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I bought an Eastman MD305 at the beginning of this year after having been away from playing music since I was a teenager (piano for ten years). I cannot overstate how much joy this little instrument has brought me in these months. Near-term goals are a little easier to hash out given that I've got so many fundamentals to practice, but in terms of the future I have no idea how to focus. I want to play Irish, klezmer, bluegrass, country, classical...I suppose there are worse problems to have.
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Apr 7, 2023 16:42
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Does anyone reading this have an electric mandolin / mandolin with pickups and care to share a review? I'm thinking about taking the plunge although I love my Epiphone starter mando.
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Apr 7, 2023 18:10
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Mando thread lives! Old Grimes might be my new favorite tune. Super pretty, nice old time feel, really fun to play. Here’s the David Benedict short with tabs : https://youtube.com/shorts/jrA-jX2N4wk?feature=share
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Apr 8, 2023 19:52
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I went and saw Sierra Hull and Justin Moses on Wednesday night and holy cow, they are so talented. This piece just blew me away https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO6tn6g8098
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Apr 14, 2023 19:10
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Kull the Conqueror posted:I went and saw Sierra Hull and Justin Moses on Wednesday night and holy cow, they are so talented. This piece just blew me away Live mandolin performances loving rule if that wasn't obvious. I got to see Chris Thile play in Brooklyn with the chamber orchestra Orpheus several years ago and that was legit was of the best experiences of my life. Also, just to the air because y'all will understand this : I just had two E strings snap in my hand and I would like to give a loud and emphatic loving OW. Real glad that was my hand and not my face.
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Apr 14, 2023 20:44
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Xiahou Dun posted:Also, just to the air because y'all will understand this : I just had two E strings snap in my hand and I would like to give a loud and emphatic loving OW. Real glad that was my hand and not my face.  Some of those super top tier mandolin players (or musicians) seen live - they make it seems so fluid, effortless, and tasteful. If you want to talk about someone from another planet, seek out Michael Cleveland. He's just head and shoulders above in terms of fiddle. I'm a huge fan of Vassar, Jason Carter, Stuart Duncan, Mark O'Connor, etc, but Michael is just..wow
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Apr 14, 2023 21:21
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Yeah speaking of witchcraft, I’ve been meaning to share this old gem I’ve become obsessed with : https://youtu.be/UJ4VSgYmXvo And I’m gonna check out Cleveland, thanks for the heads up, Planet X.
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Apr 14, 2023 21:27
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Xiahou Dun posted:Yeah speaking of witchcraft, I’ve been meaning to share this old gem I’ve become obsessed with :  you know it Sharon's lessons are great on Artist Works (I think thats where she is) - I took them for a while. Roanoake is one of my mandolin favorite songs and one of the first I learned on Mandolin. Cleveland's showcase piece is Lee Highway Blues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_G0OfJ-ew I also like this version of fire on the mtn - but note that while I'm referencing two showoff tunes, he plays with an incredible taste, timing and virtuosity and is not just a speed for the sake of speed player. He's also blind and partially deaf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvT3O_2QQGI Edit: I just watched these again and good lord nobody plays like this except him. Truly a gift. Planet X fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Apr 14, 2023 |
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Apr 14, 2023 21:37
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O that guy! I didn’t know his name, but he pops up frequently if you just troll around Youtube watching live bluegrass stuff. (You know, that normal thing you do.) His Jerusalem Ridge is something else. I did Sharon Gilchrist’s fretboard course on Peghead Nation and that helped me a lot. I mean I say “did” but my Peghead Nation account is basically me rotating between 3 courses, soaking up what I can and then rotating until I come back having practiced the material and occasionally improving. She got me to learn where most of the arpeggios are though.
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Apr 14, 2023 22:09
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So my mandolin is well over due for my first string changing and I was wondering what strings are preferred by goons here?
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Apr 24, 2023 02:56
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D’Addario.
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Apr 24, 2023 03:11
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D’Addario for the brand, and lights over mediums if they work for your particular mando. I've got a folksy flat-top Mid-Missouri and it's pretty light, but I've heard some heavier weight ones expect mediums or higher for stress reasons.
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Apr 26, 2023 22:24
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I dunno if it’s just something that’ll become better in time as I use it more but my pinky really, really curves into my ring finger while I try to fret with it and I’m not sure if I’m just not having my left hand in correct orientation or if my pinky has some until now weird deformation I’ve never noticed before. Anyone have issues like this or is there suggestions for making your pinky not do this?
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Jun 11, 2023 21:29
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I never knew how much tiny, subtle variation there was in human hands until I got into this hobby. I can’t solve your specific issue, but my understanding is that basically nobody has a pinky that’s naturally good at stretching very quickly, lightly, as distant as possible and without tension. It’s just not a thing hands are very good at without a lot of practice. Personally I can reach suuuper far without changing positions but my accuracy is just the pits, hit the wrong string and everything. Are you doing closed scales? They suck at first but they slowly getting smoother. I think. And just not to double post : does anyone know the terms for different “kinds” of double stops? Like you can play a double stop on the 5 fret of G (C) and the 2 fret of D (E) vs the 2 fret of D (E) and 3 fret of A (C). I get that E is the second of C and we’re changing whether the root note is higher or lower. And I can move a string over and repeat this in G, or up 2 frets in D and repeat in any arbitrary position where I put my ring finger, hurray tuning in fifths is cool. And since all of this is regular I can do this all around the fretboard with a bunch of other different “kinds” of double stops. But what are these called?
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Jun 12, 2023 02:40
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Xiahou Dun posted:But what are these called? I think of them like chord inversions, more or less. If a doublestop is an abbreviated chord, it too can have different voicings. 5th fret G plus 2nd fret B is like a root position G chord, 4th fret F# plus open A is the 1st inversion of a D chord omitting a root note, etc.
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Jun 12, 2023 03:09
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Sure. I would have to stare into space for a while and still probably look some stuff up, but I could eventually cough up the full description for any given arrangement. But what I mean is that I’m doing the same thing both physically and musically when I do that. And if I were describing a tune to you I could say that it things a lot in contrast to another tune that doesn’t for whatever reason. Or if I hurt my hand in some way I could say I can’t thing until it heals. And you would know that I meant the 2-5 E-C finger arrangement (and the 4-7 F#-D, etc.), and not the 2-3 E-C finger arrangement (and the 4-5 F#-D, etc.). There’s a whole taxonomy there and I can’t find anyone who’s actually gone through it. It’s a bunch of holes where words should go.
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Jun 12, 2023 03:49
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Xiahou Dun posted:I never knew how much tiny, subtle variation there was in human hands until I got into this hobby. It’s both closed scales and just in general. Here’s some pictures to show what I mean. It’s like my pinky finger wants its top to always be right with my ring finger and trying to separate them just needs up with the pinky curling sideways and trying to slide up back to the ring finger. All the videos I’ve watch of people playing seem to have pinkies that can at least move straight  
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Jun 12, 2023 15:55
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Another Bill posted:Does anyone reading this have an electric mandolin / mandolin with pickups and care to share a review? I'm thinking about taking the plunge although I love my Epiphone starter mando. I play an Eastwood, if you'd like an example... I'm on the new Toxik Ephex album, "Immune To The Media", available on Spotify and Bandcamp!
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Jun 14, 2023 19:17
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I brought up the pinky question to my guitar teacher way back when I was in high school and he said to "use it to my advantage." 
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Jun 15, 2023 01:43
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the pinky is the hardest finger in the left hand to get moving fluently and the only solution i can offer is to frequently and regularly practice finger buster exercises and stretch exercises. Try for example 0-2-7-2 etc with index and pinky, 0-3-7-3 etc with middle and pinky, 0-5-7-5 etc with ring and pinky, on all strings.
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Jun 23, 2023 18:18
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Coohoolin posted:I play an Eastwood, if you'd like an example... I'm on the new Toxik Ephex album, "Immune To The Media", available on Spotify and Bandcamp! I'm gonna check it out! Also, my strap slipped off the peg tonight at a jam and welp  It's split almost in two. RIP my first mando
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Jun 25, 2023 04:42
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR45qxR197o
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Jun 28, 2023 00:37
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Started to try to learn b minor chord and I just can’t seem to get a clean sound on the e string with my index on the a and e second fret when I reach with my ring finger to fret the fourth fret on the G string no matter how much I squeeze. Is it just building muscle in that position at this point?
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Aug 29, 2023 00:43
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 This is the fretting I use, I find it much easier than the one you're doing.
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Aug 29, 2023 01:06
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Another Bill posted:
Also has the benefit of being a moveable shape. And you can move the III up a fret and get a major. I finally got my hands to sort of get chords by starting out with stuff in the middle of the neck (so like an A chop chord instead of a G). The frets being just a bit closer together made it easier, and that worked as practice until I could comfortably do others.
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Aug 29, 2023 02:19
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Started to try to learn b minor chord and I just can’t seem to get a clean sound on the e string with my index on the a and e second fret when I reach with my ring finger to fret the fourth fret on the G string no matter how much I squeeze. Is it just building muscle in that position at this point? Not sure it would help the strength of your 1 but I use my middle finger to fret the G string on that chord.
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Aug 30, 2023 17:22
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Im learning Orange Blossom Special. Wanna bust it out at the jam and see if the fiddlers want a go
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Sep 13, 2023 22:32
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Maybe I’m just being really down on my self after a lot of frustration but can some people just physically not play chords and stuff on the mandolin? My pinkie just doesn’t seem to work right. I can’t get it to tuck behind my ring finger when I need it to and it seems to want nothing more to curl its tip into the side of my ring finger. I dunno if it’s turned out I’ve had a hosed up hand structure all this time and just never did anything before that highlighted that but I am just really discouraged right now since it seems like my hand is making it physically impossible to play
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Nov 13, 2023 02:19
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Maybe I’m just being really down on my self after a lot of frustration but can some people just physically not play chords and stuff on the mandolin? My pinkie just doesn’t seem to work right. I can’t get it to tuck behind my ring finger when I need it to and it seems to want nothing more to curl its tip into the side of my ring finger. I dunno if it’s turned out I’ve had a hosed up hand structure all this time and just never did anything before that highlighted that but I am just really discouraged right now since it seems like my hand is making it physically impossible to play Hey bud. I felt exactly the same way and was losing my mind. Down to the pinky problems and wondering if I had a mutant hand. All I can tell you is it eventually gets better. Part of it is you’re just kind of waiting for tendons and muscles to develop. It sucks but seems to be normal. What I did and maybe this will help you : 1) I worked the hell out of my pinky. Closed scales, every single day, every key, over and over. Try to play in closed position if you can. It sucks a lot at the beginning but if you stick it out for even just a couple weeks you’ll start to see it. (I don’t know where you’re at, if you don’t know what this means, ask.) 2) Just do three finger chords for a while, still in that Monroe chop position with your ring finger on the root, middle on the octave and index on the third. Yeah it’s not a real chop chord, but it lets you practice all the other super important parts, and being able to only hit three strings is another good skill to have. I did that for a while and my pinky started doing its part when it was ready. Which wasn’t even that long ; I think just being able to divide it in chunks like that helped a lot. Also I totally feel you on the frustration. The good days make it worth it, but there are a lot of bad days and they have a nasty habit of coming in groups. Concrete milestones (I can play X now!) and reminders of how far you’ve come (Lol I remember when I struggled to learn Y, now it’s just a warm up) seem to help. If you need a digital fist bump or encouragement, I’m always around.
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Nov 13, 2023 03:31
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I do need to be told what the closed position is. I am coming up on my one year anniversary and I take lessons every week so I just I guess felt like by now my hand should be able to at least form correctly
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Nov 13, 2023 15:54
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Dr. VooDoo posted:I do need to be told what the closed position is. I am coming up on my one year anniversary and I take lessons every week so I just I guess felt like by now my hand should be able to at least form correctly Don't worry about it. We're actually at almost the exact same level, my dumb broken math-brain just figured out a pattern I wasn't taught yet. This was only a couple months ago, I'm still the same moron who's been posting here the whole time. So you know how you play just like a basic G scale with open strings? (It works on all of them, but we're using G as an example.) You play the G open, then play it on the second fret for A, 4th for B, 5th for C, over to the open D, its 2nd for E, 4th for F#, 5th for that other, higher G. That 2 frets, 2 frets, 1fret, same original fret but other string, 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret is how all major scales work because a scale is just that sequence of tones and semitones starting from the appropriate root note (in this case the open G). That's why you can move your hand one string over and do it for D, or another and do it for A. A closed scale is you making the same shape with your hand, but you're using your index finger like it's the nut of the mandolin. Instead of starting on an open string, you just put your index finger on whatever root note you want. Then you put your middle finger 2 frets further on that same string, then your ring 2 further than that, stretch your pinky 1 more step, back to index where you change strings to next to where you started, then middle finger 2 frets further, then ring 2 more, then the pinky one last one which is going to be the octave for the scale. An example : if you put your index finger on the second fret of the D string, you get an E. 4th fret is F#, 6th fret is G# and 7th fret is A* ; index on the second fret of the A string gets you a B, 4th fret is a C#, 6th fret is a D#/Eb, 7th is that last E*. Congrats! You just did the the E major scale, which you may or may not have learned yet. This shape you're making with how you press down your fingers is mathematically how all your major scales work. That's kind of the magic of tuning in 5ths. You can put your index finger down anywhere on the whole fretboard, do that pattern and get the major scale starting with that root note. If you move your index finger one string over and start on the B, you can do the same thing and suddenly have a B major scale! This is where you can go mad with power and just do whatever you want. Since the shape is the important part, you just find a random root note and teach/remind yourself of whatever the scale. You probably won't have a reason to us the C# major scale any time soon, but now you know what's in it and can practice ahead if you want. What I did as an exercise starting back in like June/July is I just run through the entire circle of fifths doing each major key. I warm up with open D first, then go into open G and just do D twice, but you can start wherever. Each time you go over a string from the same starting position, you get the fifth of whatever was there. That's why the strings are like they are, the fifth of G is D, fifth of D is A, fifth of A is E, etc. When you finish the open A scale, you sort of "fall off" the fretboard and have to restart ; that's why you need to play E in a closed position starting on the 2nd fret of the D string, then B from the second fret of the A string. You can't apply the formula to the F# on the 2nd fret of the E string (you will fall off halfway), so instead you do that starting on the 4th fret of D string! (Yeah, you just learned the F# scale as just a bonus.) You can just go up the fretboard repeating that. (Although I actually prefer using the Ab on the 3rd fret of the G, the F on the 3rd on D for F, etc. rather than going way, way up the neck.) I know that's a lot of words, so go grab your mando and actually work through some examples to lock it in your mind. The important thing is that you understand that shape, which is really the same abstract shape as open scales. It's going to suck poo poo for your pinky at the beginning, but just go slow and try to get your pinky to relax and reach. If you spend some time doing this every day for a bit, in a variety of scales, making sure you're nice and even and have good tone, paying attention to what notes you're playing, your pinky is going to get way, way better. And you're going to massively increase your knowledge of the geography of the fretboard. And because of the magic of music theory, you'll pick up other shapes and you can do the same thing. Minors, pentatonics, all that stuff, have different "shapes" you gotta do, but they still let you repeat. The Monroe chop-chord shape is actually similar, it's just a less transparent one because it's not two nice even lines next to each other. I know that's a lot, but when I figured that out and started working on it, I got significantly better at a bunch of stuff really quick. I went from hating scales and having to force myself to do them, to now a couple months later where I'll just get high and run through scales for houuuuuuurs because it's fun. Side bonus : my teacher thought I was a very smart boy, so she started just giving me more shapes which made me learn even faster. Hopefully that helps, and more experienced people can kibitz and rephrase things. If that doesn't make any sense, I'll try to draw a diagram or something. I know the feeling of "AH I SHOULD BE BETTER WHY DO I SUCK NOOOOOOOOO" very, very well, we are intimate friends. But if you just stick it out, it gets a lot better, promise.
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Nov 13, 2023 17:43
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Thanks for the suggestions and help. I definitely felt a burn in my palm doing the exercises you recommended so I hope that means it’s working haha
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Nov 14, 2023 16:21
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Any time, hoss. It's lonely and frustrating learning an instrument as an adult. I've just been keeping that bottled up (you know, like is healthy) so if you need to a vent session look me the hell up. At least for me that ache kind of started in my palm and slowly shifted farther up my arm as I could use my pinky more. Once it was mostly in my forearm was about when I started to feel like I could really do something with it. And now I'm playing in second and third position without it being an entire clown-shoes avalanche of embarrassment. (I'm just normal bad now lol.)
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Nov 14, 2023 16:39
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My pinky's still a little loser too but it's definitely improved with scale exercises. It's also helped to mentally/physically prime it for that seventh fret as early as I can, the big challenge being that it sort of flies away from the neck when I'm fretting with my 2. The thing that still feels way out of reach is a smooth pull-off (can barely manage a bad version), but I don't know how often that's going to come up for the time being. You got this, partner.
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Nov 14, 2023 19:39
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So since that post on closed scales was helpful, I thought I'd maybe post another cool exercise I'm messing around with and a cool thing I noticed about the fretboard. Not because I'm good and smart or anything, but it could help someone and perhaps this will encourage other people to post things that would help me. Fun Closed Scale - Playing by Ear - Transposition Super Exercise : Because I could recognize that actually playing out of closed scales is really useful for changing keys, I wanted to start doing that right away. My brain likes to process stuff in the back for long periods, so just getting things in the mental hopper ASAP is helpful to me. Also my ears are dogshit and I need a lot of practice with that, so I kind of mashed a bunch of things together into one weird thing I do. Step 1) think of a simple tune you know really well. Something relatively simple in one octave you can kind of hum by heart. Hopefully it's also slightly more interesting than Twinkle Twinkle Little Star too just so you don't go crazy. For me, I pick a lot of vocal gospel stuff but it's gonna vary on you and your background. I'm the example though, so let's go with what I did and pick something like Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Step 2) Go look up what key the thing you picked in Step 1 is. It's possible there will be multiple, in which case just pick one. It's fundamentally arbitrary as we'll see in a couple of steps. At least the version I googled a couple months ago told me the C Maj is one of the more common keys for Will the Circle Be Unbroken so I went for that. Step 3) put your index finger down on the root note of that key and do a review of that closed scale, just so you have it in your head. When I did this, it wound up being the C on the 3rd fret of the A string. Step 4). *sucks butts* but just trial and error until you get it. There's only the 8 notes, it's not that bad and hopefully you pick this up faster than my dumb rear end. I promise at least that the second time you do this step, you'll be better than the first time and it gets better every time after. At least it has for me so far. Having now done this a dozen times, I can just kind of do this instead of it being an entire clown shoes nightmare. Bonus : you're probably somewhere slightly up the neck. This is how I started to get more comfortable playing out of 2nd and 3rd position and that helps a LOT with other stuff. Step 5) Make sure you've got (4) down mostly pat before you do this step, but now you're going to just pick another key. It can be pretty much at random. Just set your index finger down in another spot on the fretboard and do the exact same fingering in step 4 but starting on the different note. Motherfucking TADA you just transposed a tune. You took a tune from one key, and successfully put it in another key with the magic of music-geometry. Once you figure out how to play a tune in a closed position, you can change the root note and play relative to that. Your index finger will always be the root on one string or the V* on the next one over, your middle is the II and the VI, your ring is the III and the VII and your pinky is the IV and the octave. Go hog wild! Put it in whatever key you want! This is how I discovered that F is kind of my favorite key, it just makes things sound rad. But maybe you like Ab, who knows! *by the way, now that roman numeral system should make a lot more sense to you. You can talk about the notes in a given key abstractly, and then just use closed scales to figure out what they are. Need to know what the VI of F is? Plunk your hand down and look where your middle finger is. Closed Scales and the Layout of The Fretboard : The other thing I noticed is that keys naturally into certain "zones" on the fretboard. What key you're in is sort of like an extra dimension on top of the fretboard. It sounds nerdy as hell, but you can kind of think that when you change key your hand is going into a different mode where it interacts with the fretboard different like some kind of sci-fi transdimensional nonsense. That sounds insane, so let's have some nice pictures I photoshopped quick. Hopefully this is semi-legible for you guys. I'm colorblind so I just set it red hoping that would be clear (it's not for me, I use shapes) :  So here's 2 octaves of the G Major scale. The pattern goes further, obviously, but I'm just doing this part so it's easier to read. I've marked the open strings as well for this one, but I want you to really be thinking of this in sort of closed-position mode and concentrating on that 7th fret.  Here's the same thing for A Major. Do you see the similarity? The "shape" of that closed G major scale has kind of lurched forward a bit, which should make sense. A is one step higher than G. The A Major scale is the same as the G major scale, but we're starting on a different root note, just like we saw in the transposition exercise.  (Sorry, I was lazy when I photoshopped this so the nut is cut off. That's the B on the 5th fret, although it doesn't actually matter) And now here's the B major scale, and it's doing the same thing! It's an emergent pattern because of how the strings are arranged. It's impractical with the realities of a physical instrument, but we could theoretically have an infinitely big mandolin** and this patter would repeat over and over every 12 frets. And the same pattern exists for every other key, because it's all about the other frets relative to the root. Once you start messing around with this you notice all sorts of fun correspondences with the fretboard that then give you cool reminders about theory things. The same fret but one string towards the floor is always, always, always going to be the V of whatever you started on. Just like D is the V of G and E is the V of A, C is the V of F which is the V of Ab. And if you go the other way, sort of "up" on the fretboard towards your face, it's always gonna be the IV! Check my work if you don't believe me. Each note on the fretboard is surrounded by a cloud of notes of their key, and they're always in the same place relative to the root. Isn't that cool? You can now take this information and use it find chords! You've got a infinite series of landmarks on that fretboard, and you didn't even know it. Anyway, happy picking. Please give me any cool mando things you notice because I'm a dumb baby and want to learn them. ** or a violin or a cello or a mandola or whatever, it's because it's tuned to fifths
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Nov 18, 2023 20:56
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