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zenguitarman posted:Got myself a nice Couch strap for my F, but what's the best way to tie it around the scroll without it looking so janky? I know nothing about knots. Stapler. (I have been wondering this exact question for years and never got it to not look terrible. I see other people walking around with awesome-looking straps, so I know it's possible, but whenever I try to do it, it looks like a small child failed to tie their shoes.) (Also regretting that joke immediately. Please no one ever put their instrument in the same room as a stapler even.)
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Oct 16, 2021 01:43
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I'm an awful newbie and I suck, can I post stuff I'm working on for feedback, or is that spammy and annoying?
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Dec 17, 2021 22:26
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Thanks a mill! I made a soundcloud cause I don't have another way to share audio files : warning, this is only the finest in crappy phone recordings. https://tinyurl.com/3kxj67kp I semi-purposely didn't pick super clean recordings because the point is to get criticism and save-scumming to make myself look better doesn't help that. So these are pretty representative of what it's like if I just pick up and play, although I'm mostly warmed up already for these, meaning it's got some overt gently caress-ups I'm aware of like a finger going rogue and playing the wrong note or me brain-farting and adding a pause. It's three different tunes so I can give a good sample : King of the Fairies is one of my go-to warm-up tunes that I've played at least a thousand times, Methodist Preacher I just learned a couple of weeks ago and can sort of mostly do except a bit slow and crap*, and Midnight on the Water is a tune I'm actually sort-of kind of working on to make presentable one day cause I think it's pretty. (Not sure about that slide in the A part though, I don't know if it really adds anything.) Background in case it's relevant : Pretty much entirely self-taught, with no prior experience at all. About 10 years ago I was dating a fiddle player, she handed me a mandolin and informed me I was a mandolin player now. So I learned like 3 tunes very, very badly and some super basic scales and that's all I had and I was absolutely terrible, it was just a thing I'd do rarely when I'd been drinking. This year I got laid up with an injury and got tired of reading so I kind of went a bit crazy and started practicing for real, like, a lot. Starting in around October I restrung the bastard, went back to square 0 and have been practicing at least 2-3 hours a day, every day : now I'm 2-3 hours most weekdays, with a break every week or three just to give my hand a rest, but on weekends I do an 8 hour technique Saturday and a 6 hour tune-learning Sunday. My sister's a really good musician and I ask her theory questions and general put-finger on string advice (she's a guitar and violin player, among others), but she has nothing to add on like pick direction or anything. I've been eating through David Benedict and Mandolessons on youtube, and mostly I just keep grabbing new tunes that are fun and challenging and sound good enough I won't go crazy while practicing. I only know two-finger chords so far, but I'm trying to get my hands around four-finger chords, they're just too much of a stretch for me to reliably change between at speed yet. Bluegrass chopping is something I abstractly understand, but my hand can't even attempt. Tremolos are a thing, but mine sound less like a sustain and more like I'm just having a very tiny seizure in my right hand. I'd love to get actual lessons, absolutely champing at the bit, but I'm a grad student with a staggering amount of medical expenses to pay for right now, so my bank account is basically a cartoon moth selling its antennae for a bottle of night train. So yeah, any advice you can give is appreciated. I understand how crap I sound still so I don't mind getting torn apart if it helps me get better long term. Thanks again. *Okay and also I just straight up can't do the pick-up note double-stop slide yet. Or not at speed at least. I'm working on getting my hand to do it, and I can if I have time to prep, but not quick enough to do in the song so I'm just sliding from A to B on the E string.
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Jan 17, 2022 18:58
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O yeah. I should have mentioned. I have a metronome but absolutely no idea how to use it. So I just practice next to a clicking noise that I guess I keep up with? I understand time signatures, and I know I need to match the beat, and I can do that by like tapping/clapping along, but if I try to anything besides straight quarter notes in 4/4 I just whizz off and make up my own time that I keep with myself because thanks brain, good decision you didn’t consult me on. I’m trying to bash myself into getting better by doing weirder timings as like a sink or swim, so it’s all jigs and waltzes and polkas on my to-learn list, plus whatever the hell you call the slipjig wearing a waltz costume that’s Lonesome Moonlight Waltz. PS thank you! PPS while I necroed the thread, this version of Red Prairie Dawn is kind of novel but I like it a lot, especially the tempo transition. Working on learning the B part. https://youtu.be/EHV-FDnBMFY
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Jan 17, 2022 20:51
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I know it abstractly and I’m working it, but getting that to jive with the rest of playing is being a process. I used to be pretty into folk dancing, so I know the time signatures by feel and can keep the beat with them*. I’m trying to match that feel with pick direction in some kind of weird hand dancing thing that makes internal sense but is really hard to describe. Not disagreeing or defending myself or something. I really appreciate any help and I’m just trying to explain where I’m coming from. *Reels, hornpipes, waltzes, polkas, jigs, double jigs and slip-jigs. Strathspeys are “that weird thing some Scottish stuff does”. I fear the day when I bump into 7/13 or some weirdness.
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Jan 17, 2022 22:38
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Thanks so much! I can try to take a video, I just gotta figure out a set-up since as is my "recording" is just playing into my phone. Which is fine for my purposes of just listening back to what I played to get an idea of what it sounds like when I'm not busy playing, but obviously has some distinct downsides in terms of sharing. As to your advice, it's all stuff I "know", but I think I still need to hear it and do it another god knows how many times for it to stick. For example, I mostly know the theory behind alternating down-up picking, and I do a bunch of exercises and practice it a bunch, but I'm not doing it 100% successfully all the time. Like, I'm getting better, it's making more sense, and I do it always... Until I start playing faster or I'm not paying attention or something hinky happens and I'm half-way through a jig and hosed up so now I'm trying to fix it while keeping time and ahhhhhhhhhhh. The biggest thing I want to check is I actually don't do proper exercises as much as I probably should? I do scales and picking practice and stuff, obviously, but for the most part after I'm kind of warmed up, I tend to do specific tunes that make me do certain techniques instead. I'm assuming this is a personal problem, but just playing literally scales for more than like 10 minutes is something I'm terrible at, but playing a tune that makes me do most of a scale or involves a lot of cross-picking, I can do that for a couple hours and not bat an eye. There's something about having it in the context of a tune that makes me put more effort in that I think is helpful, but what do I know I might be knee-capping myself. How bad is that in terms of habits? Another thing is that cause I'm primarily interested in folk music (bluegrass, old-time, Irish, French-Canadian), there is a serious tilt in what kinds of keys I'm familiar with. D, G and A are pretty much the only major keys I mess with, A and E minor are in there, and then there's a whole lot of weird modal stuff that I play a bunch of tunes in but don't really know how they work. I feel really bad for any of the frets for F natural cause that really is like 9 on a microwave for me ; I know tunes that use it, but they're a distinct minority. I guess I'm basically just wondering how I'm doing in terms of progress? Trying to confirm I'm not practicing in an overtly wrong way, and I'm happy to just keep noodling around on my own. It's kind of just a personal hobby, it's not like I have any plans to do anything with this besides "have fun" and "maybe don't embarrass myself if I ever go to a session". Definitely need to get a new mando though as soon as my finances stop being so breath-takingly awful. I'm on a cheapo little Loar and I'm definitely feeling the need to upgrade soon. In the meantime, I got patches for my case finally so I'll post pics when those come in. Thanks again! Probably gonna post more stupid questions cause this instrument is my main non-work activity.
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Jan 24, 2022 01:15
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^^^^The mando thread lives!~ Let me know how it is! Coohoolin posted:Progress wise... Your tone sounds better than your speed and accuracy. Like some of those slide gently caress ups and stuff I'd expect to come from someone who hasn't developed that good a level of tone yet, so I can't quite tell (hence the request for videos). The tone is obviously the out-lier here then. I just assumed that you and Huxley were being polite and "good tone" was like telling someone their novel was "interesting" or something. It's probably just beginner's luck cause I have the exact same knowledge base for that and everything else. But I should have the chance to take a video tomorrow ; it's slightly weird cause of my living situation and stuff, but tomorrow I'll actually be alone in the house for a bit and can just do whatever. I'm pretty sure I knew that exercises must be the correct choice and I'm just being a whiny baby who likes tunes better than cross-picking practice or whatever. This is probably why there are exercises and not just everyone does tunes. The first tune I tried to learn was Ode to a Butterfly so trust me, I do tunes that are massively too hard/too fast for me constantly. (Don't try and play Thile right out the gate ; I lcut myself with the opening slide, no poo poo.) It's a big part of my practice cycle to just push myself really hard at intervals. I'm currently just sitting and playing Newmarket Polka as fast as I can or chipping away at First Corinthians 1:18 and Squirrel Hunters (I tried Brilliancy and lol, just lol, the hubris), as the last part of real practice. I do tune-up => exercises => baby little tunes => [meat of actually working on specifics techniques, learning new tunes, continuing works in progress] => go ham and play as fast as I can as hard as I can until I'm so tired I'm functionally useless => nice slow tunes (e.g. Bury Me Beneath the Willow) so I don't spend the rest of the day all hand-crampy. Last question, y'all got monster calluses on your left hand, right? Like, when I started years ago I had calluses, but I've always had calluses on my hands, I worked construction and grew up chopping wood. But the last couple of months I basically grew little blocks of wood on the ends of the fingers of my left hand. They make an audibly different clicking sound when I tap my fingers, I can't use touch screens very well with that hand and wood-splinters* just like bounce off now. That's normal, right? Right? Rubbing doubled steel strings a couple hours a day, it makes sense, I get it, but these are some monsters. Anyway, sorry for long posts. I'm just really excited. Thanks again! *From messing with firewood, no my mando's not splintering.
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Jan 25, 2022 03:31
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As promised, here is a very, very crappy video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGFN2DoSBxA Done at a kitchen table cause that's seriously the best I can do. Sorry, profoundly not set up to record like that. Plus I'm super anxious so I gently caress up a lot (more than usual) just cause I'm a bundle of nerves about it. I already did basic warm-up stuff, but otherwise I'm pretty cold cause I wanted a representative sample for criticism. It kills me to not save-scum so I look better, but that wouldn't actually help so there has been much pride swallowed. That's Kitchen Girl, King of the Fairies and Midnight on the Water, cause I wanted some over-lap with what I'd already posted. Just from looking at the video to upload it, I have some notes for myself so I guess that was good. Apparently I feel it's necessary to keep enough space between my left hand and the neck to drive a tank brigade through, just in case. So that and the weird angle I hold the neck at are two very big things to work on, as well as I can see all the tension in my right hand. On an actual cool note, I finally got around to getting decorative patches for my case and I am far too proud of myself for my stupid, hilarious choice in decoration : 
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Jan 25, 2022 18:34
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Huxley posted:One BIG thing to help your speed, go back and watch your video and see how far your fingers come off the fretboard. You want to keep them close so they have less ground to cover getting back down. Yeah as I was uploading the video I saw my left hand and whoah. I abstractly knew about keeping my fingers close to the fret and was thinking that must be a thing to work on, but apparently my pinky and ring fingers are taking international flights in between notes and I never knew. I thought it was a two inch gap, tops. Nooooope. So in the short term I’m just trying just stay closer and in the medium I’m thinking if I can put something over my hand to stop me from being able to pull away. Like some kind of rod parallel to neck so it’s not touching me but I’ll bump into it if I pull away. Or just give my nephew candy to hold a ruler over my hand. Not gonna mock you posting your right hand. I just got out of the habit of letting my wrist and a chunk of my palm by the thumb just camp out on top of the bridge, which sounded as good as you’d imagine. Don’t know what’d help you, but I realized I was trying to keep track of where the mando was in space when I weren’t looking at it (kind of like you’d touch a wall in the dark), so I started practicing setting up a better reference point that doesn’t bind me up : currently it’s an exact spot on my forearm to one crook on the body, but I’m hoping to open it up more at some point. I just tried leaving my fingers still fretting like you suggested, and that’s a lot harder than it sounds! (You know, like everything so far.) But I think it’ll help a lot longterm. Especially if I already know a tune so I can sort of “plan out” how to transition between notes instead of just trying to quickly do one after the other. Are you still applying pressure on the frets you aren’t playing, or are your fingers just kind of waiting in position? Thanks for the help and encouragement. Hope luring you away from guitar and back to 5ths, a.k.a. God’s tuning, is good for you. PS until you called yours “old girl” I didn’t appreciate that I’d gendered mine and had utterly bizarrely strong opinions about it. My first reaction was, “what? No! Mandolins are clearly boys!” followed immediately by “did I just actually want to argue with how someone else refers to their inanimate object? Am I instrument sexist? What the gently caress, brain?”
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Jan 27, 2022 04:41
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I’m actually curious about the physics behind why mando picks are different than guitar picks. I’m extra curious cause I know it’s not just cultural momentum : when my ignorant rear end started, I only had guitar picks which sounded like melting butts until I happened to find chunkier rounded-triangle picks and switched to those cause they sounded better. I thought I was weird until I saw people online all agreeing on that and found out I independently derived the “correct” kind of pick. I’m also on team Dunlop but that’s mostly cause they were the first I found and they came in a box of 50 or some other ridiculous number where I haven’t had to buy any since. Really curious how the blue chips sound and feel though : what the hell does a 35$ pick do??? (Also I took people’s advice and haven’t been replying cause I’m waiting to level out some to give a semi-objective report. Tl;dr keeping your fingers near the fretboard helps speed, accuracy, relaxation, tone, etc. a lot. Thanks!)
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Jan 29, 2022 21:08
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Word. I figured the thicker picks was cause of courses, that makes very intuitive sense, but not clear on the shape besides knowing that it feels right.
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Jan 29, 2022 21:21
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Coohoolin posted:Yeah the exact first thing I noticed was your fingers are going too far from the neck when you lift them. So update on this (I hope I'm not spamming the thread with my progress. If I am, let me know). Yeah I think this was a major thing that helped me a lot. I'm now consistently getting my fingers closer to the fretboard and even then not as much as I should, but even sometimes shrinking the distance from the egregious 4-5 inches I could get with my 3rd and 4th fingers down to 1-2 inches is a GIANT impact. After some pretty small growing-pains of things being a slightly different spot, my left hand relaxes a bunch more, I'm faster, my left hand is less likely to just go rogue and hit the wrong fret... Across the board improvement with regards to just about everything. Still not implemented 100%, but it's a sign of progress and an obvious road to continue down. So thanks a million! I desperately need to listen to more Thile in general. I obviously listened to some cause a Nickel Creek habit is what got me here, but I don't know his solo stuff as well as I should. Bittersweet Reel is in the hopper of tunes to learn now though. (Currently with Hangman's Reel, which is a tune I love probably more than is healthy.) If anyone has any other pet mandolinists I should check out, I'm happy to take recommendations. I listen to a bunch, but it's not like I'm gonna cry about too much mandolin music at this point or bemoan listening to more Sam Bush. I've also got this that I'm doing as a work in progress if anyone wants to chime in : https://soundcloud.com/corbin-neuha...=social_sharing It's still super rough, but the right hand stuff is really cool. It's like a march that got drunk and decided it was a jig one day, I think, so it's got some really great momentum once it gets going. Sharing more because it's easy enough even I can do it, but addictively fun to play so maybe someone else can use it for something. As to your offer of doing a video chat, I'd love to, but I know you're a teacher and I'm flat broke so I can't pay you. I already feel guilty just asking for the help you've given, but maybe we can put a pin in that once I get my finances slightly back together?
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Jan 31, 2022 00:55
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Hahaha. Yeah, Benedict's list is something I've been working through. Hopefully you copy-pasted that and I didn't make you type it up. Probably should have mentioned that one, sorry! And I'll definitely check out Irvine, I know I have at least 2-3 Planxty albums kicking around so that's a good on-ramp. I like Irish music a lot, but the mandolin in that genre has always struck me as a sort of also-ran kind of option where it's just a banjo-fiddle hybrid that some people sometimes throw in, as opposed to like bluegrass where it's more prominent. And how about I PM you and we can set something up? If it's just a short thing I can scrape together at least something so I'm not wasting your time. Thanks again!
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Jan 31, 2022 03:04
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Does anyone around these parts want sheet music and recordings for approximately 50 gazillion historical fiddle tunes, for free? Because PSU has this and it's pretty rad.
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Mar 16, 2022 04:17
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Oo oo! I'm not the newest player in the thread anymore, maybe! Sadly, I just have a random nice leather strap I got from god knows where a couple years ago, probably a music festival, so I don't know how much I can help. It seems like the kind of thing that's heavily personalized based on one's own tastes. I like mine because it's got a nice robust width for my stupid caveman shoulders but it's still small enough that I don't have to always take it off when I put my mando back in the case. But I also play almost entirely sitting down so its job isn't to keep it in position so much as just attach the incredibly expensive piece of wood to my body so I can't drop it like a goober*. You're just worried about the fit on the hole that goes around the peg on the tail piece? Can you post a pic of what the hole looks like? There must be a way to resize it down for now and in the future you'll know not to make that big an incision. If you just did it with like a knife or scissors you can probably even just tie it closed. What are you looking to play? Do you already play and you're expanding or is this your first swing at the ball? Fyi it's a good thread and people are very helpful, it's just a bit quiet so there might be a delay in getting an answer back on anything. *I got a really sweet deal on an Eastman 315 back in the spring and I should probably post that at some point. He's real pretty and he's got this nice loud bark because there's no finish.
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Oct 16, 2022 23:05
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Planet X posted:What do yall think about tone guards, those cages you affix to the back of a mandolin so that it sits off the body a bit and increases resonance? Makes sense to me, and I was thinking about picking one up. I have been wondering about those too and just haven't gotten it together to ask. Dr. VooDoo posted:So here’s the strap for my pin. You can see the end one, which unopened more, versus how they normally are. It seems like half of us are close enough together to share weather. Here in New York I've never felt the need to get a humidifier. If anything it's been really, really wet up here in the Northeast the last couple of weeks, geh? You should be fine unless we get a prolonged drought or you're doing something insane like storing your case by a wood stove. Anyway, that strap : you can't really uncut something, but there must be ways to close that up a little more. (Leaving aside just getting a new one, but it's not like straps are expensive so it's good to keep in mind.) If I was you, I'd put the peg through the hole and then cinch shut the narrower part you opened up with just some strong black thread : it'll stay on good, it definitely won't damage anything, and it's an attachment point if you wanted to put in a decorative element. But I'm a bit extra and have a gently caress off colorful skull on my case and only take my strap off to change strings, so maybe I shouldn't be anyone's role model. Planet X posted:I have an Eastman 315, and I love it. Dukes Mayo Clinic posted:
What is up, Eastern Seaboard Eastman Pals. I have been consistently very, very happy ever since I switched over from my old Lloar. I can't get enough of the sound and it's just that tiny bit bigger so it fits my stupid shovel hands easier. Did take me a second to get used to how strings are attached at the tail though. I might have spent a while trying to take a cover off that was definitely just the tailpiece and some strings were lost. Now I'm used to it and it's faster than ever, but that first time was weird lol.
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Oct 17, 2022 17:42
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Dumb technique question : If I’m in first position and doing a slide from the second fret to the 4th fret, how much does it matter which finger I use? Right now it varies depending on what I’m doing next : mostly it’s my middle finger so I wind up ending still in first, if I’m switching to second position anyway I use my index and then there are some weird in-between edge cases I don’t know. Basically I’m working on a version of St Anne’s Reel where I do an E ==> F# on the D string, but right after I want my ring finger still near the fifth fret so the easiest way is to kind of scrunch my hand and do the slide with my index and then if I open back up I’m perfectly positioned for the G-B double stop right after. Which seems really natural but I’m worried I’m making my garbage technique even worse. Did that make any sense at all?
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Nov 2, 2022 01:35
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Dr. VooDoo posted:Are there any good videos or pictures on how to properly fret/hood a mandolin. I’ve started to take lessons but I’m having an issue where if I’m doing a more complex one my finger is slightly dampening a neighboring string by mistake. I’ve searched online and some people say it’s a common issue starting out and as you build calluses and firm up your finger tips it’ll happen less but I just wanna be sure I’m not having like a horrible grip or anything Mandolessons and David Benedict, both on youtube, have multiple detailed videos where they talk about this. I think both are called something very obvious like "how to hold a mandolin". But my stupid giant shovel paws can attest that also, no you really do get better with time and lots of build up on your calluses. Also really focusing on the angle of the grip helped, I have a sloppy habit of letting my palm drift parallel to the fretboard like playing a guitar.
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Nov 9, 2022 08:29
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I'd been waiting for someone else to come along so this wouldn't be a double-post (sorry), but this tune library is really good if you have an interest in Irish music. It's got... O gently caress if I know how many tunes. The number is measured in thousands, that I can tell. It's a lot. Just tunes arranged by type (reel, jig, hornpipe, barndance, air, waltz, polka, mazurka(!), slides, slip jigs, some schottisches, etc) with the full sheet music, tabs and at least one, often two, audio recording(s) so you can listen/get a feel. Plus links to thesessions.org or history of the tune and other names. Indexed alphabetically by tune type at the beginning and then also just in a huge alphabetized list. It's a lot. When I'm in the mood I've been kind of just trawling through until I find something I'm either familiar with or just sounds catchy and it's a pretty good time. A lot of the tunes are more tummy-feels than as written on the page, but welcome to the joys of trad music. Current ones that are just fun to play : Christmas Eve, Cowboy Jig, Tom's Blue Boat, The Orphan, O'Neill's March.
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Nov 16, 2022 20:05
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Coohoolin posted:For an E to F# slide I'd use the middle finger, as that's the finger you'd want to end up with on your F# in D major. What notes are you playing immediately after the F#? Third fret G and second fret B or fifth fret G and fourth fret B? The latter. Which I guess seems kind of silly now that I'm thinking about it.
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Nov 22, 2022 20:02
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barclayed posted:i don’t really have a question but i’d just like to leave here that after 6 years of playing the ukulele left handed (strings mirrored) i am actually putting forth a decent effort to learn how to play a mandolin ‘correctly’ (right-handed) because oh wow does it sound not great when you strum with the highest string up top and i don’t feel like getting it restrung. hooray! I'm not in charge of the thread, but I really appreciate other people sharing their on-going progress. Makes me feel less like I'm a unique incompetent because I just assume this comes naturally to everyone else lol. I'm finally getting semi-comfortable with basic ornamentation, so I'm actually playing like double stop slides that don't sound like butt (sometimes, if I'm lucky). And holy crap that's a lot harder on my left hand. I can do like an hour or two and then it just nopes the gently caress out for the day because it's that annoying kind of tension-sore clumsy.
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Feb 25, 2023 21:20
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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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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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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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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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D’Addario.
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Apr 24, 2023 03:11
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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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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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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: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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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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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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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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