MANDO
TRICK OUT YOUR PAD | Tyson Bryant
On the weeks that I’m scheduled to play
mandolin with a pick, much like a guitar.
mandolin on my church’s worship team, I
song in your set. You will learn how to tremolo
across two pairs of strings at once, filling out
spend a surprising amount of preparation A mandolin was designed, however, with one your chord. Your long-lasting sustain will only
time listening to every instrument except the unique feature that makes it more versatile be limited to how long your hand muscles can
mandolin. than a guitar: it has pairs of identical strings. keep it going, which makes mandolin tremolo a
A guitar’s single string for each note limits the great pad substitute!
Can I explain such a nonsensical statement, picking patterns you can play on a given string— you ask? Why, yes. I can! With the rise in specifically the rapid down-up technique. When IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY
popularity of folk rock and related genres, the you down-pick a guitar’s single string it rings You’ve mastered your tremolo technique. What
mandolin gets featured in modern music more out nicely, but if you immediately up-pick that precisely are you listening for in a song to thieve
often than it has for as long as I can remember. same string the first “ring out” is interrupted by for its use? This brings us full circle to my habit
But let’s not kid ourselves. “More often” still the second one from the up-stroke. You can try of listening to every other type of instrument
typically means that only one song in ten (if to repeat that down-up pattern faster, but no out there. When I want to find a place in the
you’re lucky) has an official mandolin part that matter how fast you go it still just sounds like arrangement to use my tremolo as a pad, I
you can copy to play on Sunday mornings. I rapid-fire, short individual notes—like a melodic listen for all those instruments that feature long
have to pick apart each song’s arrangement, machine gun set to full-auto. A mandolin’s pair sustains tones.
looking to thieve parts from other instruments.
Such is the mandolin player’s lot in life.
Nearly every good song arrangement is going
to have a lead element, a rhythm element,
and a pad element. While careful listening is
required for all three, the first two tend to be
easier for us to hear and copy with the mando.
Lead elements are obvious: riffs, fills, solos—
we call them lead parts because they feature
Obviously, keyboard or synth sounds that are
Your long-lasting actually called “pads” on the synth’s digital
sustain will only typically “atmospheric” types of tones that fill in
be limited to how
long your hand
readout are going to fit that bill. Those are
a lot of sonic space. Any kind of orchestral string
can also be a pad. That could be individual,
bowed elements (like a cello or violin), but it can
also be a synth’s “string section” pad that tries
muscles can keep to imitate many bowed instruments playing all
it going, which fills the pad role.
makes mandolin You can, and should, listen for these types of
player. tremolo a great your tremolo technique to mimic what they
UH…WHAT’S A PAD? pad substitute!
prominently in the mix. Rhythm elements are
likewise intuitive to find because most mandolin
players start off by learning to play rhythm from
the beginning. Pads, however, are less easily
teased out of an arrangement by a mandolin
at once. In rock songs, an organ sound often
instruments in your practice tracks and use
are doing. Be ready to play in both high and
low octaves based on each song’s need. Not
What precisely is a pad? At its core, a pad is every pad you hear will be available for you in
a note or combination of notes that sustain the arrangement when you practice with the
through some large or small section of the of strings means that the down-stoke and the full band, but many will be. Train your ear to
song. A pad’s function is typically to fill in gaps up-stroke each hit different strings so that you hear pad parts, and you will almost always have
in the frequency spectrum while adding some don’t get that cancellation effect. We call the options for your arrangements that add interest
musical interest and texture. Sustaining that result tremolo, and with it the mandolin player and variety to your set!
sound across chord changes or whole sections can achieve infinite sustain (eat your hearts out, of the song is a defining feature of a pad. Most guitar players).
stringed instruments don’t have the ability to be
pad-like unless they are played with a bow— As you practice your tremolo technique you will
which we don’t do on a mandolin. We play a be able to adjust it to match the bpm of any
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June 2018
Tyson Bryant
Grew up in a bluegrass family but has spent the
last 20+ years adapting mandolin techniques to
modern worship. He rotates between mandolin,
guitar, and cajon at Graham Emmanuel Baptist
Church in Graham, Washington.
WorshipMusician.com