If you can just play the tremolo at the right rhythm, voila!, that's what's written. It looks a lot more confusing that it really is.
The simplest way to write it out is a ton of notes, when what is really being played is tremolo over a note or chord or part of a chord. I think this is where notation falls a short in transmitting the info. I know just what you mean, SweetTea, about having to obsess over the number of notes in a string. Your fast clip illustrates another aspect of Monroe music: a lot of it is playing tremolo over chords, and the melody line often involves "playing" the chord or pieces of it. (Weird that there are no repeats in this tune.) Maybe try breaking the tune up into parts and just work on it a section at a time. It opens up a whole dimension of playing beyond the mostly single-note melody tunes. It's taking me a while to get it, but it's worth the effort. I've been working on Monroe tunes and tunes in that style off and on for a couple of years. With at tune like "Southern Comfort," you have to keep that right hand going and add octave notes and drones and two-string chords wherever you can toss them in. Using "Soldier's Joy" again as an example, the right hand just plays the melody line and that will suffice. The other issue has to do with the right hand. Monroe's tunes, you have to get the mojo right as well.
But with a tune like "Soldier's Joy," if you can play the notes, the tune is mostly there. Sorry I can't articulate it any better than that. I'm no expert, but I think one consideration is that you need to get the feeling of the tune right. You have to get the hang of Monroe tunes. Note that there's a little feeling of push on beats one and three. His version is nice and clean I think it works great at that tempo with that feel. I suggest looking to Jamann's version for inspiration if this is giving you grief. (BTW, if you click on the TOW.txt hyperlink above, you'll find a file containing ABCs of a ton of great mandolin tunes of the bluegrass and Irish variety, along with a couple of modern compositions.) Maybe somebody can find it and post a link. "D"=D DE | FE =DF ED EF | "B7"G2 B2 BB B=c | B2 Be B2 =d2 | "E"ee ee ee e=g | "D"=D DE | FE =DF ED EF | "E" GF EC | C2 | =z8 | =z4 B2 =d2 | "E"ee ee ee e=g | e=d BA BB BA | =G=D EE EE EE | |Įe ee ee e=g | e=d BA =G2 A2 | "B7"AB BB BB B=d | B2 Be B2 =d2 | "E"ee ee ee e=g |Į=d BA BB BA | =G=D EE EE EE | | "G" | S:TablEdited by Mike Stangeland for MandoZine Here are a couple of Monroe videos there are a ton of people playing this tune on YouTube, but Big Mon is the place to start: Monroe's composition or Kenny Baker's tune, etc. Hopefully, Don or one of the other Monroe experts can weigh in with a slow teaching video and some background to this tune - when it was written and recorded, whether it's Mr. This is a Bill Monroe tune, and it rocks. (Barb asked me to Name That Tune while she is tied up with her daughter's wedding.) The people have spoken: The tune for week 15 is Southern Flavor.