How do you strum pick?

[cedarhog]

I have been watching a few TV programs and watching groups that have mandolin players and I have always wondered how do they strum pick. I don't know how to explain it any better than that. They appear to be strumming very quickly and are also playing the melody pretty cleanly. They don't seem to be taking the effort to go after individual strings. I'm sure it only looks that way, but I'd like to play more in the area of this strum picking. If someone knows what I'm talking about perhaps you could enlighten me on what they are actually doing and who I might look up on youtube to get a better understanding on how to learn this technique....thanks

[man dough nollij]

Could you find an example of someone doing this from YouTube? I'm not sure what you're referring to.

P.S: I looked at your YouTube channel. You look much different without the bandana!

[ChrisStewart]

billkilpatrick did a nice arrangement with several tunes in the song-a-week group where he basically mixed chords with melody (can't find the thread though)

I think you are just describing playing out of the chords where you let the chord be the base and add a few individual notes to it.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

CedarHog,
If you mean what I think you mean, Mike Compton is your man. He is the master at this technique.

Though his style is different than the Duo-Style (the other style to which you might be referring), which is best exemplified these days by Evan Marshall.

Daniel

[Jim Broyles]

Cedarhog, do you mean like Sam Bush is doing here?
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[billkilpatrick]

thanks chris. below's an example of mixing chords with the melody line - "C" seems easier to do than other keys but it also depends on the song:

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[man dough nollij]

Cedarhog, do you mean like Sam Bush is doing here?



That's just not right. Surely the concentration of that much talent in one place contributes to global warming. Or at least a warping of the local space-time continuum...:disbelief:

[cedarhog]

Yeah Sam Bush does it...and many other do others like one of my favorite bands "Jackstraw". Here is a video I took of them..might load slow but worth a view.http://www.livevideo.com/video/A056080CE5474395BAF51C77AAA4C3E1/jackstraw.aspx

[OldSausage]

The mandolin picker in that video is pretty much playing Bill Monroe's Tennessee Blues - you can find the tab for that on the Mandozine web site.