tremelo question

[Sawbones]

Howdy all, I am new to the forum and have been playing the mandolin about 2 years. I am doing okay, but I can't seem to get a good, or even a bad, tremelo. I need some advice on how to practice it. Should I just start on say the e strings, or should I make a chord and try that. Also, I try to relax my right hand and move only my wrist, should I try something else? Any advice will be appreciated. And I do practice every day, I think I may be teaching myself wrong habits because I usually figure things out quicker than this...

[Brent Hutto]

I find a smooth, even tremolo much easier on just a single pair of strings than on two or three courses. So I'd recommend starting with just a single course and get that working good before moving on to two pairs.

[Denny Gies]

I found that playing double stops, that is like 1/2 of a chord using two fingers, worked for me when I was trying to improve my tremelo. It may also be useful to try to play the melody to an easy song you know as an all tremelo melody. The most important thing is to not give up; keep at it and believe it or not the stuff you want to learn will come and eventually be second nature. Have fun and good luck.

[AlanN]

First of all, it's 'Tremble'. That's T-R-E-M-O-L-O!

For me, I started slow: up-down, even strokes on 1 pair. Then move to another pair, etc. After days/weeks/months/(years), it will come. Stay relaxed, keep a loose wrist and pick grip. Expand to 2 courses, keeping the same slow, steady approach. Speed up over time. You'll get there.

[pickloser]

I think good advice regarding tremolo was given in post 2 of this thread: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...796#post920796
Good luck with your efforts!

[Sawbones]

Thanks a lot guys for the answers, I am going to work on that every day until I finally get it.

[Jordan Ramsey]

Hey Sawbones, here is an exercise that I've found useful. Takes a while to get there, just keep at it and you'll get it.

[JeffD]

Hey Sawbones, here is an exercise that I've found useful. Takes a while to get there, just keep at it and you'll get it.

That is excellent. It is what Marilynn Mair describes in her book. I was going to try and describe what you just demonstrated but a picture is worth 1K words, and a video is worth 1K pictures etc. etc.

[pickloser]

Thanks, Jordan!

[Sawbones]

Thank you Jordan! That really helps-Chuck

[Alex Orr]

Cool exercises. I'm going to start using those in my warm-up.

FWIW, it can just take a while to develop a good tremolo. LOTS of time and practice. LOTS. I usually spent 5-10 minutes a practice session doing nothing but tremolo exercises for the first year or so that I had a mandolin. It took about 16 months or so before it started to feel natural and I began to have some ease and confidence in employing it. I think doing double-stop tremolo helped a lot. It's more challenging, and when you practice double stop tremolo for 5 minutes and then switch to single string, you'll be surprised how much easier that single string tremolo becomes. Just as importantly, double stop tremolo phrases are some of the coolest sounding things you can do on a mandolin IMO, and are an integral stylistic hallmark of traditional bluegrass mandolin playing. In terms of form, I think the analogy I heard several times, and tried to keep in mind, is that tremolo comes from a wrist motion that is quite similar to shaking out a match. However, once again, it's hard not to overstate the simple truth of patience and daily practice.

[Sawbones]

I thought about opening a new thread but since it still is about tremelo, I will keep it here.

Is my choice of a pick the reason why I am having problems with this?? I use a heavy to medium fender guitar pick. I am thinking that a thinner pick might be better???/ I am dreaming I'm sure, nothing will beat practicing.....

[Phil Goodson]

It's not the pick. And it's TREMOLO!

[chipotle]

Just saw this thread and wow, great vid Jordan, that helps my approach a lot! Alex, thanks for your insight as well. This is something I just feel myself tighten up when I know I should be loose. Then I try to be deliberate and ~try~, instead of just playing.

[Rob Gerety]

Its all about patience and putting it in your daily practice routine for five minutes or so. Can't force it. It will come with time and practice.

[kkmm]

I have to agree with most recommendations here.
I have played other instruments for a long time and just start playing mandolin for 13 months now.
At start, picking is natural for me as I have played guitar for so long
Tremolo is hard but I tried a hard pick with round tip and in about a week, I can do tremolo for the last note of each musical phrase.
Then moving on to tremolo almost every single note of the song. This is the hard part and I spent the entire year to practice slowly (than gradually faster) on one pair of strings, using soft pick. At first, it was very tense, then I learn to relax, and just take it easy, holding the pick not too hard either. All this patience paid off, I can tremolo smoothly now anytime I like, either almost every note of the entire song or only on long notes of the song. I found that mixing picking and tremolo this way is harder.
With intense practice (just hold the mando and play and listen to the sound until I got tired), all become natural now, including tremolo on two pairs of string.
Another important detail I like to add: fingers of the left hand do get hurt when playing for hours. I used a finger exercizer to develop calluses. This allows me to play mando (or guitar) for more than two hours non-stop without feeling any pain on the fingers.

[Ryan Zerby]

I feel like I'm missing something... what is the difference between tremolo and just picking really fast?

[JeffD]

I feel like I'm missing something... what is the difference between tremolo and just picking really fast?

Nothing really.

Its mental. When you pick really really fast you keep a sense of the time value of the notes. Even a string of very fast triplets you don't lose the time. I can alway go back and tell you, with picking fast, exactly how many pick strokes there were per beat.

But tremolo is outside of time. Its picking so fast the sound is almost continuous, which is what you are trying to achieve. You lose the timing of each stroke and instead pay attention to the duration of the run. Some of my triplets are probably as fast as my tremolo, but with triplets I pay attention to the pick strokes, with tremolo I pay attention to the duration of the run.

[Denny Gies]

Just keep at it if it takes forever. You will always gain some improvement if you just keep on keepin' on. Most importantly, have fun.

[Mike Bunting]

Tremolo to die for.


1-05 Kentucky Waltz.mp3

[JeffD]

One of the best is Butch Baldassari. I love his tremolo.

[JeffD]

Another favorite of mine - though his tremolo is slow - countably slow. Different take.

[kkmm]

Thanks JeffD for explaining the tremolo the way I really feel but could not express it precisely.
Tremolo can be done slowly or really fast, however the length of the notes (how long you keep picking up and down really fast on that note) is dictated by the song, not by the number of up/down picking.
It would be also very helpful to be able to tremolo really softly or really hard (very loud), this technique helps to bring out the expression of the tune.

[kkmm]

I listened to the Kentucky Waltz MP3 posted by Mike Bunting in this thread, it sounds so beautiful. It will go in my MP3 player for sure.
The tremolo technique is so sweet and expressive, quite different from the videos I watched from youtube.

[Jim Broyles]

Tremolo is definitely not outside of time. It starts in time and it ends in time and even the lengths of each stroke within the tremolo are timed according to the tempo of the tune. The idea that you just suddenly start DUDUDUDUDU as fast as you can to do tremolo is a fallacy. Different tremolo uses different note duration but it starts and ends in time, and the notes themselves are subdivisions of the unit and tempo of the piece in which it is played. The number of up and down picking will be determined by the tempo and rhythm of the piece. Do not get the idea that tremolo is simply real fast picking. All the examples of tremolo in this thread are in time. If you slow down that Baldassari piece, you will hear that the tremolo is a perfect subdivision of the quarter note in the time signature.