Learning the Notes

[Emmiemando]

I am just learning notes on my mando and am getting impatient. I know, it takes time. But do any of you have any good tips on learning?

[mandodebbie]

The Mel Bay book I have at home "Teach Yourself Mandolin" has a section illustrating the frets to be pressed in co-respondence to the notes you would encounter in sheet music. Now, as far as reading written music, remember E very G ood B oy D eserves F udge for the notes on the bars reading from bottom to top and F A C E for the notes in the spaces also read from the bottom to the top.I hope this helps.(I am obviously in the process of teaching myself mandolin.)

[mandodebbie]

Mandodebbie here again. Umm ... I don't think that really helped you at all. The best way to learn notes is to just keep practicing, preferably while learning to read music. Buy song books with stuff you already know. Heck, borrow a hymn book from church. The more you play the better you will get. Before you know it you will be able recognize an E from a D, etc. Every thing does take time. Remember, it's like watching grass grow...it will eventually be tall enough to mow. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Dfyngravity]

Try this, it helped me. When playing scales, exercises, tunes ect...name the note your are playing out loud. If you are playing a song, play it very slow and name each note until the end of the song. And make sure you are looking at each fret you are playing so you associate the fret with the note. Also make sure you are doing the tunes, exercises, and scales all the way up the neck or in different positions so that way you learn the notes on the fretbroad all the way up the neck. If you are learning to site read then sit down and look at the music. And go through it once or twice without playing it. Just look at it and out loud read all the notes. Then play it doing the same(read the notes out loud). Before long you will know it like the back of your hand. Well it worked for me and I hope it does for you too.

[Rroyd]

Dfyngravity makes some excellent points, one of the most important being saying the notes out loud.
That might seem a bit "corny," but it reinforces what you (hopefully) are thinking, and keeps you from "cheating" and "glossing over" what you are supposed to be learning. I can assure you that verbalizing those note names will help you to learn to read far more quickly. You can quit saying them out loud when you can accurately and instantly recognize and play them.

[JimD]

All excellent suggestions.

Consider this:
There are two separate but related issues here. One is recognizing the notes on the page and the other is knowing where to find them on the instrument. Sometimes it helps to isolate the two skills.

For note recognition, I use a similar approach to that mentioned by Dfyngravity. Read the notes without the instrument -- simply naming them. (don't forget to say sharp or flat where appropriate...) This is a tried and true method.

For learning the locations on the instrument, try the following:
Choose a single note name (for example "b") and find all the locations of this pitch on your instrument.

for B:
4th course (string pair): frets IV and XVI
3rd course: frets IX and XXI
2nd course: frets II and XIV
1st course: frets VII and XIX

This may be obvious but notice that the higher one on each course is 12 frets above the lower and sounds the pitch one octave higher.

Now, with a metronome (slowly at first) play these from the 4th course to the 1st and back down several times while repeating the name of the pitch each time you play it. The metronome keeps you"honest". Eventually you'll want to do this just fast enough so that it becomes a reflex (i.e. you think "b" and your finger goes to the right spot.)

Don't torture yourself by spending hours doing this. Great results can be achieved with a few minutes each day. I tell my students to use this as a warm up that will focus the mind for practice as well as the fingers.

I have my beginning students take a new pitch each week and my advanced students, a new one each day. For the flats and sharps, make sure that you practice them thinking of both names. (go through twice -- once for the flat name and once for the sharp name.

Don't stop doing those you already learned. Let your practice of these "accumulate". My prefered order to play them in is the circle of fifths: C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, B, E, A, D, G, C. To explain why would take another post.

Again, this shouldn't take long. A few minutes at the beginning of every practice session. Even when you are doing all 12 notes, it should take less than 5 minutes. I still run through these a few times a week (and I have been playing for a LONG time) partly to focus and perhaps partly out of superstition. This type of practice has made me a very good sight reader and has improved every aspect of my playing from memorizing to improvising.

One more thing. This knowledge can be built upon for chords, scales etc. It is the beginning step for a thorough knowledge of the mandolin's fingerboard.

There are only 12 different pitches so... in several days to several weeks you can be very intimate with your fingerboard.

[TommyK]

First and foremost: PATIENCE!
Rome wasn't built in a day, You didn't learn to read Moby Dick in a day either.
First you had to learn your letters, then phonics and a lotta, lotta vocabulary and grammar.
Consider this; there are 26 letters and a whole book full of words in Websters, http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif but there are only 12 musical notes from A to G#. .
Give yourself TIME. If you get frustrated. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif Put it down and go do something else.
Above all HAVE FUN! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif