What You Need to Know to Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin

Mandolins are one of the iconic instruments associated with the creation of bluegrass music in the 1930s and 1940s. Their prevalence in the United States began in the early twentieth century, but its popularity didn't fully evolve until it was performed by the Blue Sky Boys and the Monroe Brothers in the 1930s (Carlin). It was Bill Monroe who developed a new style of mandolin in his band’s creation of bluegrass music. Since then, many other mandolinists have brought popularity to the instrument including Jethro Burns, David Grisman, and Chris Thile. I wanted to discover what techniques these mandolinists use and what styles of music they incorporate into their mandolin performance.

One of the signature styles popularized by Monroe was the use of off-beat chop chords. This means that instead of playing on the traditional first and third beats of a measure, the mandolinist strums on the second and fourth beats (MandolinCafe). To emphasize this syncopation, the chord is played as a chop. This is accomplished by not playing any open strings and lifting their fingers directly after the strum. The strings become muted and it acts as the driving force of the band like a snare drum would (Statman). Most bluegrass bands contain no traditional percussion instruments like a bass drum or snare drum, which are the instruments that often maintain the tempo of the band. Chop chords on the mandolin are used to make up for this and sustain the band’s rhythm. When I was learning to play the mandolin, one of the toughest parts of playing chop chords was muting the string quick enough to get the percussion sound.

Jethro Burns took chop chords one step farther by playing three-finger chop chords. This technique allowed him to move between chords quicker and incorporate slides into his playing. Three-finger chords are easier on the left hand because the chord arrangements are simpler; however, it requires more strumming skill as one set of strings must be avoided on each strum (Burns and Eidson).

When artists are not playing chop chords, there are several other techniques they use for picking and playing. Cross picking is a technique commonly used by Sam Bush that includes using a flatpick to play three strings in succession over a four-beat rhythm. It is typically done by playing a downstroke on the D or G string followed by two upstrokes on strings located beneath the first. This rhythm mimics the sound of a banjo roll or fingerpicking (Tottle). Good mandolinists can cross pick very quickly, but since I do not have much experience, the notes that I played while learning were very distinct and separated.

Tremolo is another strumming technique often found in the arsenal of many mandolinists. Artists perform a tremolo by repeatedly playing up and down strokes on a single string in rapid succession. One of the keys to playing tremolo is keeping your hand loose which was difficult for me at first .Tremolo can be found in almost every style of music on a mandolin, but in bluegrass they are typically short and intense (Tottle). It started as early as Bill Monroe in bluegrass with songs like “Kentucky Waltz” (MandolinCafe).

Techniques performed by the left hand include slides and hammer-ons. These are not unique to a mandolin and are often played on other string instruments including guitars and ukuleles. My background in these instruments made it easier for me to learn slides and hammer-ons on a mandolin. To perform a slide, the mandolinist plays a note or chord and then slides one or more of their fingers up or down the fretboard to change the pitch of the note they played. Jethro Burns often used these slides with his three-finger chords. Hammer-ons have a similar effect but are performed by placing an additional finger on the string higher up the fretboard instead of sliding. Slides and hammers were easier for me to play because of my experience playing guitar.

These different techniques have been implemented by various musicians but in different ways and with different sounds. Most traditional bluegrass bands contained a single mandolin that played soft chop chords or simple harmonies in the background while someone sang but also played more complicated licks during a break (Tottle). David Grisman chose to do things differently with his band by sometimes making use of a second mandolin in a new style of music called “Dawg music” which blended bluegrass and jazz (Carlin). Chris Thile has also pioneered a new style of bluegrass by blending it with classical music in the formation of his band, The Punch Brothers, which is a string quintet of bluegrass instruments. Thile plays the chops and three-finger chords associated with traditional bluegrass music but does it with a different style and performs songs up to forty minutes long, a characteristic of classical music (How to Grow a Band).

This was one of the great things that I learned about mandolin through this adventure. I had no idea how versatile of an instrument it is. I now know the basics of playing bluegrass mandolin, but there is so much more to learn within bluegrass and other genres.

Works Cited

Carlin, Richard. Folk. Facts on File, Inc, 2006. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=161005&site=eds-live&scope=site.

“Mandolin Glossary: Chop Chord”. MandolinCafe.com. Accessed 27 November 2018.

Statman, Andrew, Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin, Amsco Music Publishing Company, New York, 1978.

Burns, Jethro and Eidson, Kenny, Jethro Burns, Mandolin Player, Mel Bay Publications, 1976.

Tottle, Jack, Bluegrass Mandolin, Oak Publications, New York, 1975

How to Grow a Band. Directed by Mark Meatto, performance by Chris Thile, International Film Circuit, 2011.