One tip that changed everything

[Carl Robin]

Play standing up. It improved my posture, and got rid of the compulsion to constantly watch my hand. It was a big step forward in quality and ease of playing for me.

[Tobin]

Play standing up. It improved my posture, and got rid of the compulsion to constantly watch my hand. It was a big step forward in quality and ease of playing for me.

I'm glad you said this. It was one of the biggest positive changes for me too. I think a lot of mandolin players learn to play sitting down, hunched over, with the mandolin resting on their legs and tilted face-up so they can see everything. It leads to some bad habits and poor technique. And then they find it impossible to play when there's not a chair handy.

Learning to use a strap and hold the mandolin in the same position whether seated or standing is a big deal, and is helpful in many ways. One of which is, as you said, weaning oneself off of staring at the fretboard. Learning to use the side-markers is a good first step towards not needing to look at all.

[David L]

George Burns, who started out in vaudeville, said that the best advice he got when starting out was- "A lways take your wallet on stage with you". Still pretty good advice for performers. My advice? 1.Always use the restroom before going on stage. 2. Always check your fly! (in that order)

[jmagill]

I'm glad you said this. It was one of the biggest positive changes for me too. I think a lot of mandolin players learn to play sitting down, hunched over, with the mandolin resting on their legs and tilted face-up so they can see everything. It leads to some bad habits and poor technique. And then they find it impossible to play when there's not a chair handy.

Learning to use a strap and hold the mandolin in the same position whether seated or standing is a big deal, and is helpful in many ways. One of which is, as you said, weaning oneself off of staring at the fretboard. Learning to use the side-markers is a good first step towards not needing to look at all.

I'm afraid I have to disagree. See Mike Marshall's video on proper technique about this. Of course there will be situations where you need to play standing up, and I gigged standing up for years – with the result that I had a lot of tension in my hands and forearms and didn't play as cleanly as I wanted to.

Unless I have to stand, using Mike's recommended 'classical' position for holding the instrument (sitting down, treble mandolin point resting against an elevated left knee) has allowed me to play with less tension in my hands, forearms, neck and back as well as improving both right and left-hand technique.

[Tobin]

Which part did you disagree with specifically? I didn't claim that sitting down to play was bad. Nor did I say that it's necessary to always hold the mandolin in the same position as when you're standing. What I said was that it's helpful in many ways to be able to play with the same position and the same holding techniques whether seated or standing. I didn't say that's the only way one should ever hold one's mandolin.

There's nothing magical about what Mike Marshall says in that video that can't be done while standing and using a strap (except for the leg being up). What he's trying to get people to do is hold the mandolin at the correct angle - which is still easily done when standing and using a strap. If one learns to use a strap when seated and not rely on one's legs to support the mandolin, then it's easier to get up and play without radically changing one's playing techniques. But everything Mike described there in terms of how the mandolin should be positioned should apply when standing as well.

[Paul Merlo]

coming from a guitar background... using a thicker pick is when I became a mandolin player.

[jmagill]

Which part did you disagree with specifically? I didn't claim that sitting down to play was bad. Nor did I say that it's necessary to always hold the mandolin in the same position as when you're standing. What I said was that it's helpful in many ways to be able to play with the same position and the same holding techniques whether seated or standing. I didn't say that's the only way one should ever hold one's mandolin.

Agreed, and I never said you were denigrating a seated position, but you did call the standing position a "positive change", and in my experience, I did not find that to be the case. I still play in both positions, and find that a seated position is more relaxed and allows me to play with better technique and control. However, I always play with a strap, sitting and standing, as you suggest, and I agree that a consistent positioning of the mandolin at the correct angle is to be desired.

[Mark Wilson]

The best tips I've received came from finally getting an instructor. Thats the tip I would offer any beginner. Find a trained eye to oversee what you are doing.

Coming from guitar I arched my fretting fingers over the fret board to avoid muting open strings. He got me to flatten out my fingers and it improved my reach and helped with muting the e string when playing rhythm.

Also I was playing a lot of rhythm out of the first position. Playing the G string down there is lost in a group. Moved it up the neck - learned a lot of variations and playing rhythm has opened up for this picker.

[Drew Egerton]

Ronnie McCoury on his Homespun Tapes DVD, saying to keep the wrist loose, "like shaking out a dish rag" or something along those lines to keeping loose and fast. (Related: "Loose is fast and on the edge of out of control" - Days of Thunder LOL)

Mike Guggino told me once that his instructor tied his arm to a chair and made him play Rawhide to improve the wrist action. Apparently it worked for him.

[ralph johansson]

I'm not sure if this qualifies...

For me, having started out on guitar, focusing on and practicing 1st position fretting (i.e. 1st finger for 1st/2nd fret, 2nd for 3rd/4th, etc.). It helped "smooth out" technique and helped strengthen that 7th/8th fret pinky stretch. Before I focused on this, I was trying to play the mandolin like a guitar which caused a lot of frustration and finger cramping.

I'm still trying to eliminate that "thumb over" tendency (if anyone has any tips).

Seems I'm almost alone in thinking "next note, next fret" (in diatonic passages - unfortunately, of course, in some keys there are five fretted scale notes on one course in 1st position.)

As for "thumb over" - I haven't seen you play but a common mistake is to grab the mandolin by the neck. The left hand is there to stop the strings, not support or position the neck. So, secure the mando in place using a strap, the points, or whatever; let your hand hang loosely by your side, keep your wrist straight and then just bring your hand to the neck. You will have to use a slight backward arch to get the infamous G chop chord, and a slight forward arch for some other chord forms. But, by default, keep the wrist straight.

Not a tip, really, but watching another player I realized the importance of the rest stroke (on guitar). On mandolin, when I got started, someone advised not to use open strings at all, in the beginning. That's all the instruction I ever had, and it was very useful.

[fatt-dad]

yes, walking about the yard, playing at full tempo and singing the mandolin is liberating!

f-d

[Ed Goist]

"Don't be so hard on yourself, and never minimize the compliments others pay to your playing." (Thank you Jim Richter)

[JeffD]

And then they find it impossible to play when there's not a chair handy..

I have somewhat of a reputation for the lengths I will go to avoid playing standing up.

[MysTiK PiKn]

Reading the interview with Maartin Allcock in the back of Simon Mayor's "Celtic Mandolin" book, where he says that when he doesn't know a chord on mandolin, he just plays the root and the fifth on the same fret a string up. That taught me two valuable things: (1) even the pros fake it sometimes and don't play every note of every chord all the time, and (2) I don't need to learn chord shapes by heart if I understand how to construct a chord in real time exploiting the fretboard symmetry of fifths tuning. It got me moving on from pure single note melody playing into rhythm and chord playing which was initially very alien to me (I don't have a guitar background).

Martin

Thanks. I knew this. I did not know I knew this. But I recently discovered this. Only I did not know that this was what I discovered. Nor did I realize the scope or potential of it.
I came to this through the side door, where I found myself (inventing) chords, rather than flying through the chord book. Some very beautiful and useful forms. Still throwing these around.
btw - I do have bg in guitar - which helps w basics - but guitar is not a mandolin. I have only been back to learning mando for a short while, and it's good. The guitar just sits there. It has a fat neck; mando has a toothpick neck.
Yeh, thanx for emphasizing the experiential side of all that. even better like that.
Peace.

Personal = greatest thing I ever learned was, after being a beginner for months playing nothing but the chord book, a friend taught me to play Norwegian Wood, as my very 1st song - very useful, it's a combo of picking and strumming - which I was ready for, something good, but it launched the rocket forever. I still play like that.
I later learned travis picking, then started doing that with a pick.
Next step was discovering hard picks - better "enunciation". And keeping it VERTICAL to the top. altho, there are sound effects possible thru other angles.

[Paul Busman]

It wasn't a tip but something I noticed. Not too long ago I saw Chris Thile and Edgar Meyers and was lucky enough to have great seats really close up. I spend a lot of time looking at Chris' pick hand and noting how he held the pick with a closed hand grip. Sometimes the hand was a bit more open, even splayed a bit, but the main thing for me was how he never planted a pinky. I'd been doing that just about ever since I took up the mandolin and thought it gave me stability. I went home that same night and tried it his way. It was tough at first, but before long I noticed I was playing a lot better and much more freely. I haven't looked back since.

[Carl Robin]

I still play in both positions, and find that a seated position is more relaxed and allows me to play with better technique and control. However, I always play with a strap, sitting and standing.

I play both standing, and (more often) sitting, but learning to play standing by practicing all my tunes in standing was the break-through. After doing this, technique and control were improved in both positions. Always using the strap was an important realization too, but not the "one tip that changed everything".

[Willie Poole]

One of the best tips I ever got was from Dean Stoneman, a neighbor of mine in the early `60`s, he said when you learn to pick a new song try learning it by picking it and not playing any open strings, that way you will be able to pick it in any key, everyone don`t sing songs in the same key so that was good advice to me...I don`t really follow that now days since I am the band leader and call the shots so I know what keys we do all of the songs in, I don`t jam that much any more.....

Willie

[farmerjones]

I was thinking today how I can remember various years (13 years of playing) where I learned "something" that took me off a plateau and entered a new realm of my playing.

I started playing in 1980. I don't think I actually made music until 2003. Since then, I've never fell out of love with making Music. But I languished for twenty years.
I started playing with folks that had just a bit more theory knowledge. Some of that rudimentary stuff needs to be put into practice to be absorbed. But there was a threshold. Knowing the key and chord progression. No, just knowing what they were. That they existed. That was the big thing. It does seem so simple once you know.

Then it doesn't matter what you pick up, if it's chordal like a piano, where's the I, IV,V?
If it's a melodic instrument, like a tin whistle, it's where's the Doe, Ray, Me?
Then depending upon how physically difficult the instrument is to play, you've got a portion of the puzzle solved.

[bobby bill]

With respect to the sitting/standing issue, I don't think it makes much difference so long as you have a good strap and a straight-back chair. But I had to break my habit of playing on the couch years ago. You sink into it, and scrunch up, and it just wrecks your posture. And practicing with your posture wrecked is not really practicing.

[Benski]

Continuing to back up our cantor in church (who sings in all kinds of keys like Eflat, etc.) after jettisoning my capo. It took three years but I can play in any key now.

[bayAreaDude]

I'm glad you said this. It was one of the biggest positive changes for me too. I think a lot of mandolin players learn to play sitting down, hunched over, with the mandolin resting on their legs and tilted face-up so they can see everything. It leads to some bad habits and poor technique. And then they find it impossible to play when there's not a chair handy.

Learning to use a strap and hold the mandolin in the same position whether seated or standing is a big deal, and is helpful in many ways. One of which is, as you said, weaning oneself off of staring at the fretboard. Learning to use the side-markers is a good first step towards not needing to look at all.

Totally agree with this. Being able to play standing should be the default unless your goal is orchestra work.

[Marc Ferry]

Zak Borden's videos opened up a whole new way to construct chords for me.
Bill

Thank you very much for the link -- I'm currently watching some of his videos. Very interesting!

[Paul Busman]

At home I play sitting but for our Irish band gigs I usually stand. It's better for playing the penny whistles that I also play in the band.

[Fretbear]

That any "open position" lick is exactly the same as it's corresponding closed position lick, once you understand that sentence.

[TheOne-N-OnlyHomer]

I guess the tip that had the most influence on me was many many years ago when someone noticed my single note melody tendencies and pointed out all the other strings and fingers that were doing nothing. "You don't need to be the clarinet, you can be the whole darn orchestra."

I took a while to figure out all that I could do with the other fingers and strings, and how to do it, but I never would have even tried without that comment.

Yeah that's something I'm currently working on, I can sit and pick out the single notes of a song, or strum chords but working with both at the same time to make a song that sounds good played on the Mando by itself, I'm stumped lol.