Since you have at least two instruments that use non-guitar tuning, you should probably invest in a decent tuner. I have a Korg AW-1 that I use for my double bass, and it was quite nice to just use...
Type: Posts; User: EggyToast
Since you have at least two instruments that use non-guitar tuning, you should probably invest in a decent tuner. I have a Korg AW-1 that I use for my double bass, and it was quite nice to just use...
I think theory is easiest when you can play along to hear the point the theory is trying to make. Say, practicing two octave scales and then delving into the modes is easier than just looking up...
Yes to 1 & 2; I think it's a matter of "best practices."
For 3, it's a little more complicated. I don't always leave my fingers further up the fretboard, but that's more due to lack of practice...
Mandocrucian, I would argue that most every culture is very musical. Most everyone hears music all around them, be it from a car driving by, a television, a live performance, or someone singing in...
Some people have hinted at this, but not said it frankly: Being able to read music is little different from being able to read a spoken language.
Every language has a rich oral history, with...
It really does come down to the luthier, though. Someone who really knows how to make an instrument could take plywood and make a better instrument than a hack with high quality tonewood.
I play...
I use tab when I'm first learning a song, if it's available, because it's so fast. But then I pull up the notation and match it up and play it that way. Notation is much richer, which is also why...
My first instrument is the double bass, which I started on when I was 25. Now I'm close to 30 and wanted something portable and at the other end of the spectrum, so I picked up a mandolin as well. ...
Your story is brief so you don't say if he continued to play more than the 4 measures, or said something about how much he had played, or if anyone said anything to him.
Regardless of the dude's...
Yeah, sgarrity hit it, the point moves with the person. You introduce something to any person, they will not understand the nuance and advantages of a "nicer" piece of whatever. That counts for...
3 months per song seems like a long time. Perhaps your approach is what your problem is. Even when I'm learning challening pieces on my other instrument, I compartamentalize so I'm learning it in...
I'm a dude who plays double bass so my fingers came to mandolin with plenty of strength, but it even took me a short while to get the correct pressure down. Not because you need strength, but...
Twitter is fine if you're looking for info that's simply being disemminated. I know some people who are really into it because they've hunted down some people who have similar interests, so they see...
This is a great resource... but did you have to use ComicSans? Ugh! ;D
The mandolin is actually a very good instrument for this purpose because it's not that loud. If you fiddle among a small group of people you're going to kill any conversation as the person to your...
For me it depends on the music. For a lot of music that mandolin typically appears in, I actually don't like listening to recorded songs. To me, a lot of "porch music" is just that, music that's...
No offense taken! It's something that I've been working on for the past year. I'm an adult learner for music; never played anything in school, and picked up double bass in 2005. After taking...
I think it's tragic that there are so many musicians here with wives who apparently don't want to hear them play!
For me, I was embarrassed to practice anything around my wife because I was...
Don't glue your bridge. Instead of the vibration going from the bridge to the surface wood, you add a layer of (probably inconsistent) glue into the equation. Furthermore, the tension from the...
For you guys worried about interior humidity, make sure you get a hygrometer. I've got a cheap thermometer/hygrometer that cost, I think, $10 at Target. Oh, here it is, $13: Holmes thermo & hygro....
That's also why cases are so important, even non-humidified ones. Taking any string instrument from a warm interior space to, say, 32F/0C outside is a good way to get a crack or bust a string. The...
Historically the notch was used to tell you where the bridge should go on string instruments. I can see why people making high-quality instruments would see them as relatively superfluous, or...
There's nothing wrong with humidifying, although the thing that kills instruments is a rapid change in humidity. In some cases, if you're moving your instruments around and they hit the outdoors or...
Seems like a waste of a good cat.
Well courses don't make any sense on a violin, really. But something like a hardanger fiddle, which of course exists, would probably be a sound similar to what you're possibly thinking about. It's...