Easy Two-Finger Mandolin Chords

By Wayne Erbsen

Compared to the guitar, mandolin chords are EASY. In fact, most mandolin chords only use two fingers or sometimes only one.

In the mandolin chord charts below, each horizontal line represents a pair of mandolin strings. The E string is the one closest to the floor, as you hold your mandolin in playing position, and the G string is closest to the ceiling. The numbers represent the fret. Be sure to place your fingers between, not on, the fret. The letter to the left of each chord chart tells you the name of that chord. The letters

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Carter Family Music & History by John Lilly

Carter Family photograph

Anita Carter was only four years old when she first saw Dr. John Romulus Brinkley in 1938 at a mansion in Del Rio, Texas, but it was a sight she never forgot: a goat-bearded, diamond-studded, round spectacled man, floating down the stairs with a pet monkey on his shoulder. Dr. Brinkley had built the most powerful radio station in the world, 500,000 watt XERA, and blanketed North America with sales pitches for snake oils and his quack remedies. A Chicago company, Consolidated Royal Chemical, also used XERA airwaves to sell patent medicines, and featured the best in country music entertainment

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Wandering Boy

Wandering Boy

Out in the cold world and far away from home,
Some motherโ€™s boy is wandering all alone,
No one to guide him or keep his footsteps right,
Some motherโ€™s boy is homeless tonight.

Chorus:
Oh, bring back to me, my wandering boy,
For there is no other left to give me joy,
Tell him itโ€™s mother with faded cheeks and hair,
Sheโ€™s at the old home a-waiting him here.

Out in the hall way there stands a vacant chair,
With an old pair of shoes that used to wear,
Empty now the cradle the one he loved so

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Repairing Your Instrument Case by Bob Smackula

Yes, I was watching TV. A return of an animal show that we all watched as kids only because Walt Disney was on after it. Jim was wrestling with a giant anaconda while Marlin watched from a helicopter. I was wrestling with a decision on this Old-Time Herald’s instrument topic. Then it hit me – insurance.

What is the best insurance for your herringbone guitar, Tubaphone banjo, or Sears and Roebuck Strad copy fiddle? It is not necessarily a rider on your home owners policy. In fact, it is the case the instrument is stored in when you’re not playing.

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