What and how are you learning what you're learning?

[Gerry Hastie]

What tunes/songs are people working on right now?

I'm interested in:
a) How long you've played for?
b) How do you approach learning new material?
c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch?
d) How much do you practice each day?
e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo?
f) Any other relevant issues?

Don't feel you have to answer all of the above. I'm just interested in how folks go about doing their mando.

[desaljs]

Gerry,

I am a relative newbie on the mandolin. What I decided to do is the following:

1- Bert Casey DVD, book, and playalong CD. Start at the beginning and work through the songs and technique. I started playing several months ago.
2- Being a family man, with a full time job, and kids to take care of, limits my practice time (I play guitar too). My goal is to have a mandolin or guitar in my hands for at least 30 min/day, which is way less time than I need.
3- I am not using a metromone, but the playalong CD works very well to keep my timing honest.
4- I will not move on to new material until I have something solidly down. I am not too concerned with speed at this point, with my goal to play cleanly up to 70 -80 bpm.
5- Other issues: I love to tinker with my instruments, change strings, fuss over intonation and things like that. Sometimes to the detriment of practice time, but it is fun and I don't care!
6- I have a copy of FFcP, but won't start on that until I am done with Bert Casey.

Jim D

[Keith Erickson]

a) How long you've played for?

Mandolin going on 6 years. I have only 4 months on the mandocello

b) How do you approach learning new material?

...with an open mind

c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch?

It depends on what I am learning. In our church choir, it takes no more than the allotted practice time. There are also times when I want to learn something that is not church choir related. For such occassions, I just pop in the CD and play and replay.

d) How much do you practice each day?

Not enough :(

e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo?

No I do not use a metronome.

f) Any other relevant issues? Not that I can think of now :popcorn:

[Rick Schmidlin]

a) How long you've played for? 4 1/2 years
b) How do you approach learning new material? Listening to music, learning from books DVD,s
c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch? three weeks or more
d) How much do you practice each day? 3 hours a day
e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo? Sometimes ,60 onward
f) Any other relevant issues? Keep on pickings and play a good mandolin

[Rick Schmidlin]

What tunes/songs are people working on right now?

I'm interested in:
a) How long you've played for?
b) How do you approach learning new material?
c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch?
d) How much do you practice each day?
e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo?
f) Any other relevant issues?

Don't feel you have to answer all of the above. I'm just interested in how folks go about doing their mando.

and your answers?

[JeffD]

I set the metronome slow enough that I can get the tune perfect. If I make a mistake, I slow it down a notch or two, until I don't.

Then I go up one notch. I play at that speed until the tune is perfect.

Repeat as necessary.

[Gerry Hastie]

Tone Monster asked for my answers. He looks like a cat so I'd better do as I'm told.

a) How long playing for? Owned a mando for 3 years +, serious pickin for last 2 years.
b) How do I approach new material? There's three bits to this. There stuff for the band I'm in to learn, stuff for the duo i'm in to learn and stuff that I just want to learn. Generally that means I'm working on 3-4 different things all the time as well as rehearsals. Currently I'm working up a solo for the song Leaving of London (Tom Paxton). It's in Bb and so to get some ideas I looked at a few tunes in Bb/Gm. I start with humming the melody over the chords, playing the tune on mando and taking it from there really and then add a good liberation of double-stops/tremolo. I've been learning New Camptown Races for the duo and I'm learning the Ronnie McCoury DVD one track a time, Quicksburg Rendezvous is next!
c)It would normally take two to three weeks to get up to scratch. Start slow, watch the pick direction/right hand and go back over sticky bits very slowly and often.
d) I might get at least one hour of good practice every day at home. Band practice is once a week for at least 3 hours and my duo, we meet up when we can and have a reasonable library of stuff we do that gradually gets added to.
e) I'm interested in other people thoughts on metronomes. It was very distracting for me at first and I then thought "I need to practice playing with a metronome!" Which I did and it's now easier. I don' t use it as much as I should but usually I start at 80 bpm and work up in increments of 5. I read an interview with Andy Leftwich and that 's what he does. He says he plays a new tune 10 times without mistakes before increasing tempo.
f) Any other issues? I listen to loads of recorded mandolin music and especially recordings of tunes I'm learning - I try to listen to fiddle parts too. In my part of the world we don't get many bluegrass bands coming around so when they come I'm always keen to see another mandolin player do his stuff and I've just met someone who plays bluegrass mandolin and have jammed with him a few times, he's a good player. I buy books of tablature - not just to learn the tunes but to help 'see' different keys in different positions.

That's enough.~o):)

[Jill McAuley]

a) I play Irish trad stuff, started playing mandolin & tenor banjo in July '07 (previously played guitar in punk bands for 25+ years)

b) listening to tunes I like and figuring them out by ear/ books & DVDs - CDs/ had 10 months worth of lessons on the tenor banjo before I moved to the States.

c) takes about 2-3 weeks to get a tune up to scratch, but I'm always working on ornamentation and variations.

d) practice about 2 hours daily during the week, and 3-4 hours daily on weekends, though it doesn't feel like practice per se because I just can't seem to put my Flatiron down!

e) don't have a metronome.

Cheers,
Jill

[Richard Moore]

a) How long you've played for?

Around 45 years

b) How do you approach learning new material?

I listen to the piece a few times until its firmly in my mind. Then I'll play it through a few times and compare it with the original. Perhaps repeat this stage. Then I'll spend some more time putting my own interpretation on it (I don't particularly like to copy not-for-note or nuance).

c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch?

That very much depends on the piece and its complexity and my familiarity with the style. Anything from 5 minutes to a year (or never)! There are some pieces I can get a mental block with (sometimes even if they are theoretically not too hard).

d) How much do you practice each day?

I might spend half an hour running through new pieces and another hour just noodling.

e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo?

No. Have never used a metronome.

f) Any other relevant issues?

I'm very much a learn by ear type and very rarely look at dots or tablature. Sometimes I can hear a tune I've never played before and more or less play it back on the mandolin straight away. I think that's one of the advantages of playing by ear.

[Frank Johnson]

a) How long you've played for? Playing mandolin four months: since Jan 1st.


b) How do you approach learning new material? Learning tabulature with a Bert Casey primer, looking at the book to get familiar with where the tune goes, then using the companion CD (with practice tracks) to get up to speed. I like the option of starting at 50 bpm with the songs I don't know well and moving up to 60, 72, 86, or 100 as I get more familiar with each tune. I can play a couple at 100 and others are somewhere in between.


c) How long does it take to get a new piece up to scratch? Dunno yet! But am purty good on the basic starter tunes (Worried Man Blues and Wildwood Flower, for example).


d) How much do you practice each day? At least an hour. I'll run through some scales, then play tunes I can play without looking a the book, then start picking out the next tune by looking at the book. After I get the basics of a new tune down it will go on the list of tunes to practice, using the practice CD and not looking at the tabs so I can get up to speed on it. Then I'll use the book to start learning the next tune. Don't know how long I'll keep that up, but it's working well for me right now.


e) Do you use a metronome and if so what bpm do you start at before reaching desired tempo? Don't use a metronoe per se, but the practice CD is a good alternative, and gives me the added bonus of hearing the lead on the CD as I play along with it. After going through the tune with the manolin playing lead, it has only the rhythm. (That also lets me work on chords and helps me get my timing down for jumping in with the lead.)

No other issues, but the first thing I do when I pick the mandolin up is make sure it's in tune. Before I quit I'll often start picking out something not in the book (like Alabama Jubilee, Amazing Grace, or something else that pops into my head). Is that what they call "noodling"?

[chordbanger]

I have been playing guitar for a long time, since I was a teenager. I have recently became interested in classical guitar, and have an excellent teacher, and once a week, I get a 1/2 hour lesson with him. I also take violin lessons once a week. I can read tabulature or sheet music. I practice every day, sometimes for hours and hours. I use a metronome sometimes, but it is better for me to practice music with a guitar player who is able to keep the beat for me. I just learned Whiskey Before Breakfast by the notes first, then memorized it.

[thrax0831]

I tend to be disorganized in my practice but; I'm working with e Complete Mandolinist (Maureen Mair); picking out tunes from the Mandolin Fakebook; working on Mineola Rag, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Napolean Crosses the Alps; the Boys from ???
But the Complete Mando.....is firmly in there. Thats's for technique and a metronome is KEY

[Rick Schmidlin]

I tend to be disorganized in my practice but; I'm working with e Complete Mandolinist (Maureen Mair);
But the Complete Mando.....is firmly in there. Thats's for technique and a metronome is KEY

I love that book more then the morning news and the late night news also.

[woodwizard]

My aproach to practice time is sort of a give yourself a house concert thing a lot of the time. I make it fun. I have about 100 or so tunes on a list and just go down the list pretending I'm doing a private house concert thing. Guess I have a pretty good imaginaton. :) The ones I stumple a little on I'll spend more time on. It's a good way to keep brushed up ... you know keeping them in your memory. Now for new tunes I'm learning... I play by ear alot so I listen to recordings and tab helps to get me there as well as midi files that you can slow down or speed up to any speed. Guess I use the midi's like a metronome. I also play along with recordings at times. I practice from 30 minutes to 6 hours a day ...it just depends on my schedule and how I feel. Most of the time it's 1 to 3 hours. The time it takes to get a new tune down and up to speed depends on how complicated it is. Most of the time I can get a tune working for me in a day or two ...sometimes many days and sometimes just minutes. The key to me is to make it injoyable. That's easy for me because I really love it. I just wish I had more people to pick with. :mandosmiley: