![]() ![]() Jazz/Blues Variants, Bossa, Choro, Klezmer.Old-Time, Roots, Early Country, Cajun, Tex-Mex.Rock, Folk Rock, Roots Rock, Rockabilly.Bluegrass, Newgrass, Country, Gospel Variants.Technique, Theory, Playing Tips and Tricks.Jams, Workshops, Camps, Places To Meet Others.Looking for Information About Mandolins.Quick Navigation Song and Tune Projects Top Good luck and have fun challenging yourself with this one! You're a brave man! A slow simple melody often needs to be overlain on some kind of interesting background to fall into context and reveal itself (think Gershwin's Summer Time), and to me, this is one of those times. Not being a mandolin player, I don't know how many notes are impossible to reach and to play, but some of them are important to the tune, so selecting the right ones to leave out may be a challenge. ![]() The left hand (piano) notes are important to holding it together. So here's what I think since the piece is hard to play smoothly without confusing the listener in the chord and rhythm structure, the harmonies are needed to help us out. Joplin built tension into the melody, especially the B part, but he didn't make it easy! The notes are not difficult, the tempo is slow so it doesn't challenge in the way some other Joplin rags (The Cascades for one!!) challenge a piano player, but the slow tempo, the chords used, the flexible tempo with the fermatas sometimes leaving us hanging on what amounts to a "passing chord", things like that make it difficult to play in a coherent manner that lets the listener (and player) follow the melancholy melody without confusion and misplaced tension. Solace is a very difficult piece, even on piano. ![]() (I never should have let all that get away, but sadly I can no longer play piano.)Īnyway, that is just background for what I'm about to say. I could sit and play Scott Joplin rags for a couple of hours from memory. I'm not a mandolin player, but I played piano when I was younger, and for a few years from high school through college and beyond, I studied and learned many Scott Joplin tunes. And it is certainly faster than I can play it clean right now. It is faster, I think, than it should be performed. Oh, and yes, and I know I am playing it too fast in the video. Is it worth putting the Pinky work there? I think I should be alternating between Index/Pinky and Middle/Ring in those measures, but I find it more natural to play it by going between Index/Ring and Middle/Ring. Particularly the 2nd and 4th measures of the second line of the first TAB page. Also, any advice on alternate fingerings would be very welcome. I just like to be prepared as much as possible. Any spot that jump out to any of you that I out to re-asses? I imagine this will become a bit more clear once I actually get together with a bass player to work on the song. Related question, since the planned second instrument for this arrangement is to be a bass, should I be looking to cover some of the chords that are happening in the left hand part, that the bass will not be able to play? I think there are a few places where I am already playing a phrase that would be played by the left hand. In listening back to recordings, I am starting to wonder if I should simplify a few of the parts, to just double stops. My goal was to play as much of the right hand of the piano part as possible, there are a few notes here and there that I just found to be impossible to play, but I have most of the right hand part covered in the arrangement. First, I am wondering if I have gone overboard on the 3 and 4 note chords in the arrangement. I am looking for advice on the arrangement and fingerings in a few places. I downloaded the sheet music from IMSLP, and tabbed out an arrangement for the mandolin.Īnd here is where I am in learning to play the song: ![]() We haven't started practicing together yet because I am still learning my part. I am planning on working this up with an upright bass player who will cover the left hand, or the important parts of the left hand at least. I am playing, or trying to play, the full right hand of the piano for the mandolin part. His version was more of a single note melody, with double stops here and there, arrangement. It looks like someone else posted a thread on this song a few years ago. I am including the TAB as well as the link to the original sheet music below, in case anyone get the bug to learn it. I stumbled across this version on YouTube and just had to learn it. I have been working up Solace (A Mexican Serenade) by Scott Joplin. ![]()
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