Mandolin Song Breakdown: Flop Eared Mule

I first heard of Flop Eared Mule after moving to Seattle from Seattle fiddler Tim Wetmiller. It’s a really fun tune with especially since it changes keys between the A and B parts!

Like most fiddle tunes, there’s a lot of different names for this tune including Long Eared Mule and Bluebell Polka. The best I can tell is this tune was written in 1854 by Adam Couse and was first called Detroit Schottische.

In its structure, Flop-Eared Mule has a little twist: the melody modulates (changes key) from G in the A-part (playing the G and D chords) and to D in the B-part (playing the chords D and A).

In this Mandolin Song Breakdown, I’m going to walk you through three different voicings for the melody and chords for Flop-Eared Mule. I’m also including a few harmony ideas that you can play around with!

Listen to Flop Eared Mule

Here’s a few good recordings for you to check out

• Mike Compton & David Grier
• Ola Bella Reed

Charts for Flop Eared Mule

Here’s the basic chart we’ll be using for this breakdown

• Melody
• Harmony
• Strum Machine for reviewing

Edit: 9/26/2025

So I had a lot of folks talk about how they know this song in the key of D, so I added the below two charts for the key of D.

• Melody in D
• Harmony in D

Melody for Flop Eared Mule

I love the start of this melody with the high B (or 3rd). It just cuts really nicely in my opinion and stands out a bit. I’ve included 3 different voicing options for both the chords and the melody.

• The first voicing is essentially the “standard” voicing and what I’d recommend starting on.
• The second voicing is a lower pitched voicing. This is a good pinky work out too!
• The third voicing is a higher pitched voicing a bit up the neck. This is probably my favorite option as it is an easy starting position for a melodic solo.

First Voicing

Second Voicing

Third Voicing

Harmony for Flop Eared Mule

For the harmony on this, I’ve kept it pretty basic. This is just a parallel harmony based on a 3rd above the melody in two different voicings. The first voicing is what I would normally play on this but the second option is a great pinky workout with the 11th fret notes.

Harmony Voicing 1

Harmony Voicing 2

Practice Ideas based on Flop Eared Mule

Flop Eared Mule is a great tune to practice for a variety of reasons.

• The first is simply that it changes keys. While that’s not particularly unique, it’s not that common either. With the key change, you’ll get the chance to work on changing your mind set from playing in G to playing in D. In addition, since both the A and B parts are essentially just 1 5 changes (either G to D or D to A), you can work on riffs and phrasing for that common change.
• Continuing the above, since the song is mostly just 1 to 5 changes, you can build up the riffs that include 1 to 5 chord changes. Use this tune to help build and practice your bag of riffs.

• Using the Second Voicing, you can really get a good pinky workout for both the melody and harmony ideas. This can really help your pinky dexterity and strength!
• Don’t use your first finger. This is a great exercise that I first saw with Chris Thile but since I’ve seen / heard other mandolin players doing the same. Essentially just play the first voicing option (for either melody or harmony) using only your middle, ring, and pinky fingers. It’s awkward at first but really a great exercises once you get it.

Wrap up on Flop Eared Mule

I hope this breakdown for Flop Eared Mule helped! Feel free to leave a comment below with any questions or notes. Also, if you enjoy this free content, I’d appreciate if you considered donating to my site as well. While these posts are always free – small contributions help me with keeping the site up with new content. If you are in a position to donate, it’s always appreciated. If not, a positive comment or two work nicely too! Happy picking!!

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