Joe Carr

Texas "Sock" Style Chording

Music for this workshop

Welcome to a new mandolin publication! I look forward to sharing lots of cool stuff with you in this column.

Many of my students and mando pickers around the country ask me about different chord forms for the mandolin. A lot of us are stuck in a rut playing "Monroe" chords to every song.

I hope to use this space each issue to introduce new chord forms, progressions and a little theory along the way. It should be fun!

In Texas-style fiddling circles, the guitarists play a swinging "sock" style of chording, changing chords every two beats. This style can be adapted to the mandolin and works well even if the other rhythm players are playing it straight.

This time, I want to share a rhythm arrangement for the great old-time tune and bluegrass standard Ragtime Annie. "Annie" is a basic three-chord tune so there is lots of room to embellish.

Try the arrangement below with a rhythm guitar player. Have the guitarist play the "standard" chords, written over the solo. One of the great things about the mandolin is that we can supply all sorts of passing notes and "swingy" chords to a song without really changing the basic feel of the tune. However, when the guitar plays all of these substitutions, it changes the basic nature of the tune. Listen to it both ways and let your ear be the judge. Personally, I like it when I put in all the cool stuff and the guitarist plays it straight.

For this first column, just play the chords without asking too many questions. Later we will discuss and demonstrate the how and why of this kind of arrangement. I have used mostly three-string voicing of these chords because I like the "beefiness" of chords on the G, D and A strings. Each chord has been named to help you organize these new shapes into your collection.

You may notice that some shapes repeat with different names. For example, in measure 6, the C diminished and A7 chords are the same shape, one fret apart. I'll explain later why this sometimes happens in three-note chords. For now, just play.

The solo arrangement is loosely based of the recording of Texas fiddling legend Eck Robertson. I've made a few changes to make the arrangement more mando-friendly. If you don't already play this one, add it to your tune list.

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