Toolate4chickenfries learns the mandolin, part I: An introduction

**toolate4chickenfries** · May-30-2012, 4:30pm

Hi folks! I originally posted this over at http://www.reddit.com/r/mandolin and it was recommended I check out this site as well. I've spent the afternoon browsing around (as you'll hear me mention in the video) and have already picked up some great stuff! If you have a spare moment, please take a look at the vid and shoot me any tips, tricks, pointers, encouragement, etc. you feel appropriate. Thanks!

**Mike Bunting** · May-30-2012, 4:45pm

Mike Marshall's pointers are always useful.

**Mike Bunting** · May-30-2012, 5:09pm

This is good too.

**toolate4chickenfries** · May-30-2012, 6:23pm

Thank you so much, Mike! Marshall's tips are EXACTLY the kind of thing I've been looking for.

**greg_tsam** · May-30-2012, 8:02pm

Then learn the FFcP pattern for A. It's offered for free on this site as well as www.jazzmando.com You can use it all over the neck and will kickstart your improvising and playing in general.

**greg_tsam** · May-30-2012, 8:03pm

http://jazzmando.com/ffcp.shtml

**journeybear** · May-30-2012, 8:44pm

Some of Mike Marshall's vids should be required viewing, that one for sure. Sounds like you already have a pretty good take on the answers to your basic questions.

1) I think however you hold the pick that is comfortable for you will work. I hold mine more like the way you showed you do for playing guitar. For tremolo or other fast work I just tend to grip the pick tighter.

2) You will probably find opinions about right hand placement pretty evenly divided. I vary between those two approaches myself. Sometimes I rest the heel of my hand on the strings just below the bridge. This anchors my pick movement while leaving my wrist free, without deadening the strings. It enables me to play more accurately for fast picking, and also more steadily for heavy tremolo use. I still try not to pick too close to the bridge, unless I am going for that twangy sound. Heck, sometimes I even anchor my hand with my pinky on the E string. (I only mention that as it required by the FOI Act.) I do not, however, ever plant my pinky on the top. Some do, and I don't know why. Seems like it would diminish the vibration, even if just a bit. For chords I tend to move my hand and wrist and arm more freely, swinging from the elbow, and also when I get all up in the grips of a lead. In those instances I don't care about "proper" technique as much as getting the notes in the lead right, however it's done.

3) Pick placement is based on personal preference. You will find the sweet spot that sounds most pleasing to your ears - sounds like you already have - and you will also find ways and reasons to vary that as you wish. It seems a lot of people feel the sweet spot is right at the end of the fingerboard, and some have gone so far as to cut off the Florida (the extension that serves just the higher strings) to avoid hitting it with the pick and causing a clicking noise. Some have taken major artists like Ricky Skaggs to task for making this noise. Personally, I think one should be able to adjust one's motion, but, as they say, YMMV.

It really sounds like you're already well on your way. Twenty years of playing guitar have paid off. You don't sound like a two day newbie, not by a long shot. And it also sounds like you are putting a good deal of thought into what you are doing and also asking.

Welcome to the Café!

**JEStanek** · May-30-2012, 9:17pm

Welcome to the Cafe and keep up the good work and use us like a good resource!

Jamie

**Randi Gormley** · Jun-01-2012, 8:40am

Journeybear mentioned the different places to put the pick depending on the sound you want -- you can play at the bridge or on the fingerboard if you want those sounds as well, although they're mostly used for effect and not everyday playing, just like you can play with your right fist resting on the strings in order to mute the sound. You can also alter the sound by the different string weights and the different pick thicknesses. Looks like you're using a guitar pick (?) which is fine; there are mandolin picks for different genres as well. And you should keep in mind your posture and not hunch over the instrument (didn't look like you were, but it's always good to remind yourself) to make sure you have some space between the back of the mandolin and you to give it room to vibrate. Welcome to the cafe!