Chuck Berry’s ‘You Never Can Tell’

In this lesson I am offering up some ideas for playing Chuck Berry’s You Never Can Tell on mandolin.

My Goal in providing this is to encourage others, especially amateurs, to learn a way to play this. Use my arrangement if it helps you to get going, and practice on playing it musically in your own way. Happy mandolinning, everybody!

You Never Can Tell Performance

I recorded You Never Can Tell with an acoustic guitar on rhythm, a mandolin for solos and fills, and vocals. The parts were recorded individually and mixed in my Ableton Lite DAW. Afterward, I made an mp4 video using the audio track, that performance video appears below:

Mandolin Solo #1

For me, the approach to making a mandolin-centric arrangement began with developing a solo/intro that I felt would work with the song. The following video is an excerpt from a practice session, recorded on the bank of the Brazos river. It’s simply a slow version of the main solo I played, so that my left hand is clearly visible. Also, I’ve created sheet music in PDF format, which you may download using the link just below the video:

Download sheet for solo #1:

You Never Can Tell Solo #1 PDF

Mandolin Solo #2

Since I used the previous piece as both introduction and second solo, I had to use a different solo in the middle of the song. I came up with a fairly simple one after listening to some of Chuck’s guitar solos in recorded performances. I play it – well, sort of – in the video below. I found it very difficult to play it slowed down so much, and I had to turn off the AC units here on a triple-digit summer day in order to record it, so … here is my third take, which I certainly flubbed in the final section, but together with the sheet music it should give a good idea of what I did in the original recording.

Download sheet for solo #2:

You Never Can Tell Solo #2 PDF

You Never Can Tell Solo #2 TEF*

Mandolin Fills: Simple Licks in A and E

In the following video and the sheet music for download below it, I’m demonstrating and discussing ideas for licks that I used as fills in this arrangement of You Never Can Tell.

Download Sheet For Licks:

Licks – You Never Can Tell PDF

Licks – You Never Can Tell TEF*

Guitar Part

The guitar backing I chose to use was a pretty simple combination of a little boogie riff and backbeat strumming. This song is a two-chord song, I played it in the key of A so the chords were simply A and E with a very repetitious riff and strum pattern. The following video provides a few hints as to how I played this on guitar.