Octave Mandolin Chord Charts for Open Position by Mickey Cochran

Copyright 2001 by MiddleEarth Productions All rights reserved including the right to reproduce this book or any excerpt without written consent from the author: Mickey Cochran

Octave Mandolin Chord Studies

The scale length of the octave mandolin does not allow a standard approach to playing chords as originally laid down by the mandolin before it. Many of the chord positions (inversions) of a standard mandolin are not humanly possible to perform on an octave mandolin. Because of this, from a mandolin players point of view, its important to keep your approach focused on the octave mandolin neck as an entity unto itself as opposed of thinking of the octave as a standard mandolin. From this vantage point, this book concentrates on the chord positions that best fit an octave mandolin. For instance, our open-position chord charts are inversions that are the most efficient to play on an octave mandolin with the least amount of effort and minimal stretch possible. All of the these open-position chord inversions utilize all four choruses of strings maximizing the spectrum range (chord voicing) without omitting integral notes that make up a full chord. All keys are represented by the following roman numeral diagrams representative of chord progression intervals: I IV V V7 VIm

Most all chord progressions consist of the above intervals...in other words, within most any given chord progression, youll find these intervals to be the most common. I represents the tonic chord (the chord that is the key of the progression) IV represents the sub-dominant (fourth note of the scale) V represents the dominant (fifth note of the scale) V7 represents the dominant 7th (fifth note of the scale with 7th tone harmonized) VIm represents the 6th minor chord (sixth note of the scale with flatted third)

KEY OF C

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

C
1st 1st

F
1
1st

G
1st

G7
1
1st

Am
1

1 2

2 3 4

1 2

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF G

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

G
1st 1st

C
1st

D
1st

D7
1st

Em
3 2 3

1 2

1 2

2 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF D

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

D
1st 1st

G
1st

A
1st

A7
1st

Bm
1 1

1 2

1 2

3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF A

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

A
1st 1st

D
1
1st

E
1
1st

E7
1st

F#m
1 1 1 1

3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF E

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

E
1
1st 1st

A
1st

B
1
1st

B7
1
1st

C#m
1 2 2

3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF B

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

B
1
1st

E
1
1st 1st

F#
1st

F#7
1st

G#m
1 1 1 2 1

3 2

1 2 3 4 3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF Gb

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

Gb
1
1st 1st

B
1st

Db
1 1 1 1
1st

Db7
1 1 1 2 1 1
1st

Ebm
1 1 1 2 3

1 2 3 4 4

2 3 4 3

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF Db

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

Db
1st

Gb
1
1st 1st

Ab
1 1 1 1 1 3
1st

Ab7
1 1 1 1 2 1 3 4 2
1st

Bbm
1

1 3 4 2 3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF Ab

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

Ab
1st

Db
1
1st

Eb
1
1st

Eb7
1
1st

Fm
1 1
1st

3 4

3 4

3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF Eb

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

Eb
1st

Ab
1
1st

Bb
1 1
1st

Bb7
1 1
1st

Cm
3
1st

1 3 4

3 4

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF Bb

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

Bb
1
1st

Eb
1
1st

F
1 1
1st

F7
1
1st

Gm
1 1
1st

1 3 3

2 3 4

2 4 3

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm

KEY OF F

OPEN-POSITION OCTAVE MANDOLIN CHORD POSITIONS

F
1
1st 1st

Bb
1 1 1
1st

C
1st

C7
1
1st

Dm
1 2

2 3 4 3

1 2 2

I
1 =First Finger

IV
2 =Second Finger

V
3 =Third Finger

V7
4 =Fourth Finger

VIm