Ready to have a fire

[Chrissy]

I came here a couple of years ago wanting to learn how to play mandolin. I asked for advice, you gave, I took it. I bought one, got a book, I was so excited!! Now here we are two years later and well......its not good. I play guitar, have for years. I think maybe thats the problem? It seems I just can't get used to those little frets and I am always reaching to far, ending up where I don't wanna be. I also am using the wrong fingers. Did anyone else have these problems? I took it out last weekend, sized it up and I thought...I'm bigger then you, I'm going to learn this no matter how frustrated I get. Its time to get serious about it. So, guess I am asking if anyone else had a hard time going from guitar to mandolin. I haven't put the time into it that I know I need to. I can play guitar for hours on end but this thing....I put it away after about a half hour. Maybe thats the problem. I'm not whinning, just feeling discouraged.

[JEStanek]

Stick with it. Like all new things there is a learning curve and an initial hurdle to get over. Once you manage that you'll be happier with yourself and your progress. Keep pickin!

Jamie

[Chris Biorkman]

Youve got to put time into it to get results.

[Rroyd]

Try to forget you know how to play guitar when you are working on the mandolin; I've seen numerous people struggle when picking up a new instrument when they try to play it the way they play the one they are familiar with. Play different styles of music on the mandolin, or at least, tunes that are new to you, to try to get some "mental separation" from the guitar. The fingering difficulties you describe are pretty typical; some skills and habits can transfer well, and some don't. So if you approach the mandolin with the attitude that "This is new, and I don't know how to play it yet, and it's not a little guitar," and concentrate on playing it correctly, that might help get you past your present hurdle.

[Mike Snyder]

It's hard, I think, for some of us here at the Cafe to admit that the mandolin may not be the perfect instrument for everyone. Perhaps that's where you're headed. And perhaps, one day, you will be so enamored of your mando that you will begin to wonder what color of flame your guitar might give off. If it gives you no joy, trade it, sell it, hang it on the wall and feel no regret. Some of my favorite people play the guitar. Best of luck on your choices.

[Eddie Sheehy]

The thing that did it for me - also a guitar player of many years - was to get a nice mandolin. You don't have to break the bank but if the action is not low nor the mandolin good-sounding it can be an uphill struggle to enjoy playing. For me the tension of the strings, the double strings, and high-action almost made me quit several times. If it's the size of the frets bugging you, consider getting an Octave Mandolin.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Chrissy - I've played Banjo for 45 years & Guitar for comin' on 20 years. Both instruments have huge frets compared to Mandolin as you're finding out. The POSITIVE side to Mandolin is the 'common sense' tuning which lays the scale patterns so easily under the fingers & the small fret distances which make it so easy (relatively !) to play some of the complex Mandolin tunes i've managed to get my fingers around. If you really have the 'will to play'
Mandolin,you'll get there for sure. I play Banjo to a high professional level & my aim is to do the same on Mandolin,i see no percentage in wanting to be purely mediocre,that's my driving force. It's a hard slog,but honestly,i've not had so much pleasure in playing ANYTHING for many years.
There are NO supermen(women) on here as far as Mandolin playing goes. We've all had a
time of it learning,some people find it easier than others- as in learning many other things - but stick at it & you WILL get there. Apply your musical knowledge to the Mandolin but leave the 'physical' size out of it. As Duane above says it's not a little Guitar,which of course you know. View your Mandolin as a new friend & get to know it on it's own terms
& you'll succeed . I wish i had a £ (UK) for every Guitar player i've seen try to play Banjo
& couldn't get past the starting gate because they viewed the Banjo as a 'differently tuned' Guitar & tried to apply their Guitar technique to it,only to fail.
When i came to Mandolin,i'd been listening to it for over 40 years & as i've said on here many times,i have the sound of it 'in my head'. All i need to do is to learn the techniques on Mandolin to get it out onto the instrument & i won't achieve that by 'thinking' Banjo or Guitar. When i play my Banjo,i'm a 'Banjo player',Mandolin's 'gone'.The same goes for when i play my Guitar or Mandolin,i just think in terms of the instrument i'm playing,if i don't i'm in trouble.
You'll get there Chrissy,one way or another,just keep at it & the best of luck in your efforts,
Saska

[Rob Powell]

Been there....

I've played guitar for pretty close to 40 years. I even played professionally back in the 70's and 80's.

I joined this board back in 2004 because I got interested in learning to play the mando in 2003 then in building a mando in 2004. I'm still building it

I rented a really nasty mandolin and consequently, never learned to play it.

So, I later bought a decent mando, Breedlove KF because I figured it was the nasty mando that was the culprit.

Still never learned to play much beyond Red Haired Boy and i didn't play that very well. So I sold it a couple of years ago.

I can't remember exactly what got me interested again back in June but I did. This time I did some of the online lessons from musicmoose.org and I was actually learning to play. I can't believe how far I've come in 5-6 weeks.

It's a combination of interest, those lessons and a really fine mando I guess.

I found that video lessons were very helpful to me. Those lessons helped me very quickly because they explained the patterns on the fretboard very well. They might work for you too.

I think it also helps to NOT play your guitar while you're learning. I picked mine up yesterday for the first time in a few weeks and it felt like I had a 2X4 in my hands.

[Daniel Wheeler]

I'm a guitar player. I found the mandolin came very fast because of my highly developed technique on guitar. I got to skip everything and just learn the fretboard. And I play both everyday. Now I'm learning dobro and fiddle. Now there's a whole different ball game

[johnM]

Burn the guitar!

You won't regret it.

[John Flynn]

This may sound blasphemous here, but maybe the mandolin is just not for you. I've tried to learn several instruments. Some worked out, some didn't. My theory is that the instrument you will learn is the instrument that you love. It is the instrument you want to put the time in on, the instrument you can't keep your hands off of. When I started on a cheapo mandolin after 20 years of playing the guitar, I found the hours flying by playing it, even though it took a while to get even passable playing it. Other instruments I've tried just sit in their cases. I used to be frustrated by that, but lately I've come to accept that mandolin is my thing and the others aren't, and I just roll with that.

My advice is find the right instrument for you and then take it as far as you can. Most of us play for enjoyment and fulfillment. If you have frustration, that defeats the purpose.

[jim_n_virginia]

I played guitar before picking up the mandolin about 8 years ago. My fingers were already toughened up from playing the guitar plus I flatpicked so that helped the mandolin.

Little by little I stopped playing guitar and eventually my guitars gathered dust. Now I only own one guitar and I am seriously contemplating selling it because I never play it.

NOW when I play guitar I have a hard time because it seems so huge to me and I have big paws too! Somewhere along the line I am no longer a guitar player but now a mandolin player. I guess I liked playing the guitar but I had a passion to play the mandolin.

Even after all these years I still practice every chance I get and my mandolin is always close by. I even take it with me and jam with my friends before and after concerts and festivals.

But to get good at anything you have to pratice and more imporatantly get out there and play with other people. I think someone will learn things from jamming with others that you will never get out of a book or DVD.

Also you just might have better luck studying with a mandolin teacher. Which is easier said than done because finding a "good" teacher is pretty hard. But when you find one you can learn a LOT! I found a great teacher and even though I have been playing a pretty long while I am still learning things.

Good Luck! #

[Tim2723]

I have to agree with Mike Snyder on this one. #The mandolin, or any instrument for that matter, may not be the best choice for everybody. #I was very lucky as a boy to have almost every musical instrument imaginable available to me to try. #Brass, reeds, woodwinds, strings, you name it. #I experimented with nearly 50 instruments. #Not every one of them spoke to me. #In fact, I ended up with four or five that I really loved enough to work on, and a half-dozen others that I toy around with. #If the mandolin doesn't click with you, it doesn't. Don't be discouraged, keep trying. But there's no shame in saying that a particular instrument isn't really your cup of tea if you've given it a good effort.

[phiddlepicker]

I played guitar and fiddle before ever playing mando. Trust me practice will overcome your problems in time. Just keep a goin.

[Jim]

I too played guitar first as many if not most on this site seem to. I started by taking a scale I knew on Guitar and one note at a time playing it on mandolin. "Am" was what I worked out first. Then when playing with a friend I would pull it out for a couple tunes. It was 8 or 9 years before I could play mandolin and sing at the same time, something I did on guitar from the start ( albeit not so well) . I guess what I'm saying is give it time and play with it, don't feel bad about putting it away when you are not enjoying it the desire to play it will come again.

[terrierguy]

I may not be the best to help answer your question because I am new to the mandolin after many guitar years. I, like you felt it would be easy to learn, but found that not to be the case either. I almost quit afer a few weeks, but after encouragement here decided to give it some time. I play both everyday (well, almost everday) and don't see a conflict.

I finger pick the guitar, and had to learn from scratch right hand technique for the mandolin. I still have some difficulty with that. Anyway all I can say is give it a chance and after some diligence if you still don't find it worthwhile-move on. After all this is all supposed to be about fun. I have found that even with my feeble skill set, I enjoy picking out the few tunes I can play and really enjoy the "journey". Good luck with your decision. Hope this helps!

[JGWoods]

I had several false starts on the mandolin, tried for a little while, put it away, try again, put away again.
I finally "got it" when I went to playing fiddle tunes- single note playing- and it's been steady progress from there.
I learned to read music on the mandolin and to play melodically. It was far from my guitar playing - chord strumming and finger picking- so it was a completely different experience, except for the common occurrence of callouses.

Later you will find your guitar playing much improved.
Keep at'em both and enjoy the journey- they are just different ways to get the music inside you to come out.

[clarksavage]

The key for me, when I switch from guitar to mandolin (or when I am at a jam and only have the guitar player to follow) is to remember that the mandolin fretboard equals the "upside down first four strings" of the guitar. EADGBE vs GDAE. I think the "upside down" part is the part that makes my translation wobble at times, but it usually works well enough to follow with little difficulty, unless I want to do anything fancy. I may never quite get there but that's ok with me.

Clark

[billkilpatrick]

if what you hear in your mind is the sound of a guitar, the mandolin in your hands won't ever make it. what did it for me was knowing what sound i wanted to hear and searching for the right mandolin to make it - a difficult and expensive process as mandolin tone is infinitely subtle and very variable.

stick with it and buona fortuna! - bill

[HddnKat]

I played guitar for 25 years before picking up a mandolin, and although I never was a standout guitar player (except for maybe standing out where no-one else had to listen to me) - I was pretty good on chords and rhythm. #I had to put it down for the first three years I played mandolin not to let it confuse me. #Now I switch back and forth pretty easily, but the guitar frets do feel about ten miles wide after playing mandolin. #On the bright side, a lot of the technique I'm learning on the mandolin is making me a better guitar player, too. #(And I'm about equally a standout player on mandolin, too - standing out in the back 40, the end of the block, you name it!) #I kid my husband that thanks to his influence I can be mediocre in two different stringed instruments instead of one.

[MikeEdgerton]

Hi Chrissy. Take a look at this website:

http://www.custompearlinlay.com/

Dave Nichols sells an inexpensive DVD of his workshop that he puts on at bluegrass festivals on how to play the mandolin. Dave's workshop got me hooked on playing mandolin after 40 years of guitar. It's worth while to look at. It's straight forward and not confusing. I took this as far as I could and then decided to add some lessons to the mix (that was a tough move at my age). It is an excellent base for a person moving from guitar to mandolin.

[Steve Ostrander]

I played gtr for about 35 years before I got the hots for the mando. I have 35 years of "bad" habits to lose and relearn. I hold the pick wrong. I wrap my thumb. I'll never be a great mando player, but I love the mando and I'll never go back to my guitar. Now they seem huge to me and I have trouble finegring them.

Sometimes I have practice sessions where I'm not learning anything because my mind isn't into it. I either just stop, or just play something that's fun or that I know well. There are no bad practice sessions, just some are better than others.

The mando isn't for everyone. It's not the end of the world if you decide to go with the gtr and let the mando go. Only you can decide.

[mandroid]

I find the mandolin sits in my lap as comfortable as the family Cat,
whereas I have to sit in a less comfortable chair to get into a position to play my guitar.
still after all, I mostly play Chords on the Guitar, but play melody on the mandolin. Then embellish the melody with a second note in harmony with the 1st..

It started with carrying a tune in my head , and found whistling to let it out to be unpopular.
so now I keep my Mouth shut.

[Chrissy]

Thanks everyone. I guess I just needed to hear that I'm not the only one who had these problems going from guitar to mandolin. Now when I think about it, its true, I have been looking at it as a little guitar and not thinking about it as something all new. You all had good ideas and advice. #Its a nice day here today so I am going to take it and go sit in the park and play. That should make those little kids run! Thanks again.