Current Issue | Home | Back Issues | Other Mel Bay Sites | Purchase Mandolin Products
Jazz Mandology | Latin Mandolin | What's In Your Case? | Klezmer 101
Liberty: A Fiddle Tune in Two Different Keys | Interview with Scott Tichenor
Sequences-Part 3 | Building a Traditional Tune Repertoire | The Big River Reel

Liberty: A Fiddle Tune in Two Different Keys

by Dix Bruce

My latest book and CD set "Getting into Bluegrass Mandolin" (Mel Bay Pub.) is hot off the presses and whatever they use to make CDs with, burners, I guess. Here's one of the fiddle tunes from the book along with a nifty exercise to easily move it to another key.

Every bluegrass mandolin player needs to know some fiddle tunes. They are an essential part of the repertoire. This version of "Liberty" mixes quarter notes and eighth notes. Suggested pick directions and fingerings are noted in the music between the standard notation and the tablature staves. Down pick strokes are shown with down arrows () and up pick strokes are shown with up () arrows.

Pick direction depends upon where in the measure a note is picked. If the note is picked on one of the beats, one, two, three, or four, play it with a down stroke. If the note is picked on one of the "ands" between those beats, play it with an upstroke. I included a full explanation of this pick direction theory in the book where it's analyzed on several tunes with both quarter and eighth notes.

Below these arrows you'll find suggested fretting finger numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4. "1" = index, "2" = middle, "3" = ring, "4" = pinkie. Memorize the first version of "Liberty" below and pay close attention to the fingering suggestions. You can download an MP3 recording of "Liberty" to listen to as you play along.
Download "Liberty" in D (MP3)

Fiddle tunes are usually played in the key that fiddlers choose. Unlike songs sung by vocalists in a variety of keys to accommodate different vocal ranges, fiddle tunes are rarely played in more than one key. "Soldier's Joy" and "Liberty" are almost always played in D, "Old Joe Clark" almost always in A. A guitarist might capo at the second fret to play "Liberty" out of a C position, but capoed it will still sound as though it's in the key of D.

That said, mandolinists need to be able to play tunes, especially when backing vocalists, in a variety of keys. Luckily, mandolins lend themselves well to this task of transposing due to the mandolin's symmetrical tuning in fifths. By that I mean that the interval between the pitches of any two adjacent strings is a perfect fifth. The interval between the E and A strings (1 and 2) is a perfect fifth. The interval between the A and D strings (2 and 3) is a perfect fifth. Because of this, we can often move a passage or melody across the fingerboard from string to string. As long as we keep our fretting fingers in the same relative shape as we move across the strings, we should come up with the same melody in a different key. That's why it's important to memorize both the melody to "Liberty" and the fretting finger pattern as written before you attempt to transpose it to another key.

When you're ready to try moving "Liberty" to another key, start the melody on the second string, second fret instead of on the first string, second fret. Your second note will be the third string open instead of the second string open. Think of it as moving the whole tune "over" by one string. Try to play it from memory without looking at the transposed version below. The new key will be the key of G.
Download "Liberty" in G (MP3)

While I doubt that you'll ever need to play "Liberty" in any key other than D, this exercise will demonstrate how to move a melody across the strings to a new key. Once you understand the concept, the world will be your oyster! Obviously, I think transposition is a very important concept to master and I spend a great deal of time on it in my new book. We also tackle the slightly more difficult task of transposing a melody up and down the fingerboard, say from G to Ab, A, or B, and vice versa. It all helps you understand the system of how the mandolin works. Good luck!

"Getting Into Bluegrass Mandolin" book and CD set, along with all of Dix's other books, CDs, and videos, is available online from www.musixnow.com. Visit him online and download a variety of lessons and MP3 recordings.