How to Play Melody Between Chords

Chord progressions are landscape. But not an empty landscape. There are hills, a lake or ocean. There are weather, perspective, and a road traveling through the scene which carries the listener along.

This is the framework for drama. Lyrics build on top of chords forming characters and dialogue within the landscape. Affected by the landscape. Their emotions and intentions may be obscure, but the characters are human, built from human language. There is something about them that is accessible to the listener.

Both chords and lyrics share common importance. With either of them drastically changed, the song is not the same as the one it was changed from. It may even make the song wrong. But there is something else to the landscape which doesn’t need to follow the pattern. There is freedom within the framework. Like vapor in a chamber. It’s the birds swooping between trees and the shapes of clouds; someone in a crowd tying their shoe. It doesn’t take away from the story, only the opposite.

That is the part of the landscape that exhibits reality. It’s what makes the scene believable. The notes between chords changes. They furnish the song with novelty. It’s not the same song you heard last time with the subtle embellishments altered within the consistent chords and lyrics.

What’s being gotten at is that with your mandolin you can give a distinct life to each song you play. Letting new notes accompany the tune along the way. Sliding in logical, fresh sonics to the song. That’s what we’re going to cover in this lesson: how to riff between chord changes.

The Intent

The ambition of furnishing the landscape of a song is to act as a solar flare on the sun. The burst of energy surges from the sun, no question that it is from the sun. Reasonable in its movement and direction. Zestful. Finally returning to the source, or disappearing into the ether. Casually exotic.

To accomplish this with your mandolin, just accustom yourself with the song. Identify the chord structure and the lyrics. Let them suggest what they were made to suggest. Distinguish the key of the song and whether there are changes of key. Be unique. There’s no need to copy another instrument. Return to the structure like a splash returning to the pond.

Practicing

The song we’ll be working on is dear to my heart. It’s called Prison Boxing by the Seattle based group, Cataldo. Not only is it a charmingly delicate song, but it’s also really simple to play. That’s usually how charmingly delicate songs are. It’s approachable and forgiving – ideal for our purposes.

The chords change gently, and there are measures between them. The focus is ambient. To begin let’s master the chords. Luckily for us, the chords sound great played with the simple two-finger technique.

Here are all of the chords for the song:

Verse:

The verse’s progression comprises most of the song and is the part of the song which will have the most furnishing. Notice how the notes between chord changes sound. Sing it to yourself:

Bah dah dah-un, dah dah, dah-un dah. That’s how it sounds when I hum it. Try just playing one strum per chord at first to get the timing. Then try again, strumming the chord and humming the between melody.

Tip:

Remember, there’s no wrong way of doing this. Just stay on time with the song and make up a melody if you don’t want to do the same one as in the actual song. No one is going to be upset that you’re putting your flair to the tune.

Here’s how the first verse goes, which is the same as the rest of the verses:

Chorus:

For the chorus, it uses the same chords, but in a different order:

There are a lot of quick chord changes here, which will be wonderful for developing your chording hand’s dexterity. But keep in mind that this is not a particularly fast song. Even if it was, it’s best for your brain to practice something new slowly and precisely. Art isn’t a race. Believe that you’ll be able to play mandolin fluidly, it just takes time.

Pentatonic Scale

Now that you’re ready with the chords, its time to get to the heart of the lesson: playing the melody between chord changes. This is going to hinge on your knowledge of the pentatonic scale.

The pentatonic scale for mandolin is a group of notes that fit perfectly into any song with a matching key. It is a magical scale. And it’s really easy! It’s only five notes long (think pentagram), a snippet of the major scale, which is eight notes long.

It’s the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth note of the major scale. I think of these five notes as the easy-going notes. You’re going to be amazed how much can be accomplished with just those five. We’ll only focus on the pentatonic scale in this lesson because it’s perfect for our purposes of furnishing notes between chord changes.

Since this song is in the key of D major, you’ll need the D major pentatonic scale to play along. Here are the notes you’ll need:

Just like chords, it’s best to think about scales as shapes. Try out the scale. Use your index and middle fingers on the G string and D string. Be sure not to play the open G string. G isn’t a not belonging to the easy-going crowd for D major. And use your index and ring finger for the A and E strings.

If you have questions on how to pluck the strings check out this article.

Exercises to help memorize the scale:

Take your time working down and then back up the scale. Start at the A note on the G string, and move to the last A note on the E string. Sure, this isn’t going to give you the “scale sound”. It’ll end in tension, notice that. The goal here is to find all of the notes you can in this area of the neck. Be sure that each note is clean and crisp.
Play the notes on the G string, then the A string, then the D string, and finally the E string. Now play that in reverse. Think about other patterns you can form with the notes in the scale. G string to E string to D string to A string. A to G to E to D. The possibilities are there.
Now play a mix of the notes. Play short phrases. Try notes that are close together and also ones that are further apart.

There you go! Repeating exercises like these are how you’ll know the notes in the scale second nature. If you notice that your notes aren’t clear, slowdown. Not only will you make fewer mistakes when you’re moving slowly, but any mistakes you do make will be apparent to you. And there’s nothing wrong with noticing your mistakes!

Play Along to the Stereo with this Pentatonic

Turn up the volume on Prison Boxing and play along to it using the D major pentatonic scale. As long as you stick to the notes in the scale, and follow along to the beat (just tap your foot), everything will sound great!

Start just getting used to the song, don’t worry if what you’re playing sounds like the song. The whole point of adding another instrument is for it to provide something new, after all. So hangout in that fact for now. The water feels nice, doesn’t it? Between lyrics play a little phrase, then in the next break from lyrics answer the phrase with another few notes. That’s all there is to it! Now you know how to jam along to any song that’s in the key of D major.

Training Those Ears

What did you notice while you were experimenting? Were there any phrases that matched the phrases in the actual song? Try again, but notice which notes are similar to the notes being played in the song. This is how to train your ear. By discovering how to copy other songs you can store that information in your musical pocket for use elsewhere. It’s like learning new words to describe the world.

After some time I’m sure you’ve figured out how to play the actual phrases the song. Now play along to the song again, but this time try to match what you hear. Remember, no problem if you don’t get it exactly right. It’s all practice.

Putting It Together

How awesome is this? Now you have all the ingredients, you just need to put it together. To do that all you’ve got to do is strum the chord of a chord change once and then play a few notes before it’s time to change to a new chord. I’m going to say it again: take your time. Repetition is all it takes to become fluid at this.

To start, don’t play along with the song. Go along on your own time. Count out the measures in your head, or along to a metronome at a slow tempo. Try playing the furnishing notes similar to the song for a measure, then make up a rendition.

Comfortable? Turn on the song again and play it to the actual tempo. Strum the first D chord and riff until the Bm shows up. Play the quick A chord which leads to the D again and try out a new riff to play. Try switching up how quickly and slowly you play particular notes in a phrase. That’s another way to add uniqueness to your melodies.

Taking it Beyond

This skill is so helpful for a mandolin player, whether you’re jamming with others live, to the radio, or playing solo. By strumming a chord and the riffing before the next chord change you establish the tone, the tempo, and flavor better than just strumming or just riffing.

Try this with other songs too! There are plenty of songs in D major, and you can either find the chords online or discover them yourself by using your ear. As for the notes between chords, that’s easy. You know the D major pentatonic scale. The pentatonic scale is magic. And now that you’re playing this way you’ll sound like magic too!

D	Bm	A	Em7	G