MandoZen

Minor chords and major chords touch on the spectrum of human emotion just barely. There is so much more to us than happy and sad emotions though! Longing, relaxation, fear, doubt, contentment. Music expands into these feelings too; often expressing the emotions better than we can do on our own. 

In order to bring out these feelings from our mandolins, we need to expand our chord knowledge beyond just major and minor chords. We also have to alter how we approach these new chords. In order to bring out these complex emotions, the mandolin must exude the emotions. As Robert Frost said, “no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader”. 

This relies on both of our hands working separately. The hand producing the chords on the neck must know which chords to use. This can be intimidating because there seem to be infinite chords out there! Major 7ths, suspended fourths, Steely Dan’s Mu chord. The possibilities expand. There’s nothing bad about that! It just means we have to choose a place to start. 

A great way to find a place to start is to begin eclectically listening to music. Listen to funk, folk, reggae, Mizrahi, hōgaku. It doesn’t have to be the music you play all the time, but there is so much to be gained by listening to all the music you can. Let the music you hear seep into you. No worries whether you enjoy the sound, let it into you just the same. When it comes time to pick up your mandolin the best will come out. 

In this lesson, we’ll explore how to play reggae on the mandolin! Not too common for a mandolin player to be jamming some Bob Marley. But that’s all the better. You’ll be reminded that there are no strict rules for music and no expectations. It’s up to you and whoever you’re playing with to make the rules. If you can bend those rules into new ones, that’s innovation. That’s growing your self. 

Reggae Mandolin

In 2018 I saw Sam Bush play at the Cat’s Cradle in Carborro, North Carolina. He’s the forerunner of clearing the orbit of bluegrass mandolin world into the outer reaches of music in general. My smile was wide that whole show. I was stoked. He played his “Bob Marley Medley” for the encore, and I automatically wanted to go home and learn a Marley tune. 

The reggae song we’ll do is Jammin by Bob Marley. It’s a particularly awesome song to drive home the point of musical freedom. Both open and closed chords are used and a seventh is involved as well. It’ll be fun to dip our toes from the pond of majors and minors into the ocean of other chords, like that seventh. 

Seventh Chord

A seventh chord is a questioning chord. Not mysteriously dark, but destabilizing. As if your ear expected another step at the bottom of a stairway. It modifies a typical major/minor chord progression, providing ears with something unanticipated. This isn’t to say that seventh chords are always abrupt. We’ll see in this progression that the chord fits snuggly with the others. Yet, there’s a distinct flavor to the progression.

Reggae Chop

Mandolin is an ideal instrument for reggae music. There’s a driving, consistent percussion beat. Most notably from the familiar upstrokes of the guitar. The mandolin can achieve this sound even more genuine! Remember this while learning Jammin. 

It’s all about feeling the tradition of the type of music you’re playing on your mandolin. Let this flow out of your mandolin. This way, even though there are preconceived notions in the heads of our society as to how a mandolin should sound, you’ll be there to shatter those assumptions. 

Jammin by Bob Marley

Let’s get into the song! There are three parts to the song: chorus, verse, bridge. Each part uses the same four chords, but played in various orders. Here are the four chords that are used in the song:

Chorus:

Dah, dah, dah, dah	Bah, dah, dah	Bah, dah, dah, dah	Dah
Bm	E7	G	F#m

These are some really fun chords to play! They’re a little different than how they’re traditionally played. That’s what this whole lesson is about though – breaking free from tradition. 

The first chord, the Bm, is strummed with an open D string. It gives the chord a fuller sound and lets it blend well with the rest of the open chords. The Bm will cover the first dah, dah, dah, dah of the song. I play with all downstrokes, but you can strum it with all upstrokes too. Whatever floats your boat. But, to give it the authentic sound, you’ll want to choose one or the other. Don’t strum up and down. The singing of “We’re jammin’” goes on during the Bm. 

Here’s the seventh chord! It follows the “We’re jammin’” part, where there’s no singing. Index on the first fret of the G and middle finger on second fret of the A. The D and E strings will be left open to ring freely. This chord gives the bah, dah, dah sound. 

The bah’s and dah’s represent up or down strums.

Then you’ll go to the good ol’ two-finger G chord. You know this one! “I wanna jam it with…” is where you’re playing this chord. “Bah, dah, dah, dah”. 

Finally, you’ll move your fingers up some frets, in the same part of the neck as the Bm. Middle finger on the sixth fret of the G, index on the D string. The A and E strings are played open. This is where the “… you” is sung. 

That’s it! That’s how you play the chorus. Once you’re comfortable with that, the rest of the song is easy peasy. 

Tip:

Strum patterns are nice for getting the groove of a song, but eventually, you’ll want to let your soul take over and strum how you feel the song should sound. 

Verse:

Bah, dah, dah	Dah, dah, dah	Bah, dah, dah, dah	Dah
Bm	E7	G	F#m

Look familiar? Same chords! However, played a tad differently. The Bm and the E7 are played through twice before moving onto the G and F#m. 

“Ain’t no rules ain’t no vow…”. This is the first round of the Bm and E7. “Ain’t no rules” bah, dah, dah (Bm). “Ain’t no vows” dah, dah, dah (E7). Then again with  “… we can do it” (Bm) “anyhow” (E7).

Then you finish it out again with the same strumming and chords at the end of the chorus. G chord for “I n’ I will see you…” F#m for “… through”. 

Bridge:

Bm	E7

Things slow down a little here, during the bridge. This is played once in the middle of the song. Bm played during the “Holy Mount… ” and then E7 on the “… Zion”. There are some lines in the middle of the bridge, “Jah sitteth in mount Zion” and “And rules all Creation, yeah we’re …” where the Bm is the only chord used. Then it gets back to the groove!

Deframing and Reframing

Whenever I’m feeling despondent musically, when I just feel bored with playing, I know that playing something completely different is going to reinvigorate my playing. That’s what Jammin does for me. The song shakes things up! I hope that it can do the same for you. I know that it will expand what you think mandolin can accomplish! 

There are so many types of music that mandolin excels. Sure, bluegrass, folk, and even classical. Those are wonderful genres, and they’re comfortable for mandolin. But music isn’t about being comfortable! It’s about trying all the flavors. Let’s try them all.