Jake Cohan's Blog Archive

Archive for the ‘Videos of Jake’ Category

Debussy rules!

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

I have always loved to listen to the music composers like Satie and Debussy. Playing their compositions on one mandolin is a whole other story. Here I attempt to play Claire De Lune by Claude Debussy.

The tune when played right is haunting and beautiful. I am constantly trying to tweak my arrangement to pay the song it’s due. One day I will have a flawless rendition to play, until then this is where I am. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or send me your version of some minimalistic classical music arranged for one mandolin.

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A new approach with a focus on beginners

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

This is the first of many videos and lessons that will help players at the beginning stages of learning to play mandolin. Up until recently “Jake’s Mandolin Tricks,” has focused on intermediate to advanced players. As a way to remind myself to get back to the basics as well as to share lessons that are more accessible I have started Jake’s lessons for beginners.

These lessons will have a specific playlist in on my you tube channel. Enjoy.

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Tribute to legends of Mandolin, Ronnie McCoury edition

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

I am posting videos of me attempting to emulate styles and/or tunes of the greats. Here is a tribute to the tasteful tone master Ronnie McCoury.

This is an original tune of his I learned from his Homespun instructional video I encourage any mandolin player to check out.

Stay posted for more to come. Questions and comments always welcome.

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Mandolin trick #9, melodic cross-picking in the key of C

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

This is a variation of something I first heard the late great Jethro Burns play. If Jethro were still around he would remind us he was only late to gigs, and rarely on time for anything else. His humor and stage presence could almost hold a candle to his amazing playing. Although holding a candle while playing sure does make it hard.

On a more serious note, Jethro Burns’ brilliant sense of time shined through in his playing as well as in his infectious sense of humor. Telling jokes that get genuine gut-busting laughter is closely related to playing and evoking other emotions through one’s musical instrument. Both are dependent on fractions of a second. A great joke is timed perfectly as is a great solo.

Today seemed as good a day as any to pay homage to my favorite mandolin player and 6th favorite stand up comedian. With the help of Mel Bay and Ken Eidson, Jethro shared tons of knowledge about his revolutionary approach to mandolin. Jesse McReynolds might have spent more time cross-picking his mandolin, but this time I am emulating Jethro. I find the lick sounds good on jazzier numbers, for example I play it in the stop time of the standard “After You’ve Gone,” in…you guessed it, C major.

I find this lick sounds best over C, Cmaj7, C6, Am, Am7, G7, and even F and Dm7. Each application will have a different tonal flavor. This is a loose copy of Jethro’s, make your own copy of mine in the video, and you got yourself an original run you came up with all by yourself.

Tab and notation will be posted in the future. Ask questions if you got em. Enjoy. To quote Jethro’s friend and guitar legend Chet Atkins, “It’s easy you see, if you practice.”

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1-6-2-5 Turnaround lick, here played in the key of G

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

This is a riff that is played over a 1-6-2-5 chord progression. In G that is G-E7-A7-D7. Try starting the riff on the D string instead of the A string to transpose to the key of Fmaj. Changes being F-D7-G7-C7. This 1-6-2-5 is in many tunes including in the B part of Sweet Georgia Brown which I have recorded as a backtrack you can play along too. The turnaround comes at the end of the B-part leading back into the intro of the song. Have fun, make variations of your own and let me know if you have any questions.

Try this or your own variation to it