Nuggets of advice... and noodling!

[Gerry Hastie]

Is noodling an oft pastime when you pick up your mandolins?

I'm half watching a film, surfing the net with about four windows open and waiting for today's football ('soccer' not American football) to kick-off. I suppose I'm doing my version of multi-tasking and that invariably includes noodling away on the mandolin.

Anytime that I've met a professional mandolin player and searched for that nugget of advice that will revolutionise my playing by osmosis a few have said to avoid noodling and learn stuff properly.

It must depend on how disciplined you are to know when you're noodling or doing serious woodshed but honestly how much of us spend too much time noodling and what has been that 'nugget of advice' that has changed your playing?

The other question may even be: How useful is noodling?!

(The missus just brought me a coffee, how nice!~o))

[Michael Gowell]

I discover new licks by noodling.

[EarlG]

I don't really noodle. I'd rather work on a new tune. My mandolin teacher does say I should just put my fingers down on the fretboard and see what happens some times.

[OldSausage]

I think it depends how you define noodling, but here's what I found: when I've spent a lot of time playing things slowly or playing things I can already play well, or without focusing, I don't progress. It's only by actively striving to improve my speed and play things that are very hard for me to play that my playing improves.

It's all very well discovering a new lick or something, but I have found learning licks and scales is child's play compared to the difficulty of improving my technique to the point where I can play these licks and scales with good tone at speed and use them in an improvisation or in a band situation.

[Charley wild]

I tend to noodle a lot. When I'm watching TV or whatever. Sometimes I do it creatively. I'll take a run I've made up or have copied and noodle around with it to see if I can come up with useful variations. Any lick has a key note or key notes that identify it. I try to substitute other notes to see what happens. A minor for a major third, or, or.... I do it almost passively so I include it in the general description of noodling.. So there are different types of noodling for me. Both types are fun.:)

[montana]

I try to practice everyday. Learn new material or new tunes. After I have a new tune memorized I write it down on an index card and lots of times I just play through the cards while doing other things(TV ect). It's noodling but also reinforcing your repitore.

[JeffD]

Noodling is one of the joys of owning a mandolin. I do it when ever I can.

I do not confuse it with practicing however.

[sgarrity]

I noodle around and I play tunes. I don't know that I've ever sat down and actually "practiced." I'll take a chord shape and noodle around on it. Or I'll take part of a tune and noodle on that, coming up with variations. It's really helped me get a better understanding of the fingerboard. Lots of room for improvement though!

[acousticnotes]

I once took a guitar class which was titled "Noodling". I think it is very useful especially when it comes to song writing. Now you have your TV type noodling but you can also have a more serious noodling session where you get more locked into it. Both types are useful in my opinion as I believe they use different parts of the brain.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Not to interfere with mindless time structuring, but I have found that noodling while watching the tube is counter productive unless it entails accompanying whatever sounds are emanating from the tube.

It seems that, for me, there is still a need for a bit of discipline if real learning is going to occur. Playing to play by play banter or stand up doesn't seem to provide much of a learning opportunity 'cause my listening is interfered with and mistakes or poor technique go unnoticed by my brain but not by my muscle memory.

The only exception seems to be the History Channel and HGTV.

[cedarhog]

When I read this topic I was instantly reminded of my dog's obedience class. This class is a non treat choker collar correction class. They say that if I train the dog on leash for a year I will be able to throw all the collars, leashes and other training stuff away. Anytime I want the dog to do something and she is doing it then starts to wander in her mind and drift from the task your suppose to give quick correction jerk and they get right back to the task at hand. I am that dog on the mandolin......I start a task of learning what is good to train myself....then my mind wanders and I start to go off task and noodle.....its fun to noodle but I don't think it is best for me. I need a mandolin choker collar that can be jerked when I get off task so I can truly learn what I should so what I learn has meaning and can teach me how to expand my musical horizons.

[acousticnotes]

Cedarhog,

I thought you were a Pig not a Dog:))

[Rob Powell]

I guess my form of practice often takes the noodling approach. I play along with Butch, Sam and Nickel Creek as well as some reso guys like Andy Hall and Ivan Rosenberg. Sometimes I try to copy the lead lines but more often than not, I noodle out a harmony or counterpoint. I've actually improved more noodling than trying to copy.

I have a number of instructional dvd's that I play along with to learn the gist of a song. I also joined bluegrasscollege.org which I highly recommend as you get video and jam tracks at various speeds.

Wake Frankfield says Big Mon told him to get his own style and I guess through my noodling I'm following that advice although the big difference is that Frank has a choice ;)

[Caleb]

I tend to shy away from noodlling if I can, though I still do at times. But noodling and just goofing around is what has made me (and kept me) a mediocre guitarist all these years. It made me undisciplined and a bit lazy, and I've never grown as a guitarist like I should have. So when I came to the mandolin I decided to be more disciplined and take a different approach. It's making a huge difference in my playing as well. YMMV.

[Ivan Kelsall]

I've found that serious practice ie.,really getting to grips with new stuff (tunes,technique etc.),can go easily side by side with 'noodling'. But thinking about it,my noodling is 'serious stuff' anyway. I try to figure ways to play tunes in a more simple manner re.fingering ie. where the notes are & where they sound best - on an open string or a fretted lower string. Often i'll see if i can come up with a new break to a tune that i know - literally, whatever takes my fancy to do,
Ivan

[farmerjones]

i have to admit, i noodle a bit when i first pick up an instrument, to restore the connection from fingertips to brain.
But other than that, it's like speaking in incomplete sentences at best. It's almost impossible to have a musical conversation with somebody that speaks in fits and starts or streaming gibberish. When you get to the jam or gig, how you mesh, will determine if your home regimen is good or bad.

[Neil Morris]

I'd have to say I mostly noodle.

The music I play in my band is mostly our own instrumental stuff and what I play is strategically structured but tactically improvised, by which I suppose I mean I know where I'm going in a tune but maybe don't quite know how I'm going to get there until I actually play the notes 'on the fly'.

Maybe although our music is basically folky sounding, we're playing it from a jazz perspective... but therein lies a whole other discussion :)

I tend to listen to all kinds of music and just try to play along with it as I find this helps with my improvisational ability. I regard this as noodling.

We do, however, do a few 'proper' folk tunes and these I do sit down and learn properly as I think I need a clear picture of the tune in my head before deviating from it - otherwise it's not the same tune, just an improvisation over the chords of that tune.

Neil