Mandolin Self Instructor, online tutorial - Page 32

A simplified self learning system for the Mandolin with tuning instruction, song folio, chord diagrams, sheet music and PDF for printing. By ZARH MYRON BICKFORD

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	Chords and How to Play Them (continued)
	The fingers are to be left firmly in their positions on the notes during- each two measures. The short dashes between the down stroke marks indicate that the pick is to glide to and o- ver the notes following the first, without being- once lifted for another stroke. This manner of using the pick is known as the g-lide, the push stroke and the coule. In one sense it is a con- tinued down stroke, rather than a series of strokes. The waved line (}) indicates that the notes of the chords are played in consecutive order, from the lowest note up, but practically tog-ether, the pick being used exactly as indicated for the first measure. It should be added that the vig-orous swing-ing- stroke is not used for chords, but rather a g-entle caressing stroke.
	[SPECIAL NOTE) "Harp and Cello,""Little Drum Major" and "Merry Moments"(Bickford) may be used here. The Tremolo The tremolo, as applied to the mandolin and other fretted or plectral instruments, is the name given to the movement which attemps to sustain, or imitate a sustained tone, as one produced by drawing the violin bow slowly over a string, or by holding down a key on the organ. The nearest approach that can be made to this sustained tone is the rapid reiteration of single short tones, and it is to the blending- of these sing-le tones into an approximate sustained tone that the student must apply himself, since a smooth, even tremolo is an absolute necessity in all artistic playing-. There are two important reasons for having delayed its introduction un- til the present time: first, since the tremolo movement, considered mechanically, is nothing but a rapid succession of down and up strokes which must be played with the utmost evenness andreg- ularity, it cannot properly be attempted until the righit hand has gained considerable facility and is under full control in the slower and measured strokes: second, tremolo playing does not develop a strict sense of rhythm, although it requires it, therefore the rhythmical feeling must be thorough- ly developed, by the use of single and more or less vig-orous strokes, before the tremolo is at- tempted. For these reasons, the introduction of whole and half notes has been delayed, since they cannot be correctly played without the use of the tremolo. The author's experience has prov- en that it is best to make the acquaintance of new notes as they have to be played in practi- cal work, rather than to learn to play them in a certain manner and then be oblig-ed to play them another way later on. There is nothing- in the use of the pick in tremolo playing; as applied to sin- g-le strings, which does not apply and has not been repeatedly used in the previous work in sin- g-le strokes, except that the length or swing- of the strokes cannot be as great nor should the in- dividual strokes be quite as vigorous or decisive. Everything else applies-the resting of the