Brand new picker

[jmikep10]

i am brand new to the mandolin, but i'v played violin for 10 years, guitar for about 5 and bass for about 2. my current status is a bass player that occasionally plays violin gigs. i'v always loved the mandolin, and decided to give it a try after i heard the strings were the same as the violin. so i'm just looking for general information on the mandolin and it's music. i love bluegrass, alot of jazz and blues, but i'm mainly into jam bands, like string cheese incident and phish. so i'd like to know some good mandolin songs, tequnique or theory books, anything you wish someone would have told you when you were a beginner. thanks
john

[John Flynn]

Welcome to the world of mandolins! With your background, you should learn very quickly.

Books: I like Andy Statman's book/CD, I think it is called "Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin." It teaches a lot of the basic bluegrass/old time tunes, it has both basic and advanced versions of each tune and the CD has backup tracks without the mandolin, so you can practice playing lead.

Things I wished I had known: Having a good setup on your mandolin is important. I think the short scale and high string tension make this more so than on other instruments. A good set up makes playing easier and really improves the tone.

[frets1]

Welcome brother!! Good new is, there are lots of great mando sites on the web. You are on the very best one. Best of all, they are FREEEEEEEEE!

Try these:

Mandolin Cafe Lessons (http://www.mandolincafe.com/download.html)

Folk of the Wood Lessons (http://folkofthewood.com/page3.htm#mando%20lessons)

Mandolin Tablature (http://www.alltabs.com/mandolin_tabs.php)


Practice - practice - practice

Hope these help. PICK HARD http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[keymandoguy]

Try to find jams in your area going to jams will teach you more in a much shorter time Let them know you are a newby most are willing to give you a lot of help. I never leaned how to chop till I went to a jam. I learned more in 6 months at jams than I did in 1 1/2 years solo http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

In the category of "things that I wish someone had told me"... well, more in the category of "things I wish I'd listened to"....

Pick direction and right hand in general. #Easy to develop bad habits, hard to break them.

[ira]

if you want to play jamband stuff, a few of the mandocrucian posts have helped me out. don't think of how you can fit the mandolin in, think about what function you want it to fill in the structure of the song, and you willfind that your transposing guitar, keyboard, etc... solos will be far better.

[Flowerpot]

Since you play the violin, you already know where the notes are located on the fingerboard. Therefore, I'd practice real hard on right hand technique. Avoid the temptation to use a thin pick (1.2mm to 1.5mm thickness will give a fuller tone). Work on pick grip; find a way to secure the pick without leaving a lot of tension in the right hand (try to relax the grip, just enough pressure to hold on). Use more wrist and less arm, and limit pick "travel" to the least neccessary to produce a note. Practice tremolo in double stops.

[jmikep10]

thanks everyone for all the help, one specific thing i need some help on....i realized today, playing around with a mandolin in a shop that i have no idea what mandolin players are supposed to play. i am an accomplished bass player round these parts, so i'm not used to playing over anyone, i'm used to being the backbone, keeping everything going, and making sure the tune stays going. i need some songs to listen to that define mandolin"ing". it's just basically a completely new concept for me, and i think i'll jus thave to get used to it, but i need songs that i can learn some basic soloing stuff from. any help is appreciated
john