MANDO
[ CAPO CAPERS | Tyson Bryant ]
What is it that makes us excellent musicians? let those open strings ring out for different picking and tremolo play style lets me be happy
Sure, we might be tempted to attribute a cross-picking techniques. That lets me get and musical and impresses all my friends! I
certain amount of it to our own innate, musical more notes into the cross-picking pattern don’t like it much when I see a set list full of keys
brilliance, but that only gets us so far. For most without requiring difficult left-hand fingerings. at worship practice that take away my open E
of us (those who aren’t child prodigies) the key More notes, more interesting patterns, less and A strings. That’s the beauty of bringing in
to any excellence we have is time and effort. effort in the left hand—how can you go wrong the capo. It is about more than just not wanting
We put in the long hours working on scales, with that?! to play the ‘hard’ chords. With a capo, I can
learning chords, learning theory, and practicing still leverage the patterns and techniques that
to a click to sharpen our rhythms. There really is make my mandolin playing sound better.
no substitute for diligence and hard work.
Well, almost no substitute.
Enter the miraculous capo. A Capo is probably
not an unfamiliar item to you, but I’d like to
explore some of the reasons why a capo
is an especially useful tool to have in your
In modern
So, what’s the right mandolin capo to use? In
worship the
the past I have used a cut guitar capo—literally.
It was before purpose-built cut capos were
mandolin has
available (or perhaps I was too cheap to buy
one) so I took a hacksaw to a spare Kyser capo
the freedom
I had laying around. Happily, it is easier to find
mandolin case. to use a wider
In a previous issue of [WM] I wrote about the musical palette
best and worst keys for mandolin players. I’ve
spent a fair number of hours working out my
skills on those “good” keys—A, E, G. Not so
much the bad keys—B, Bb, F, Eb. Don’t get me
wrong. I’ll play my mandolin in those keys. I just
don’t have the muscle memory and experience
in them to play as confidently and creatively as
I can in the easier keys. Thankfully the miracle
invention of the capo lets me take all those
hours I spent working on the easy keys and
a cut capo these days without risk of losing a
finger. That’s one way to go. But if you can, test
it out first. A cut guitar capo may be a perfect
fit for your mandolin, but you can’t really know
until you put it on to see how well it holds.
than it might
My preference now is to use something more
be restricted to
purpose built. I’m using a Planet Waves NS
in a traditional Banjo/Mandolin capo, and it fits perfectly on my
bluegrass profile. Mandolin frets are close together, and
setting. normal-sized) fingers. A low-profile capo option
mandolin. I especially like it because of the slim
that can be difficult if you have large (or even just
keeps the fretboard from getting cluttered. As a
transfer them to the difficult ones.
bonus, my mandolin capo doubles wonderfully
as a cut capo for my guitar. Happy times
So, yeah, the capo lets us play well in keys that
all around!
we wouldn’t otherwise be able to rock that well. Similarly,
having
those
open
strings
is
But that’s no surprise. That’s what it is for, right? wonderfully useful when playing tremolo parts. I’ll never tell you that there is a shortcut to
But there is another subtle reason why this is I like to use an open string (when appropriate) excellence.
helpful for mandolins. as a drone note alongside of a moving tremolo But don’t be afraid to have some tools like
line on a different string. The combination of the mandolin capo to help maximize your
In modern worship the mandolin has the the two together really fills out the sonic space, practice time.
freedom to use a wider musical palette than it especially if you are using your mandolin might be restricted to in a traditional bluegrass tremolo as a substitute for a keyboard or organ setting. I most enjoy playing in the keys of A pad in the arrangement.
and E because the mandolin’s open A and
E strings allow for a lot of creative options. I
44
Having those creative options in my cross-
March 2018
Practice,
practice,
practice.
Tyson Bryant
From a family of bluegrass musicians, Has played
mando in worship bands for 20+ years. Also plays
acoustic & electric guitar, cajon, and just enough
banjo to make people cringe.
WorshipMusician.com