Diamondback

An Original Mandolin Tune - Aren't they all?

BY BRADLEY LAIRD

I will keep this blog post short and sweet. I was digging around in the "archives" today and ran across a recording I made of a tune I wrote. It has been my habit for 15 years or so to put something on tape when I write a tune. I also try to tab it out or notate it. I do this so a) I can remember the thing if it falls through the cranial cracks and b) so if I ever want to teach it to someone else I have something to show them.

This particular tune was really an exercise in fooling around in G minor. There are some more of my thoughts on the tune here is the PDF of the mandolin tab. By the way, this page is from my book Mandolin Excursion and you can get it here cheap as a download. It is full of things to try when you are sick of Cripple Creek and Boil Em Cabbage Down.

Here is the "documentary" multi-track recording I made (on my Boss BR8 and an AKG C1000S) of the tune to give to Mike Estes, our fiddle player in Pony Express. He always liked to have a recording and the notation. I left some spaces in the track in the hopes of getting him to lay some fiddle on it but, typically, we never got around to it. One day, Mikey. Anyway, you can get the feel and the gist of the tune as I envisioned it. Near the end I added a harmony mandolin part which is not in the tab. You'll have to figure that out for yourself.

Try it out and have fun.

Brad

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