Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Tiple and mandolin, together at last

I don't think I''ve stumbled on these recordings earlier in my searches for players of the 10-string Martin-style tiple... The Georgia Melody Boys of the 1920s (also identified as the Golden Melody Boys at Discogs and one of the links below, a case of using different names for different record labels, perhaps) are fairly new to me, but I'm glad that 78 RPM record collectors have preserved some of their recordings.. and even put them on youtube.

Goin' to have 'lasses in the morning (an Old Dan Tucker variation?):
https://youtu.be/-yaSvXgBCoE?si=JLCAaZC60UjeUted

When the Goldenrod is Blooming Once Again:

Discogs identifies the singers and players as Phil Featherstone on mandolin and sometimes harmonica, and Dempsey Jones on tiple, and as writer of their two-part dialog, "Uncle Abner and Elmer at the Rehearsal." 

I hope to find less scratchy transcriptions somewhere, but from what I can tell listening to these, the duet neatly illustrates my feelings about the two instruments... that the mandolin is better suited to melody playing while the Tiple works best as a rhythm-chord instrument, given its doubled and tripled strings and ukulele tuning. 

(Played at the same fret, the three lowest pitched double and triple-string courses make a major chord, the three highest pitched make a minor chord. Sliding those positions up or down the neck can be very satisfying.)

Since a ukulele playing friend of mine is learning the mandolin, and I have mandolins, ukes and a Tiple, maybe we can work up such a duet. 

Reminder to self: Put new strings on the tiple!  When the steel string bronze windings wear out, leaving little gaps, those nice sliding chords you hear on this recording slice through the calluses on my favorite left hand fingertips and can leave behind little splinters of bronze wire. Ouch!