by Dix Bruce
Last time we looked at the melody to “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” in the key of F in a closed position with all fretted notes and no open string notes. With a little bit of practice, we should be able to move this melody up the fingerboard to a number of different keys. All we have to do (which, I know, is easy for me to say) is move the melody in tact to the new location. By “in tact” I mean that we need to move …

By Nate Lee
 
“Falls of Richmond” (also known as “Fall of Richmond”) is an old time tune that I learned from the banjo playing of Adam Hurt and Wayne Shrubsall. After some research I have found that there are many drastically different versions of the tune and have come up with my own. It is most often played in the Old Time style with fiddle and banjo. I have added chord changes to make it more jam friendly. This is just an example of one of the many ways you can …

by Ted Eschliman
Some Reader Feedback
“Hi, Ted.
I’ve been playing mandolin for a couple of years and have tried repeatedly to understand your FFcP system. Just don’t get it. Could you please point me to an explanation that might help? Thanks.
Rick”
 
Rick we always appreciate questions and yours points out something we take for granted, that everyone understands this foundational approach to closed fingerings, the FFcP system.
 
Closed Minded… It’s good in this case.
We’ve made many references to the concept of closed fingerings in previous articles. For many of you this will be …

by Wendy Anthony
The Tune:
Hangman’s Reel is played as a Breakdown in Old-Time jams. Old-time fiddlers play Hangman’s Reel in “cross-tuning” AEAE, utilizing a dark droning sound, which takes a bit more work to achieve a similar effect on the mandolin. This tune is likely of French Canadian origin, based on Hanged Man’s Reel (aka Le Reel du Pendu, or Reel of the Hanged, which is played in AEAC# tuning), & associated with various legends about a man, condemned to be hanged, who is offered a reprieve if he could …

by Michael B. Gregory
As promised, here’s another great reel you can play after (or before) George White’s from our last issue:
This one is another very common session tune called The Silver Spear. Alan Ng’s wonderful database of Traditional Irish Music lists more than 20 recordings of it as well as a dozen or more books that contain printed music for the tune. The dates of these recordings span a period of more than 50 years.
It also happens that The Silver Spear appears in a very recent (February 2009) Mel …