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Movable Blues, Part 2

by Dix Bruce

If you learn a melody or lick in closed position, that is without any open string notes, you can move it up and down the fingerboard to many different keys. As with string to string transposition, you need to memorize both the melody and its position.

I wrote "Moveable Blues," inspired by Bill Monroe, for my book "Getting Into Bluegrass Mandolin." Learn it first in the key of G, as shown below. All the notes are fretted and suggested fingerings and pick directions are indicated. Stick to these suggestions and it'll be easier to move the whole melody later.

If you checked out Steve Smith's column in the December 2003 issue, you know about triplets. With triplets we fit three notes in the space of one beat. Think first of a quarter note. We'd count quarter notes in a 4/4 measure like this: "one, two, three, four" and each quarter note occupies the space of one beat. If we filled that same measure with eighth notes we'd fit two eighth notes in the space of each quarter note and we'd count them like this: "one and, two and, three and, four and." With triplets, we fit three notes in the space of one beat and count them like this: "one-trip-let, two-trip-let, three-trip-let, four-trip-let." We pick a note on each syllable: "one-trip-let." I suggest you play triplets with a "down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up-down, down-up-down" picking pattern.

Once you can play "Moveable Blues" in the key of G and have memorized the fretting hand position, try moving it up the fingerboard to different positions and keys. I'm sure you'll hit some clinkers now and then, but give it a chance. If you get stuck, go back to the G version and review. Below you'll find "Moveable Blues" moved up three frets from the key of G to the key of Bb. If you can play it in Bb, you can play it anywhere you can reach! Be sure to try A, C, Ab, D, etc.

If you really want the tune to have that Bill Monroe-esque feel, try playing all the notes, except the triplets, with down strokes. That's how Bill got that almost rock and roll intensity from a little acoustic mandolin.

I've posted several downloadable mandolin tunes you might enjoy on my website in the "Newsletter" section. Check 'em out at www.musixnow.com.

Dix Bruce has written forty books, CDs and videos for Mel Bay Publications. His latest two mandolin book/CD sets are "Great Mandolin Pickin' Tunes" and "First Lessons Mandolin." He edited David Grisman's "Mandolin World News" from 1978 to 1984. Dix records and tours with guitarist Jim Nunally. Their latest CD, "Brothers at Heart," is a collection of traditional and new music performed in the classic "brother duet" vocal and instrumental style. All are available on Dix's website: www.musixnow.com