One Month In

[JeffD]

There is no role for doing what suits you best as a beginner, you need to establish the basics of good technique from the off because un-learning bad habits later on can really set you back. .

I agree. If I was told to do what suits me when I started I would have given up as soon as it got hard. The whole thing feels awkward at the beginning, and if you are going to exert super human effort and patience on the hard stuff it is best to be doing the hard stuff correctly.

That said it is more appreciated further on. In other words, best way to get started is to get started and not worry about getting everything right, because further down the road you are going to have to un-learn some bad habit or other, no matter how careful you are.

Get as much as right as you can, and go after it and have fun. Be thankful its not a fiddle, where you have to get so very much right just to sound offensive, and you will sound offensive for a year.

[fatt-dad]

Congratulations on your journey. Nice mandolin too.

My only advice to the video is to use the upstroke.

f-d

[CJoshuaV]

In what context does it teach that? If you mean in a chord that is entirely different thing - chords don't have the same rule. If you mean playing scales and melody, unless you are playing in alternate positions or some other things, for the most part the fifth fret is a third finger's responsibility. Or explained differently: this.

I just triple-checked. The book is very clear that for flat picking melody and scales I should use my pinkie on the fifth fret. I've been practicing with my ring finger, and I can get good tone, but my pinkie starts to cramp up after a while. Maybe I'm holding it wrong.

[MysTiK PiKn]

I have fairly long fingers; but my pinkie is relatively short. I insist on using it; and it almost cooperates - but it also compromises by flattening itself. So I have asked my pinkie to attempt using it's tip when it is able - and it does, I mean it attempts. And that's good; cos that's what I asked for. When I get kinda warmed up and like that, and play a little longer, the pinkie kinda gets a little better at dancing - only it's more like it's aiming - but that usually misses, so I just allow it to miss, and try again later.

I was thinking about one of the greatest musicians I have ever heard, and how he played a right handed guitar, left handed, and used his thumb all over the place, played with his teeth, and his tongue, lit his guitar on fire, played amazing solos, and thanked raving fans for their encouragement in the midst of all of the above - and in the midst of playing a certain anthem at the original Woodstock in 1969, in the middle of all that was happening there, and it was just crazy, tuned up one string that had gone a little flat due to the rigors to which he subjected his instrument. jimihendrix.

Which is another lesson - when tuning, always tune up, to the proper pitch - tuning down leaves slack in the strings, which will 'settle' and go flat. Tuning is important. As is Your technique. But I just don't care. Set my people free to create.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was unpopular and harshly criticized for his style in his symphony compositions. When I listen to Beethoven's 5th, I hear an angry young man beating on a drum. I swear he beat on the entire orchestra. He just didn't do it right. And his dad used to make him play for his drunken friends - now how did that work? Pure emotion maybe? I get feelings from music, and pictures, and sometimes I fly. Recently I was amazed to find myself completely overwhelmed by 'opera' music. But I don't really care for opera; which makes no sense either. intellect? or emotion? If there's nobody at the bluegrass festival, did anybody hear it? I like what I listen to; but first I have to hear it, for what it is. And it's more than I listen to. And the 'more' is what I listen for.

[Kevin Stueve]

I just triple-checked. The book is very clear that for flat picking melody and scales I should use my pinkie on the fifth fret. I've been practicing with my ring finger, and I can get good tone, but my pinkie starts to cramp up after a while. Maybe I'm holding it wrong.

Curious, you must have a different Hal Leonard book than I bought.

[Kanaduh]

Josh, congrats on the success after just a month. I started a couple of months ago, and am having a blast as well. An elderly co-worker asked if I would like to have her late husbands mandolin. I told her I had no idea how to play it, but if she wanted to give it to me I'd learn to play it. A few days later she gave me an Abeline A style mandolin. I started with "Mandolin for Dummies" book and found it very helpful. The Internet also has a wealth of information and tips. Thanks too for posting the YT. I haven't had the courage to record anything yet. Here's a good beginner lesson I found, just a couple chords. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4SwFqD9WczA

[RickMcDaniel]

Sounds like your having fun. Slow and steady always wins the race.

Thank you to everyone who was so incredibly helpful in helping me - as someone who loves music but has no talent for playing it - to take the plunge and try to learn. Thanks especially to Mike Dulak at Big Muddy, and this absolutely gorgeous M11 that sounds so sweet, even when I'm torturing it.

One month in, practicing at least a few minutes most days for the past month, my callouses seem pretty established and the only thing that hurts when I play is my ears. I can -slowly - flat pick all the notes, although I can't sight read them. I can also handle G, C, and D chords pretty respectably.

I finally flat picked my first melody (Amazing Grace) this week (I have a WMA file if you want to hear), and overall I'm having a blast.

Joshua

[JeffD]

I just triple-checked. The book is very clear that for flat picking melody and scales I should use my pinkie on the fifth fret. I've been practicing with my ring finger, and I can get good tone, but my pinkie starts to cramp up after a while. Maybe I'm holding it wrong.

Wow. If that is what it says, it is a minority opinion and a non standard technique.

OK, my stupid question. Just guessing. Are you sure you are not confusing the seventh fret which plays a note a fifth above the open string? That is the only thing I can guess at the moment.

[DWM]

Not to be disrespectful to those who are saying "just do it", but learning to play the correct (conventional) way will save you a lot of grief and frustration later. It's always harder to unlearn something than to learn the right way in the beginning. Unless you have a physical limitation (I do - short pinky) playing the proper way will be easier in the long run. And if it's easier, at least for me, that makes it more fun!

Don

[mtm]

being pinky challenged is a drag ... I have small hands and fingers, and a weak pinky, and I can't do the "spock thing" that is in the Pete Martin video that JeffD referenced in an earlier post. So, a classic G chop is out of the question but hey, I just use a workaround G if I need it.

It would be advisable to take a lesson or three while you're still quite new ... I found that quite helpful but mainly rely on the "Mandolin" book by Greg Horne, which I've been happy with (and the myriad resources available on the inter web: I'm off to work on my "spock" exercises).