Kelly_guy
Aug-01-2005, 8:55am
Hallelujah! I can pick faster, with a much cleaner sound now! I'm still probably in the "slow" category compared to you real mando players, but I've been struggling with speed and clean sound since I started playing, and now I seem to have found a solution.
I was taking lessons last year from a jazz mandolinist, and he insisted that I try playing with his RH technique. He has incredibly good tone and speed, but he plays with a "gypsy" style of wrist, sort of dangling. He picks the strings at an angle too, and he picks into the strings on the down stroke and out of the strings on the up stroke. The down stroke is sort of like a rest stroke in classical guitar: the pick comes to rest on the adjacent string.
I said during lessons that Chris Thile advocates a very different technique on his DVD, but my instructor insisted that I try his method. And I think that is entirely fair--when you're with a certain instructor, you do it their way.
But I gave up lessons nearly a year ago, due to financial constraints (I'm becoming a schoolteacher). I didn't play for about 6 months, then I got back into playing bluegrass. But I struggled with that RH technique.
I went back to the Chris Thile video last week, and WOW! His technique tips were exactly what I was looking for. I now rest my wrist on the strings right behind the bridge, and I find that I can have lots of control and a very relaxed wrist that way.
Before, I struggled playing a simple tune like Old Joe Clark at anything over 200 bpm. Now, I can play it cleanly at 220 bpm, and it still sounds quite good at 240 bpm. Fisher's Hornpipe is a tune I've played for years, and now I can play it very cleanly, whereas the string jumps always threw me off before.
This is so cool! It's given me a whole new motivation for playing more, and learning new tunes.
I was taking lessons last year from a jazz mandolinist, and he insisted that I try playing with his RH technique. He has incredibly good tone and speed, but he plays with a "gypsy" style of wrist, sort of dangling. He picks the strings at an angle too, and he picks into the strings on the down stroke and out of the strings on the up stroke. The down stroke is sort of like a rest stroke in classical guitar: the pick comes to rest on the adjacent string.
I said during lessons that Chris Thile advocates a very different technique on his DVD, but my instructor insisted that I try his method. And I think that is entirely fair--when you're with a certain instructor, you do it their way.
But I gave up lessons nearly a year ago, due to financial constraints (I'm becoming a schoolteacher). I didn't play for about 6 months, then I got back into playing bluegrass. But I struggled with that RH technique.
I went back to the Chris Thile video last week, and WOW! His technique tips were exactly what I was looking for. I now rest my wrist on the strings right behind the bridge, and I find that I can have lots of control and a very relaxed wrist that way.
Before, I struggled playing a simple tune like Old Joe Clark at anything over 200 bpm. Now, I can play it cleanly at 220 bpm, and it still sounds quite good at 240 bpm. Fisher's Hornpipe is a tune I've played for years, and now I can play it very cleanly, whereas the string jumps always threw me off before.
This is so cool! It's given me a whole new motivation for playing more, and learning new tunes.