Chords for Sierra Hull's Gibson Mandolin and Weber Octave Mandolin | Reverb Interview

_ [E] _ _ [B] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ [Bm] _ _ [E] Mandolin was my [G] first instrument.
I thought I wanted to [A] play the fiddle.
So my dad had [E] an interest in [A] learning to play music
ever since he was a kid, but never had any instruments growing [Em] up.
So when he became an adult, he saved up some money and [A] bought a mandolin,
which he had always [B] wanted.
My [E] dad said, well, you know, [B] the mandolin
is tuned like the [Ab] fiddle, so what if I [Am] just showed you a [A] couple things
on it, and [Bm] at least whenever [E] you get the fiddle, you'll know where to put [B] your fingers.
This [G] mandolin is a pretty [B] standard blueprint
for Gibson mandolins.
It's called the Master Model.
This Master
Model is [A] basically trying to be a replica of those
Lloyd-Lore [E] mandolins.
And so a guy named Dave Harvey, who works for
Gibson [A] in Nashville, is just a phenomenal builder.
[B] I have really fallen
in love with it.
[E] As instruments [G] do, the more you play them, the more [Em] love you give them,
they just sort of [Bm] open up.
And so Ricky Skaggs, [G] Gibson did a
series of distressed mandolins called the Ricky Skaggs [B] Distress
Model, and it was like 50 [A] mandolins they did.
I got to play
Ricky's around [Bm] that time, and I thought, [E] man, what a great mandolin
that [B] is.
And so [G] Dave kind of did a few things [B] to this
mandolin to make it a little bit similar to the Skaggs Model
in that the neck is a slightly smaller neck, and
it also has an aged finish.
[E] Now, [A] I've been playing it a lot since [Bm] 2009,
so all this I've kind of done myself.
[Gm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ [B] A super
good bluegrass-y mandolin, but then can [Gb] also be just this really _ _ _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ [Bbm] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _
sweet_you
know, it's just_for
what I'm
doing, I've just found that it's just a really good voice for me.
I like [E] it.
_ [G] _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Bb] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Gm] _ _
_ _ [E] _ _ [G] _ _ [Dbm] _ _
[A] _ _ I grew [Bm] up playing [E] mandolin first and foremost.
_ [B] Didn't really have any [G] other instruments within the mandolin family
[Gb] for quite a while, [B] until I was working on my
second album, Daybreak, [G] and I was recording at the [B] studio in Nashville
and the engineer, who happened to [Em] also be a Maylund player, had an octave
mandolin.
[A] And it's just such a beautiful instrument, because
also being somebody that grew up playing a lot of guitar, it has that
same tonality as guitar.
It's really warm, loads of sustain,
but it has all the same mandolin voicing.
So it's tuned
exactly the same, [B] it's just an octave below.
So it's [A] much lower.
[D] So _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ you can hear that, but it can also [B] be
_ [Bm] _ _ [D] _ _
_ [E] _ _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _
_ [Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] kind of a more gritty instrument when you want it to be as well.
So when
I started working on thinking about approaching my music from a more solo point
of view and exploring what that would be like, it felt like a natural
instinct to [A] use this instrument more.
So on the latest
recording, almost half of the songs are using an octave
mandolin with the voice.
Similar to guitar, I use
the capo a lot.
So I'll capo up and try to take advantage
of all that sustain that you get with the open notes.
So
talking about just playing two finger chords,
you can do that.
Like you'd play [B] a two finger G chord here, just capo up [A] and play
a two finger A chord.
So this is my octave mandolin, it's
made by a company called Weber.
They also build [Bb] great mandolins as well.
This particular one is called a Bridger.
And
this is the second one from Weber that I've gotten.
I have an
F style, which has the scroll and everything.
Looks basically just like a giant
version of my Gibson mandolin.
And this one is quite different from
that one.
The scale is actually a little longer, and it has the oval
hole, and of course it's the teardrop style.
And
I just kind of fell in love with this one.
[A] It had such a warm sound to
it. _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gb] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ I mean you can just hear how long it's still ringing.
So
I just sort of felt [E] like this particular one would really
work well for what I was using it for in that solo kind of setting.
Yeah, I'm thrilled to have it.
It's a beautiful instrument.
_ [B] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _