have also used a slide on my banjo ) Most of the blues sound is in the picking style. Play nice and often

un5trung - Posted - 12/26/2010:  10:56:09

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Lessons, eh? You found someone in your area who offers lessons?

fred davis - Posted - 12/26/2010:  13:47:44

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Kinda ya he plays blues on a guitar I just transposed the info Notes are notes same with chords Just played on a difference instrument

Jim Yates - Posted - 12/26/2010:  14:09:26

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I play in a jug band. We do a lot of bluesy stuff - Denomination Blues, Blues In The Bottle, Stealin'...
Get some CDs of Yank Rachell, Johnny Young, Carl Martin, Ry Cooder, Rich DelGrosso, Steve James, Ken Whiteley... There are many more blues mandolin players as well.

Rich DelGrosso's Keep Your Nose Outa My Business is a great start.

schlange - Posted - 12/26/2010:  14:20:00

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You could check out some of Jim Richter's blues mando lessons on YouTube. I posted a bunch of them to the video archive last week--see here: mandohangout.com/myhangout/vid...it=Search

un5trung - Posted - 12/26/2010:  15:09:37

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Richter's lessons are certainly useful. I've been listening to DelGrosso, Rachell, Charlie McCoy and Johnny Young. DelGrosso offers online lessons, and this afternoon I signed up. Let's see if he can help me make something of myself!

janolov - Posted - 12/27/2010:  12:58:52

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I play a few blues tunes. I have just posted a tab of Milk Cow Blues in the Tab Section (hangoutstorage.com/mandohangou...22010.tef) and I am just now working with some Mississippi John Hurt and Gary Davies stuff.

Mirek Patek - Posted - 12/29/2010:  13:39:30

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Look for Niles Hokkanen.

Jim Yates - Posted - 12/29/2010:  17:30:42

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mirek Patek

Look for Niles Hokkanen.

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Niles used to be the editor of a wonderful Mandolin newsletter that he no longer had the time to continue. It had a couple of names, but steady high quality. The Mandocrucian Digest was the name when it went under. It had many columns by excellent mandolin players.

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Edited by - Jim Yates on 12/29/2010 17:34:41

Mandolin Ant - Posted - 12/30/2010:  05:34:47

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Glad you guys started a discussion on this. I play with a bunch of Blues folks a lot. Easy for me on Bass or guitar to play Blues, but something about Mandolin has proven difficult for me. I think it's just gonna take some practice and commitment to get there on the Mandolin. Thanks for the links to the leassons.

Robert - Posted - 12/30/2010:  07:51:30

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I teach blues mandolin in Greenville, SC. Am a big fan of Johnny Young and others. First heard him in 1965 well actually a recording of him. Fell in love with the sound back then. You could get a feel for it from guitar. But mandolin is special.

un5trung - Posted - 12/30/2010:  10:30:21

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Yeah, I love Young. He has nice versions of Stealin' and Highway 61, among others. Can you believe that just last night I was listening to his Chicago Blues album?! I think James Cotton and Otis Spann play on Chicago Blues. I imagine Del Grosso got his version of Get Your Nose out of My Business from Young.

Mirek Patek - Posted - 12/30/2010:  12:09:39

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quote:

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Originally posted by Jim Yates
Niles used to be the editor of a wonderful Mandolin newsletter that he no longer had the time to continue. It had a couple of names, but steady high quality. The Mandocrucian Digest was the name when it went under. It had many columns by excellent mandolin players.

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I have bought all available back issues some 13 years ago - excellent source.
btinternet.com/~john.baldry/ma...anen.html

Mirek

Robert - Posted - 12/30/2010:  17:50:21

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I have Johnny Young's , I Can't Keep My Foot from Jumpin' on LP. He is a backed by the Aces, David and Louis Myers and Fred Below with unnamed piano and Harp on some tracks. Great stuff. ABC Bluesway.

mandopickin - Posted - 01/01/2011:  09:31:19

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I know Rich DelGrosso offers web lessons. I haven't taken any from him. I've taken web lessons from Mike Compton and it is a cool way to access top notch players from the comfort of your own home. FWIW.

un5trung - Posted - 01/01/2011:  11:03:36

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Yes, i have an appointment with Del Grosso for the coming week. I'll report how it went.

Mike Shipman - Posted - 01/08/2011:  17:00:14

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Hi - Im new here and newish to mandolin. However, Ive played aoustic blues guitar for many years and once I realisd that the mandolin tuning (GDAE) was just the same as the bottom 4 strings of the guitar but upside down and back to front, then i was able to use all the fingering I used on the guitar!...it all gotr a lot easier....then I found that the violin was tuned the same as the mando and "hey presto" Im a budding multi instrumentalist!

un5trung - Posted - 01/12/2011:  19:42:58

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Had first lesson w/ Rich DelGrosso today. I enjoyed it but wish he'd taken some time to ascertain my skill-level and experience before launching in. The first bit was rather basic but I did my best to keep a beginners mind. When we got to the music it was fun. I have my work cut out for me until the next lesson.

He offers $50/hour lessons using Skype, which offers free accounts. The connection was fine -- we were able to play together, after a sort. My advice is tha you let him know very clearly what you know and what you are looking for.

The lesson part of his site is here:mandolinblues.com/lessons.html" target="_blank"> br / mandolinblues.com/lessons.html

And in other areas of the site you can buy his current album and various instructional materials.

PaulR - Posted - 01/13/2011:  06:01:34

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Ry Cooder was the first I heard, on the first Taj Mahal album. I got to see him at the Riverboat and then at Massey Hall (early and mid seventies), later at Convocation Hall.

At Massey hall he really turned my head around with this number: youtube.com/watch?v=VSpKLgwcXD8.

jimrichter - Posted - 01/24/2011:  18:09:56

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quote:

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Originally posted by schlange

You could check out some of Jim Richter's blues mando lessons on YouTube. I posted a bunch of them to the video archive last week--see here: mandohangout.com/myhangout/vid...it=Search

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Thanks for the shout out, Eric.

I'll basically say this about playing blues (which also applies to playing old time mandolin). Neither myself nor Rich (who I love to death as he is a kind and classy gent) nor any of the other blues dudes can really teach you blues. Blues requires becoming immersed in the music. You have to understand the idiom. The more you listen to it and are around it, the more the so called cliches of the music cease being cliches, becoming more nuanced and subtle dialects. It is very easy to play blues badly. Trust me--I've attended and hosted enough blues open stages to know it.

That being said, guys like Rich or Steve James (and myself, to some degree, as I have a day job and am a married grad student w/ children), can give pointers and shepherd students in the right direction. Ultimately discussions regarding modes, scales, etc prove empty discussions as the fathers of blues mandolin--Yank, Johnny Young, Carl Martin--just played what they heard and knew.

When I taught regularly, I viewed myself as a mentor, not a teacher. I strove to teach through example and wisdom. I've been criticized in my videos for being longwinded (as I am in this reply). Playing music is more than being taught a lick, turnaround, or chord (though those things definitely are beneficial). For me, it involves understanding why choices are made. Why did Yank or Bill Monroe play the way they did? As some of you who know me are aware, I spent a lot of time with Mike Compton. I often became entranced with Mike's discussions of Monroe and the development of his approach. To my mind, a study of Monroe is pointless without understanding his old time fiddle background. Mike aided me in understanding the nuance of Monroe style (though I'm not a Monroe stylist in the trad. sense).

I watched Yank play when he was alive as I am from the central Indiana area. Yank played guitar like he played mandolin--heavy on the upstroke--which he played w/ his index finger (2 finger guitar style--finger/thumb). You can't get Yank's tone or syncopation w/o copping that style. He had a Lightning Hopkins approach to the mandolin. Understanding that connection between his guitar playing and his mandolin playing proved beneficial to me, even though the connection is a cerebral one and not related to learning any specific lick.

There's probably no real point to this tome, other than to make sure you do a lot of listening, jamming, and research in addition to any lessons.

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Edited by - jimrichter on 01/24/2011 18:23:28

un5trung - Posted - 01/24/2011:  18:29:36

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Had my first lesson w/ Rich DelGrosso a week or so ago -- I promised here that I'd report about it. He started out w/ real basic blues theory, stuff I already know, but i didn't want to sound like a know-it-all so i kept a beginner's mind. Then we got into some more interesting material. chord forms and such. He sent tabs for Good Morning Little School Girl (think Fred McDowell, not Chuck Berry!) and Smokey Joe, a Yank Rachell tune. He does a nice version with Sleepy John Estes. I'll work through those and get back in touch with him for another lesson.

Lessons are $50 an hour and he teaches online using Skype. It's a god medium -- he could hear my tone, noted that I was lifting my fingers too high, etc. I've taken online lessons in clawhammer banjo with Dan Levenson and he did an equally good job. I work as an instructional technologist so I have some experience -- 20-some years! -- teaching online, and IMHO the key is the teacher, not the medium. A poor teacher is a poor teacher in person or onlline, and both DelGrosso and Levenson are good teachers.

DelGrosso is very accessible and I recommend taking lessons with him if you're interested.
mandolinblues.com/

pinky57 - Posted - 01/24/2011:  18:56:04

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There is a guy in S FL who teaches mandolin, he's always sneaking a little blues into my lessons. He will do internet lessons too. Look for him at fretmentor.com.

un5trung - Posted - 01/24/2011:  19:19:40

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Jim, what are you studying in grad school? Are you a music student by any chance?

jimrichter - Posted - 01/24/2011:  19:40:13

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No music school, though one of my undergrad degrees was from IUs School of Music (Joshua Bell's and Edgar Meyer's Alma mater). I've done mental health the last 20 years and am in a Masters in Counseling program at IUs School of Education.

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Edited by - jimrichter on 01/24/2011 19:42:55

Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 01/28/2011:  08:01:48

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Jim,
You have been an inspiration, and though I'm "Ned in the first reader" on the mandolin, my mother and grandmother taught mandolin and violin beginning in the '30's, so I've been long exposed. I thought, sadly, the only things we had in common were overalls, country roots, and an special appreciation of music of my era...that I regard the most varied and best ever. Today, I learn there is more in common. I taught psychology in Florida universities for 40 years, and my wife is a mental health counselor and psychodramatist. Love your Henricks renditions. Now if you would just take on Blue Rondo a la Turk.

Jim Yates - Posted - 01/31/2011:  10:24:46

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Anyone reading this thread should consider joining the Blues Mandolin group started by Un5trung. It's small, but its numbers doubled in the last 5 minutes.

mandoteacher - Posted - 02/22/2011:  06:35:43

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sure. any good mando player does

Mandoalbee - Posted - 02/22/2011:  18:10:44

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I've just recently gotten acquainted with Rich DelGrosso's Mandolin Blues book. Wow! One of my student's brought to me and said that his uncle gave it to him. I'm impressed and am using it a little with another student.
Quick blues scale tip for key of E: play a G pentatonic scale. Same notes as an E blues scale.

Bassora - Posted - 02/25/2011:  09:56:55

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quote:

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Originally posted by janolov

I play a few blues tunes. ... I am just now working with some Mississippi John Hurt and Gary Davies stuff.

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....Now you're talking about some of my kind of music.
....Luckily, we don't have just audio recordings of Hurt and Davis but also video. Thanks to Pete Seeger's old TV show from the early 1960s called Rainbow Quest we can see them both in action (and learn more of their story in their own words).
....Thanks to Seeger and his foresight, we have a lot of these early 20th century traditional musicians' artistry preserved so we, fifty years later, can both marvel and learn from their talents. (By the way, as I udnerstand it, Seeger paid for this program with his own money.)
....Listen ... and watch ... and learn.

Bassora
still learning on Muddy Mo
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Jim Yates - Posted - 02/27/2011:  09:35:06

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I loved that show, still have copies of a few on VCR, including the John Hurt one. It was recorded with one overhead mic, which occasionally drops into the picture and no instruments are plugged in and you can hear everything perfectly. It looks like it was recorded with two cameras and no do-overs. At one time Mike Seeger keeps playing after everyone else has stopped and at another point Pete kicks over the bottle of milk. He doesn't stop playing, but says,"Well, there goes the milk." A pot of coffee was always on the kitchen table that they sat around.

un5trung - Posted - 02/27/2011:  10:07:53

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Yeah, that was an incredible set -- kitchen table and a few chairs, all of look as though Pete and Toshi buit them on the way down to the studio! I think they filmed in North Jersey because it was cheaper than Manhattan but still an easy commute from Croton.

I remember a bunch of them but the one that sticks out for me was Elizabeth Cotton.

tinyurl.com/48r39na

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Edited by - un5trung on 02/27/2011 10:13:21

majikgator - Posted - 02/27/2011:  10:11:34

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A lot of old Rainbow Quest clips are on Youtube now. Mike Seeger was pretty much brilliant at any instrument he picked up. i saw one video where he was finger picking a mandolin and playing pan pipes on a harmonica neck harness doing Rollin' and Tumblin', you won't run into that everyday. My kind of blues definitely runs in the Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Gus Cannon, Mississippi Sheiks and on and on category. i am not much of Chicago electric blues fan, Memphis' Beal Street was home to some Mandocello blues players i know but their names escape me.

un5trung - Posted - 02/27/2011:  11:49:49

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Mandocello blues? How cool! Can you think of any clips or recordings?

MandoSquirrel - Posted - 02/27/2011:  18:10:31

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If I remember correctly, Ry Cooder used mandocello on "Denomination Blues", I think on the "Into The Purple Valley" album; he has it on others, as well, among the overdubs.

dayzee7444 - Posted - 01/16/2013:  13:06:37

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quote:

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Originally posted by fred davis



yes I do took lessons for a year Ialso play slide on it ( I have also used a slide on my banjo ) Most of the blues sound is in the picking style. Play nice and often

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I've never ever thought to use a slide on a mandolin, that sounds exciting.  Is it a very involved technique? In my years of playing stringed stuff I've never actualy used a slide.  I'm for sure gonna go get one now so does anyone have some pointers? lol

Bob Remington - Posted - 08/26/2013:  09:12:00

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I recommend the blues mandolin DVD by Tim Williams. Available from Elderly and other sites. 

elderly.com/videos/items/457-DVD02.htm

Jim Yates - Posted - 08/26/2013:  12:53:46

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The late Willie P. Bennett played slide on a standard tuned mandolin, sometimes through different effects pedals.

Jim Yates - Posted - 09/21/2013:  18:43:56

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Another Canuck, the late Rick Fielding had an old Gibson mando-cello that he often used for playing blues.  I'm not sure if he tuned it the standard way, but it sounded great.