View Full Version : My first mandolin...ah!
Chughes423
Mar-08-2015, 2:44pm
I have been reading and watching this forum for about year now. After many hours online and at local shops I have finally purchased my first mandolin, Savannah sf 100. I've been playing electric guitar for about 20 years and play bass at my church. I tried a mandolin about 3 years ago but had no interested. A few years later I checked it out again while being asked to play along a couple of songs at church and my heart started to change. I'm very excited to start a new journey.
Does anyone have any tips from going from guitar to mandolin?
Lots. There is enough for a booklet.
Briefly.
There are exceptions to everything, but in general:
The left hand is different. Mandolin is two frets per finger, and the thumb rides up on the top of the neck, not the center of the back. The fingers come into the frets at an angle, not parallel to the frets.
The right hand is different: Mandolinners tend to use heaver picks, 1mm+, and to hold the pick between the knuckle of the first finger and the ball of the thumb, (first knuckle or second knuckle or the space between the first and second knuckle on the side of the finger). Not so much between the pads of the thumb and finger.
The playing is different:
Being tuned consistently in fifths the mandolin has more symmetries to take advantage of all over the place, up and down the neck of course, but also across the neck.
Lots of really good videos to watch that emphasize each of these, and other things too. I am sure they will be linked.
Welcome to this corner of the internet and welcome back to the mandolin. It will own you if you are not careful. And why be careful?
Mike Arakelian
Mar-08-2015, 3:13pm
Congratulations and welcome to the Cafe'!
Kevin Stueve
Mar-08-2015, 4:09pm
Lots. There is enough for a booklet.
...
The right hand is different: Mandolinners tend to use heaver picks, 1mm+, and to hold the pick between the knuckle of the first finger and the ball of the thumb, (first knuckle or second knuckle or the space between the first and second knuckle on the side of the finger). Not so much between the pads of the thumb and finger.
...
Welcome to this corner of the internet and welcome back to the mandolin. It will own you if you are not careful. And why be careful?
I have always held my pick this way and I've played guitar for 30+ years. I must have been destined to play mandolin all along
I have always held my pick this way and I've played guitar for 30+ years. I must have been destined to play mandolin all along
Mandolin was my first stringed instrument, and I have always held my pick this way. I play with a lot of guitarists, I think most musicians I know are guitar players, and the pick holding is all over the place.
One guitar pick grip I have noticed, where the pick is between the pads of the thumb and forefinger and extended out far from the hand as if you were making a shadow puppet of a bird - we have come to call the "ick-a-bug" grip, as if one were picking up a dead moth.
I have noticed that those who come from guitar to mandolin have a different set of things to "get over" than those who come from fiddle to mandolin, who have their own things to "get over". I am writing a blog about this, and including ex-woodwind players and ex-piano in the mix.
I am just learning guitar, and finding it very frustrating, so if I come across in any way pejorative, I should apologize right now.
Leon Peoples
Mar-08-2015, 5:11pm
Welcome !
Denny Gies
Mar-08-2015, 5:17pm
You're in for it now....lots of fun, frustration and challenges. I learned guitar and then switched to mandolin. I took some time but I find the mandolin easier to play than the guitar. Remember, have fun and welcome to this wild, wacky mandolin world.
Mandoplumb
Mar-08-2015, 6:49pm
JeffD I thought I was the only one that started with the mandolin then to guitar although my journey started 50 years ago. I learn to get by on a guitar but never considered myself a guitar player and that's alright mandolin was my first love. I think the difference talked about was the reason I was held back on guitar old habits die hard and even harder when you are still using them on a different instrument. Good luck with your picking Remember have fun.
Mark Wilson
Mar-09-2015, 11:29am
Does anyone have any tips from going from guitar to mandolin?When I first went from guitar to mandolin I noticed that some chords sometimes sounded wrong or 'off' compared to what my guitar trained ear expected. I couldn't get the sound from familiar songs I expected. That goes away pretty quickly as your ear gets trained to what the mandolin has to say about it.
zedmando
Mar-09-2015, 3:50pm
Welcome--some good tips on this thread & on this site.
Ask questions--these guys are knowledgeable--and I say this as a new mandolin player myself--with a lengthy guitar & bass background myself-(including church).
I've learned a lot here & from Don Julin's Mandolin for Dummies & Mandolin Exercises for Dummies.