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Mandolin Cafe Blog

Official blog of the Mandolin Cafe

  1. Searching for items that have sold on the Classifieds

    A brief tutorial on how to search the Classifieds for items that have sold. Because we like viewing measurable information, it's fun to see what is selling or has sold. Many, but certainly not all sellers mark the item as such to prevent having to address additional replies.

    Through some programming, any time the word Sold or sold appears in the title of the ad it's automatically changed to upper case SOLD, the idea that it stands out better in upper case. By using the Cafe's Advanced Search ...

    Updated Nov-20-2016 at 10:39am by Scott Tichenor

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  2. A David Baker Perpetual Motion jazz exericse

    Looking for some free brain food to boost your jazz playing? Here's one, and the price is right. But you'll pay, yes, you'll pay to get this one under your fingers. I've been playing it off and on for over 20 years.

    Download it here:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    I was discussing this with some musician friends recently and they requested a copy, so after digging it out I thought, why not share it here?

    I didn't personally write this exercise ...

    Updated Oct-27-2016 at 10:12pm by Mandolin Cafe

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    General Mandolin Comments
  3. Make a million dollars building mandolins!

    "Psst, hey meester. Over here. Want make million bucks? Build mandolins, guitars, banjos!"

    Words posted in a discussion awhile back haven't stopped ringing in my ears. Sadly, they went unchallenged. To paraphrase, so you don't run out to Google it -- some of you will regardless -- when discussing changes at Weber recently (now under the Two Old Hippies ownership) a member angrily declared, "Weber Mandolins now exists for nothing other than the sole purpose of making the Two Old Hippies ...
  4. Images for Classifieds now uploadable from iPhone

    Over the weekend with a little bit of coding I was able to configure it so that images can be uploaded to the Classifieds with an iPhone. Other types of phones, sorry, don't have one so can't test and don't know if it works but happy to discuss over email or here with you.

    What I can't tell you: if you are not using a newer version of the Apple operating system on your phone I can't guarantee this works, and honestly don't know what versions will, but I can probably tell you how to ...

    Updated Apr-11-2016 at 10:56am by Scott Tichenor

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  5. Slowing Down YouTube Videos Without Software

    A recent video posted by the very fine mandolin player David Benedict reminded us of a YouTube feature many are probably not aware of. Once in awhile you're going to run into an arrangement of a piece of music you'd like to learn but it's played at a speed that's beyond what your ears and brain can handle.

    Solution:

    YouTube has a feature built right into the video where you can slow the audio down to half and quarter speeds while the pitch is retained. It couldn't ...

    Updated Jan-05-2016 at 4:55pm by Scott Tichenor

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    General Mandolin Comments
  6. Entering The Golden Age of Online Music Education

    If there's one thing obvious about 2015, it was a year that really marked the true beginning of a golden age of online learning via video lessons for those of us that apply pick or fingers to strings. We, the mandolin public, eager to learn, we're the winners.

    ArtistWorks has been at it for awhile now, and really led the way with a new educational outlet for mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle and other stringed instruments. The candle on the Peghead Nation one-year birthday cake is barely ...

    Updated Dec-29-2015 at 4:03pm by Scott Tichenor

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  7. Air Canada announces new flying with an instrument options

    Air Canada has announced the following restructuring for musicians flying with an instrument and have updated their web site. We can only hope this is the start of a trend for other airlines to follow, particularly in light of Southwest Airlines recently breaking two double basses in one week. More...

    From Air Canada's Musical Instruments page:

    If you wish to purchase a seat for your musical instrument, you will receive a 50% discount on any published fare (including ...

    Updated Sep-25-2015 at 1:06pm by Scott Tichenor

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  8. The Wisdom of Google

    Bear with a minute. Your ability to find information on the internet should be better. Sounds like a huckster's opening line in a spam email, doesn't it?

    First, a story that I know everyone can relate to:

    A few days ago I went onto a large social media and review site I post on, in the top 150 of ALL internet sites (not Facebook, whose search function is one of the worst on the internet). I was hunting for a resource I'd reviewed months back. In spite of the fact I ...
  9. Create your own custom mandolin patent art

    Recently a web site specializing in U.S. Patent information made into posters came to our attention. Patents Wall Art Decor's music instrument category has some 50+ historic instruments in it including six banjo posters and plenty of guitars and other stringed instruments. Cool, I'm thinking. Any mandolin posters? Sadly, no. Waaaaaaa.

    So what the heck. You could make your own, or pay between $24.99 and $169.99 for one of theirs. They customize theirs with speciality fonts as headers. ...
  10. New Mandolin Cafe Navigation Scheme

    You may have noticed, long overdue in our opinion, we've altered the main navigation structure at the top of every page for the entire site.

    At one point we had nine navigational items across the top of every page. Ouch. Link overload from every usability study we've read. Our bad. And that was before we removed the "Home" link.

    --------------------------------------------

    Hint: click the big Mandolin Cafe logo at the top of any page to get to the ...

    Updated Sep-02-2015 at 8:47am by Scott Tichenor

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