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Over the Waterfall

by Steve Smith

As I travel around the counrty I see more and more mandolas in use in settings from Old-time to Bluegrass, singer songwriters to Irish music. While for years it was often difficult to find an old Gibson that played well or even more difficult to find a rare Lyon and Healy, more mandolas are surfacing from old collectins and many modern luthiers are building custon instruments.

I've been using my Gibson 1915 H-2 for over twenty years in ensembles and as a solo instrument for vocal accompanyment and for fiddle tunes. Flat picked or finger picked it works well in almost all settings. This version of Over the Waterfall has a drive all it's own and will hopefully inspire those with mandolas to go for it and get those instruments out. Over the Waterfall lays positionally as if you were playing the tune in the key of A on the mandolin. Due to the increase in finger stretch it is quite acceptible to use the pinky finger to play the low F# on the sixth fret fourth string. Have fun, Steve Smith