Progress Report: Cripple Creek

I think I remember this from when I was a kid, though I could be remembering it from when my kids were little. I love this lady's voice, but the bow could get old after a while.

I still haven't made any progress on learning to read music. I've thought about it, but still need to work that into my practice time, or as a separate session apart from actually playing the instrument. Also, my callouses are building up nicely--I'm having a harder time typing because now I can't feel the little nub on the "F" key to position my left hand.

Since my last progress post, I've been working on the A major scale and the song Cripple Creek. The song is one of the standards of roots music, and it was the song my book used to introduce both the key of A major and hammer-ons.

Most of the time you hear Cripple Creek, it's only an instrumental. It has lyrics, and they could even be considered a little risque, especially for earlier last century. The lady with the pretty voice in the Sesame Street video actually sings the more colorful content for the preschoolers. I guess by today's standards the lyrics are really nothing shocking, and maybe I'm reading too much into them. It's a fun tune with or without the words though.

The A major scale I've been working on is in the open position, but I'm pretty sure it's the pattern for the closed position scale form that can be moved up the neck--just add a pinky. I'm mostly playing it open--trying to get the notes all clean, but I've attempted it a few times using the pinky instead of the next higher open string.

A Major Scale This exercise is introduced in my book as a prep for the song Red-haired Boy, which is still a couple of songs away, but I wanted to add a little spice to my scales. I call this the three steps forward, two steps back arrangement.

Cripple Creek Finally, here's my current progress on Cripple Creek. The hammer-ons add some nice color even when not executed perfectly. I was hoping to add a guitar track underneath, but I was lazy tired and couldn't work out the bass runs, so maybe next time.

Tan Lines

After doing lots of reading about beginner mandolins, and in particular the sorry state in which they usually arrive at your door from e-bay sources, I realized that my instrument needed to find its way into the hands of a luthier for a good setup. So I took it to Murphy's Music in Irving to ask them if they thought it was set up OK to learn on. As soon as the luthier got it in his hands he was shocked at how high the action was. No wonder my fingers hurt.

So I left it with him and he lowered both the nut and the bridge. When I picked it up that evening, the luthier had already left for the day, but a few of the sales guys were hanging out and I gave it to one of them to play. He was surprised at what a "good playing mandolin" it was. He played the Music Store Concerto for Mandolin in G, Second Movement and it sounded great. Then he told me it was a better playing mandolin than some other much more expensive brands he'd had his hands on. It made me feel like I had spent that forty bucks well.