MandoZen

You know how your ears perk up when a particularly stellar musician busts out sounds you never expected?

It’s a wonder how they can make their instrument do that. They push the bounds of what is common. That is the goal of the musician. To interest ears. To inspire awe.

In order to accomplish this on the mandolin, you must think about the instrument creatively. Instead of finding yourself at a plateau of what you can accomplish with the instrument, experiment with new ways of playing. Be a cutting-edge musician.

Here are five ways to tap into that inspiration, and improve your musicianship as a mandolin player.

Practice Songs More Than Scales

There are many benefits to learning scales, which you can learn more about here. They teach you the fretboard, and which notes go along with which chords (and vice versa).

Not to mention, scales are easy and intuitive. You won’t be put out of your comfort zone with a scale.

However, if you spend a majority of your time memorizing scales, then you’re going to play scales when you improvise. Your musical frame work will be constructed of scales. Scales are cliche, not creative. And mandolin is all about creativity!

The remedy is to learn songs. And to learn songs from a wide variety of genres.

Not only will you increase your repertoire of tunes to jam with others, but you’ll also be adding to your stockpile of licks. You’ll discover how to string notes together into bizarre and ingenious formulas. None of which you could have cultivated from a scale.

Here are some helpful tips to help memorize songs.

Experiment With Cross Picking

If you’ve mastered a bunch of chord shapes (which you can learn more from this lesson), then you’re probably getting really good at strumming. After all, it’s the most common way to play. But strumming only one way to voice chords. Another way to add variety to your chords is through cross picking.

Finger-style for guitar is what cross picking is for mandolin. Instead of simply strumming chords, you pick a repetitive pattern which results in a striking, arpeggiated sound.

There are thousands of cross picking patterns you can come up with, but here’s a pattern which works for 4/4 time.

Begin without holding any chord shapes, all of the strings open to buzz.

Here’s the pattern:

1. Down-pluck on the D string
2. Up-pluck on the A string
3. Down-pluck on the E string
4. Repeat sequence 1-3
5. Down-pluck on the D string
6. Up-pluck on the A string

Note how you’re keeping a down-up picking pattern.

Each of the notes should play for the same amount of time. And you want to make sure each is as crisp and clean as the last. Take you time. You want to make sure you practice correctly so that your muscle memory is precise.

Once you have a hang of the pattern, add in a chord or two. Play through the pattern on one chord and then switching to the next chord and play through again.

If you want to switch chords before the pattern is finished, stop the pattern wherever the change occurs and restart the pattern with the new chord.

Use All Your Digits

The key to fluid, fast playing is using all the resources you have. For example, when you’re learning a riff, you really want to think about which fingers you’re using for which notes. Where do you need to be set up for the next notes?

For example, you don’t want to rely on your ring finger being on the fifth fret of the A string and then having to dash to the seventh fret of the E string. There’s a better way.

I’m looking at you, pinky finger.

Your pinky finger will boost your playing from decent to awesome. You’ll unlock so many more note possibilities. Do not underestimate your pinky.

Chop How You Feel It

Mandolin has an impressive alter ego as a percussion instrument. This is brought out with the mandolin chop, produced by strumming on muted strings.

One of the master’s of the chop is Sam Bush. Check out this video of the guru using his mandolin for percussion in the beginning:

Once you have your closed chords dialed in, you’re all set to insert a zesty rhythm to any song. Practice chops with a metronome too, because it’s especially important to be on time when you’re acting as percussion.

It’s a good idea to move your body along with the rhythm of a song, whether it be just your foot or you’re hips and everything else! The more you feel the beat, the better you can keep it.

New Voicings

There are two things I like to keep track of to keep my mandolin riff from going stale.

1. Which area of the neck my hand is typically covering. (Example: A lot of the time this is going to be between frets 0 – 5.)
2. If any sets of strings are becoming worn the more than others. (Example: My D and A strings often wear out quickest.

This lets me know if I’m relying too much on one part of my instrument, and neglecting the rest. Any heavy reliance like that would narrow the types of sounds I’m producing. The goal is to be comfortable with the entire neck, and all of the strings so that each is as useful as the rest.

In order to play more of the neck, knowledge of the fretboard key. This comes from repeating scales on new parts of the neck as well as learning the notes of the fretboard.

That same knowledge will vary your string usage, but even more than that you’ll need to become comfortable stretching to the extremes of the instrument. Playing solos which incorporate high notes found on the E string as well as the lowest on the G. The more you experiment with the tonal extremes the more fluid you’ll be able to incorporate them into your solos.

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There is so much to be done with the mandolin, and those were just 5 examples to start spicing up your mandolin playing. But after you master these, you’ll be excited to find even more techniques and styles to push yourself even further. Happy picking!