What is your ultimate mandolin/musical goal. I got a late start picking up my first mandolin at age 65 Im 68 now and playing with a Gospel band and a country band once a week and a bluegrass band once a month.I want to get a little more mic experience under my belt then I want to start my own bluegrass band. At my age I will more than likely just play local areas if and when it happens Just remember its never to late.
Kenneth Froman
To keep it fun and to enjoy the journy,and hopefully make new friends who love the kind of music I do.In everything I've ever done that I really liked I have gotten too serious and competitive and before long the fun went out of it.If I could get reasonably good enough to just not embarrass myself or annoy the people arround me I'd be happy!
I just came up with a new mandolin goal! To be playing when I'm 68 years old.
f-d
¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '84 1N, '84 A5-1, '06 Phoenix Bluegrass, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5
a small acoustic jazz band. maybe trio or quartet. If I where really lucky "The Don" would sit in and we would play all night long. The latter is pretty unrealistic but everyone has a dream.
If you need me I will be in the woodshed
Scott
To be able to complement my flute playing in Irish sessions and jazz improvisations. Most of all, to have fun.
Steven, I don't think you could have described me or what I hope to get out of mandolin playing any better. I too have always gotten too serious with everything I've done, and it ended up more stressful than enjoyable.Originally Posted by (Steven @ Dec. 01 2004, 14:57)
Steven: I could not have said it any better. You described my high-level goals to a "T." Well done.
On a more tactical level, I like learning great old-time tunes and I have a list of about 120 I would like be fully up to speed on. I am about 2/3 of the way there. Also, I would like to improve my ability to perform, to not distort my abilities so much in front of an audience. I know it's natural to play better in practice than onstage, I would just like improve the ratio between the two. Also, I would really like to get my ear trained better in general. I wish I could hear an interval or a chord and identify it just by its sound.
Me too. Spent way too much time and energy trying to become really good and know all the theory there is... in a year. You know you're working too hard once picking's a source of stress rather than a remedy for it.Steven, I don't think you could have described me or what I hope to get out of mandolin playing any better. #I too have always gotten too serious with everything I've done, and it ended up more stressful than enjoyable.
Now, I just want to have fun, write a few interesting songs and try to enjoy everything about the mando, even changing strings.
My goal- to play in the angel band and accompany the heavenly choir! not soon.
best
jgwoods
Be yourself, everyone else is taken.
Favorite Mandolin of the week: 1917 Gibson A4
1.Keepin it fun first and foremost.
2.Getting better too would be really nice but not at the expense of the fun.
3.Have other people enjoy MY playin half as much as I do would really be an honor too!
Great question...I can't wait to see more answers, specially by some of my Cafe "hero's"
(yea I got heros here)
Look up (to see whats comin down)
Glad to see that J G Woods has his head on straight !!
Kenneth Froman
To constantly remind myself how music felt before I made it into my profession— not a gripe, just a reminder.
It is not man who lives, but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
keymandoguy...a question for you as I too have picked up the mandolin at a fairly advanced age (52)....you've been playing 3 years. What was your musical background before you started mando? How far have you progressed, and from where? Are you a fairly decent player now or were you building off a prior musical foundation? I'm just curious as although I've tinkered with guitar for a long time I was never really a player. I don't know for what reason but the mando just seems to "fit" me much better. I'm much more enthused about playing/practicing and have been toiling religiously since I bought mine about 3 months ago but I've seem to hit a plateau. I was just wondering what learning curve I'm at and where I might expect this thing to go. And congrats on being a never say die kinda guy...I'm the same way being a marathoner for over 25 years and even did an IM after having a diskectomy (albeit at a much slower speed than pre-surgery).
Marvin:
I will be interested to hear Keymandoguy's reply also, but I have two cents to add: You and I are the same age. I picked up mando at about 40 after just messing around with guitar for 20 years. Then I just messed around with mandolin for 10 years on a kind of constant plateau. What really got me off the plateau was getting heavy into old-time music, taking lessons, going to jams, starting a band. Old-time is really beginner friendly, even though it can also be as challenging as anything else. Also, it really gets you as much melody playing time as you can handle, with the option of switching to rhythm when you are in over your head. It is also a great foundation for bluegrass. I recommend finding some lessons, finding or starting some jams and eventually starting a group. Jump in with both feet! Your playing will really take off.
to be able to play as fluidly as i can think, or in other words to play exactly what i hear in my head. and to sing baritone vocals better... if anyone has any tips on finding the harmony below the melody please let me know! it seems to be the hardest part to find
thanks mandojohnny...I'm trying to track down some mando lessons in my area but haven't had much luck. For sure, I need to play live with another person. I'm at the point where I grab my music sheets and run through my material every night and although I'm getting smoother and more precise, I'm not learning anything different. The songs are beginning to become rote and I sure could use some instruction on rhythm, etc. I've tried playing along to some CD's and songs that I've downloaded but either the music is too fast, or my TAB music isn't correct, or both so I end up not really getting anywhere. If anyone knows of a mando source in north central Illinois, I'd appreciate the lead. I'm scouring the Chicago area but realistically, I can't spare an hour to get there, an hour's lesson, then the hour (or more) to get home. Working on it though!
My goals are constantly changing, first I wanted to just be able to play on a streetcorner, but then I wanted to learn more theory, which led to jazz chords, which led to playing swing, and now I find myself back at the beginning just wanting to play on streetcorners. But after two years I do play alot more stuff now.
mandollusional Mike
I was inspired to play my mandolin on the street yesterday when walking through downtown Berkeley. There was a guy with a hurdy gurdy and a big crowd had formed! I thought, I could probably do somthing like that too as I become proficient in various tunes.
Oo! Oo! Me too! I wanna jazz combo too!
But here in the Great Central Valley of CA, jazz mandolinsists from whom to learn the genre are non-existant as far as I can tell. So the going is s l o w .
More directly my musical goal is to be able to play the melody to anything I can sing, and then to play some more than basic chords to flesh it out too.
Best,
Daniel
If you can get to Chi-town, try the Old Towne School of Music. A similar operation in St. Louis, The Folk School, was what got me going.
My goals
1) Spend at least as much time playing every day as I do now
2) Live to play, not play to live (I'll keep my day job, thank you)
3) Be the instrument, not the player of the instrument
4) Enjoy every moment
Best,
Ken
Less talk, more pick.
To those of you who wanted my background I came from a musical family all my uncles and cousins on my mothers side were either in bands or played something. I took piano leesons for 3 years when I was in grade school My firsr strings was a ukelele when I was around 15. Bought a guitar at 18 but never took lessons and never could gdt proficient with it. Music fell by the wayside after I got married.first year I tried learning Mano on my own but after a year still couldnt even make a chop chord. Then I found a weekly jam and thats when it started coming together. Im now even playing with some session musicians some and can hang right in there.PS practice everyday
Kenneth Froman
MarvinFowler
I have the same problem you have. I'm signing up for Mandolin lessons with Don Stiernberg through Harper College. It's about 1 1/2 hours to get there, but I'm trying to set up lessons either monthly or semi monthly.
Breedlove Cascade
My goal is to always be still in on a path somewhere; inside the process and not at the end. This may sound oblique to many but the honest truth is that I derive more out of the journey than from the end result. To propell myself along a path, I need to create mini goals but they are very short term targets (sometimes artificial), selected not to celebrate an achievement but make movement possible. I hope this doesn't sound too crazy.
Avi
Avi
I have had to think long and hard on this subject. I have been teaching myself how to play mando since April of this year and I have indeed greatly improved as I can actually play tunes rathering than just strumming chords. I hope to be able to eventually sound "profesional" and maybe jam with other musicians. I unfortunely do not come from a musical family (except for my brother's wife who is the choir leader and organist of my mothers church which I no longer attend ) and I really do not know very many musical people. In the meantime, I'll just play for sheer pleasure and not worry too much about joining bluegrass or jazz bands or whatever.
You are only young once, but you can be immature forever.
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