s1m0n
Sep-04-2004, 10:00pm
So after a while of playing with the mandolin--chiefly melody, chiefly Irish--I've decided as an exercise to relearn a bunch of tunes using my baby finger on the seventh fret rather than playing the open string.
It is (of course) torture, but I'm gratified that I can do it at all. I came to this from longer-scale instruments like the bouzouki and tenor banjo. However, my question regards the extent to which this is in fact a useful thing to know, beyond the purely exercise aspect of strengthening my finger for high notes on the e string.
Is there anyone out there who makes substantial use of seventh fret notes in what violinists would call first position? When do you do it, and why? What kind of music are you playing at the time?
I seem to recall a shadowy tale of some BG giant (Monroe?) forcing his fiddler to learn to play without using open strings. I can't recall the reason, but I think it was for the tonal quality. Is that also true of a fretted instrument like mandolin?
It is (of course) torture, but I'm gratified that I can do it at all. I came to this from longer-scale instruments like the bouzouki and tenor banjo. However, my question regards the extent to which this is in fact a useful thing to know, beyond the purely exercise aspect of strengthening my finger for high notes on the e string.
Is there anyone out there who makes substantial use of seventh fret notes in what violinists would call first position? When do you do it, and why? What kind of music are you playing at the time?
I seem to recall a shadowy tale of some BG giant (Monroe?) forcing his fiddler to learn to play without using open strings. I can't recall the reason, but I think it was for the tonal quality. Is that also true of a fretted instrument like mandolin?