Stumbling Toward Competence

Back from vacation, and a few outstanding questions have been answered. One, it takes only two practice sessions until you can noticeably tell the callouses are rebuilding. Two, going from 85F to 0F can depress your immune system (*cough*).

My last blog entry provoked more response than any other, centering around this comment:

The biggest problem I have had before is that my background is not from bluegrass, and learning a new genre of music when learning an instrument is counter productive (too much all at once). So, whereas I will continue to pick fiddle tunes, I will also spend more time on the music I grew up with and love, and see where the instrument and music fit together. And we'll see.

My point was not "bluegrass sucks" or anything of the sort, but that when learning a new instrument, learning entirely new genres of music might be a step beyond for many of us (especially us older players with more crystallized neural pathways, as one message I received pointed out). For the beginner, sticking with music you already know and love might be the better approach, at least early on, to minimize discouragement and ensure a longer term relationship with the mandolin. Plus, the mandolin can play any sort of music. Its a versatile little instrument.

That said, not all music is equal from a pedagogical standpoint. In my case, I grew up with punk/post punk/hardcore, which is very much chordal and not melody based. Sticking with this music would really have limited my development as a mandolin player. Fiddle tunes, while repetitive, are really great learning tools because they are simple melodies with simple structure; for working out the basics of music, nothing beats the AABB structure with the 1-4-5 progression. Plus, if one wants to play with others, its best to have a common language, and for better or worse, for the mandolin that is the Appalachian filtered music of Ireland and Britain we call bluegrass and old time.

I was fortunate that when I first started, a supportive and very experienced player set me up with a LOT of study material: about 50 CDs of the best mandolin music ever recorded, plus the TablEdit files on MandoZine. As a new feature on my blog, I will review many of these "must haves". Hopefully others out there will discover some new gems as a result.

I am continuing my efforts to play what I know, with this outstanding tutorial for R.E.M.'s Losing my Religion. Here is a full version of the tune, from a show I attended in downtown Toronto a few years back...
[YOUTUBE="L_XFMCgeI7c"][/YOUTUBE]