by Wendy Anthony
The Tune:
Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough, also known as Jaybird Died with the Whooping Cough, is a traditional old-time fiddle tune in the Key of G.
 
 

Listen to the MIDI: 120 | 160 bpm
Printable Sheet Music: pdf

Techniques:

Overview of Tune: This is a 2-part tune, with each part repeated twice, and played with a lively rhythm.
Chords:
Part A || : G | G | G | D | G | C | D | G : ||
Part B || : G | C | G | G | G …

By Ted Eschliman
Minor scale variations. Esoteric?
If you studied music theory or ever had to audition for an instrumental high school honor group or college program on a band or orchestra instrument, you may very well have already been introduced to three different forms of the Minor scale. It’s quite a bit more complicated than the one form of the Major scale. Yes, you lower the 3rd scale degree for that characteristic “minor-ness,” but there’s some elaborate funny business that goes on in the 6th and 7th scale degree. It’s almost …

by Michael B Gregory
Devanney’s Goat is a somewhat recent tune that has not been played too often in sessions but it has been recorded widely. Here is a set of three reels played by Brid Harper (fiddle) and Danny O’Mahony (button accordion):
http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_290_2_brid_harper_danny_omahony/
The first reel is The Drunken Landlady. An easy mandolin-friendly version of it can be found in the Mel Bay book http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=21546BCD authored by Joe Carr and myself. The third reel of Brid and Danny’s set is Devanney’s Goat. I’m not familiar with their middle tune but if you …

by Marilynn Mair
Last month I gave my annual summer workshop at SummerKeys in scenic Lubec, Maine—the easternmost town in the US just over the bridge from Canada’s Campobello Island. There were mandolins, mandolas, and guitars, who all partook of private lessons, workshops, jam sessions, and the focus of it all– rehearsals and a performance of the all-school ensemble of mandolin and guitar students and faculty, known collectively as The American Mandolin & Guitar Orchestra.
Students had a private lesson every day, and were asked to bring their questions and difficulties for …

by Joe Mendel
Andrew Jerman is a self-proclaimed “hobby builder,” specializing in electric mandolin family instruments. We spent a good part of our conversation discussing his instruments & the challenges of building electric mandolins and making and locating parts for instruments that are a niche of a niche market. Don’t let his description of himself as a hobbyist fool you into thinking homemade, or poorly made. He builds a wide variety of instruments, body styles, 4, 5 & 8 strings, with humbuckers or single coil pick-ups, from a variety of woods, …

by Joe Mendel
I first crossed paths with Dave Nichols back in 2000 or 2001 at the A.S.I.A. Convention in Nashville, TN, where I took his inlay workshop. He’s as friendly and funny as human beings can be, and also has a knack for teaching the art of inlay. In an hour and a half, even I was able to cut out some recognizable shapes, pretty good for a guy who struggles with cutting shell. Dave works from his shop in Malone, NY, where he has several employees, builds guitars & …

by Michael Gregory
In 1996, when I was searching for an Irish mandolin mentor, my great friend Tom located a San Francisco Bay area woman, Marla Fibish, who taught me several fantastic reels and jigs.  One of these, The Drunken Landlady, was presented in my Mel Bay book http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=21546BCD co-authored with Joe Carr.  Here I offer you another – The Rambling Pitchfork.  This is a common session tune whose title refers to an item (pitchfork) carried from farm-to-farm by a wandering (rambling) laborer in former times to indicate his desire to …

Three-note chord sequences to supercharge your comping
 
By Ted Eschliman
Three Notes. You barely need more…
In the last three Jazz Mandology articles, we’ve looked at inversions of 7th chords, using only three notes. http://www.mandolinsessions.com/?p=809 We hope their logic and simplicity have become a useful reality in your own playing, not only in your experience with “All Blues” but in other situations that call for extended bars of the same DominantV7 chord and in the last installment “vamping” patterns you can do with the Major 7 chord and a passing ii7. Again:
1.)    There …