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It the single best sounding mandolin I've had in my hands.

Weber makes very nice ovals, and also check out Old Wave for GREAT oval hole instruments.

Mona Steel (Gibson Sam Bush)

Gail makes very good stuff!

1 the A5 Loar
2 Reichmans F5 Loar
3 1980 Gilchrist F5
4 a lot of other very good mandolins!

You are probably thinking of double stops where the melody is very recognizable. The PDF book I wrote called "Bluegrass Mandolin: Creating and Using Double Stops" covers this extensively. You can...

Just fixed a few mistakes in the Swing to Bop transcription. Had the chords in a couple of places reversed from what they should be.

It is interesting to listen to the comping on Charlies solo. ...

I have two sounds I look for.

1) Wes Montgomery on "The Incredible Jazz Guitar of" recording. I come pretty close with a 66 Ampeg Gemini II and a Jonathan Mann EM4 or EM5. I use Thomastic...

Also just added a Charlie Christian transcription of Swing to Bop, which is the chord changes to Topsy. One of the great solos where you can hear the beginnings of the bebop language.
...

Here are some lessons recently added at www.Jazz-Mandolin.com

Added IIm7 V7 I Maj7 chord voicing lesson using Miles Davis’ “Tune Up”
http://www.jazz-mandolin.com/II%20V%20I%20tune%20up.html


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First and foremost is knowing what you want to sound like. Then find the gear and more importantly playing technique that delivers that sound.

Greens jazz version is wonderful.

Sorry, hate to be a smart @$$ but the answer is practice regularly. It always helps with scales and arpeggios to do much more than play them straight up and down. After you can do that, learn as...

I'll propose something different:

I find that every teaching day, I have to keep tuning my mandolins sharper to stay in standard pitch both my Gil and especially my A2. They go a bit flat as I...

576x is both a rootless F7 and a rootless F# dim. If you want a different sound, move it up 3 or down 3 frets.

I am assuming 576x are the notes C, A, Eb.

F7 = F A C Eb
F#dim = F# A C Eb (D#)

Wow, and I complain at the stretch of the extra inch on my 5 string! I'm pretty sure these were made with the Band in a Box real tracks on one of the trio styles. I tend to use those styles most...

I just added two new instruction articles on general Jazz and specifically Bebop improvisation.

1) Chords in a Key
2) Common Bebop Phrase 1

You can find these on the Improvisation page at...

This is how a Performing Arts doc taught me how to hold a mandolin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qdkkgBQjuc&list=UU2VamdKibzoYkks5tvUqJgA&index=17

Just discovered this site. A whole bunch of standard Jazz tunes with play along videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Learnjazzstandards/videos?view=0

Old Gibson A's are very plentiful and now is as good as any time to buy one. In the past year, I've found 3 very good ones for students under $1000.00. Bide your time and find a good inexpensive...

Hi Tom,

What you described are all common variations guitar and piano players add to basic drop 2 voicings. In all music, do what sounds best to YOUR ear!
:mandosmiley:

Andy you have everything correct except one thing. Chord melody puts the melody on TOP, so think of the sound top down instead of the way you described it, bass note up. It makes a lot more sense...

By the way, thanks for all the nice comments! Makes the time invested all worth it.

For the 130 you probably get the basic version. It sounds MUCH better if you spring for the real tracks. Check out PG musics web site and listen to the demos.

I have owned BiaB since it first...

Because music is so mental, we can work on ANY of that side of things when we can't play.

1) Learn anything you want by ear by singing it out loud, very slowly.
2) If you are an improviser sing...