jpfeifer
February 25th, 2009, 06:14 PM
Hi Everyone,
I have been bitten by the Mandolin bug after getting a mandolin as a birthday present this year. It's been fun learning some tunes and getting some picking technique on it.
If you're like me and have been playing guitar for a while, I would encourage you to pick up the Mandolin also. So much of your technique will transfer over directly. You just have to spend some time getting familiar with the tuning and adjusting to the tiny frets. It's also a really good workout for the right hand because you have to concentrate on using really even up/down strokes to get the right tone.
Part of the fun of this instrument is that the strings are tuned in 5ths from each other. This makes certain things much easier when you're playing scales. They tend to layout on the fret board in very even patterns. The other part is that you can easily create fast runs with really big interval jumps (it's kind of like cheating as comparted to guitar). But then other things are harder to do than guitar. Overall, it's a lot of fun.
Here is a clip from my favorite mandolin player at the moment. This guy plays with the group Nickel Creek.
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Here is another monster mandolin player, Marty Stuart. He has great timing and plays some very cool sounding bluegrass runs:
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-- Jim
I have been bitten by the Mandolin bug after getting a mandolin as a birthday present this year. It's been fun learning some tunes and getting some picking technique on it.
If you're like me and have been playing guitar for a while, I would encourage you to pick up the Mandolin also. So much of your technique will transfer over directly. You just have to spend some time getting familiar with the tuning and adjusting to the tiny frets. It's also a really good workout for the right hand because you have to concentrate on using really even up/down strokes to get the right tone.
Part of the fun of this instrument is that the strings are tuned in 5ths from each other. This makes certain things much easier when you're playing scales. They tend to layout on the fret board in very even patterns. The other part is that you can easily create fast runs with really big interval jumps (it's kind of like cheating as comparted to guitar). But then other things are harder to do than guitar. Overall, it's a lot of fun.
Here is a clip from my favorite mandolin player at the moment. This guy plays with the group Nickel Creek.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tu-62qWjaHw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tu-62qWjaHw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Here is another monster mandolin player, Marty Stuart. He has great timing and plays some very cool sounding bluegrass runs:
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UJiHlV5O_1w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UJiHlV5O_1w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
-- Jim