Bach, the Mandolin, and Thile/Marshall

[Darren]

In the discussions regarding the Mandolin Symposium awhile back it was mentioned that Chris Thile and Mike Marshall are big proponents of learning Bach. Did they elaborate as to why they feel this way?

[siren_20]

Chris said at the Bach master class (and I quote):
"Playing Bach will make you a better person."

[DMC]

I got Mel Bay's Bach for Mandolin Book/CD set.

Don't know if it will make you a better person (!) but it will certainly make you a better player. I have only started to listen to Bach since I got the Mel Bay book and at first his music did nothing for me. But it grows on you, believe me......

HIs melodies seem to range from beautifully simple to very complex. His choice of notes will really get your fingers working - it's done wonders for my dexterity and precision. Some of it seems almost jazzy......not sure if that's the right word...

I've also found that I automatically focus hard on good intonation, fluidity, sustain etc. probably because I only ever play this stuff solo so there's nowhere for your technique to hide : )

I think Bach wrote a lot of music for the violin, cello and lute and so much of this can be adapted for the mandolin. Some of his marches and bourees are not too difficult and may be a good place to start.

Oh and your cross-picking capabilities will go through the roof. Not Jesse Mc Reynolds banjo-style cross-picking. But I mean when you are fretting 2 and 3 note chords (maybe with some open strings) and picking in vertical patterns across the strings, letting them all ring out....hard to explain but you know what I mean!

[sailaway]

I have been doing 2 J.S. Bach 2 part inventions as practice and can tell you (1) having to learn them by sight reading was slow and painful but certainly improved my sight reading (2) the 'patterns' of the inventions are a challenge, and really aid finger dexterity, particularly the 3-4 speed (3) the music is really cool and much more fun to play mindlessly than the Fischer exercises which are a bit of a bore. . . I think several of the Johann Sebastian Bach the inventions are tabbed out for mando on alltabs.com. Invention in C and Invention in F are particularly good on mandolin. And maybe if some other people learn to play them we can do them as 'Two Part inventions, becase as originally written , the right hand (on harpschichord or piano ) plays part 1 and the left hand echos the right, an octave lower , playing the 'echo.' http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif