Are you a better mandolin player today than you were a year ago?

[Bob Borzelleri]

I should start off by saying that I am better than I was last year at this time; mostly as a result of focusing on every day practice and a lot more metronome than I used to use.

In fact, I'm better than I was 6 months ago and the increment of "better" is greater than that which I have experienced in any similar time period. I haven't had one of those "am I actually getting worse at this?" feelings in a long time.

Practice, practice, practice and a bit of tick tock seems to have gone a long way.

[newf playing a mando]

I too feel that I am better than I was one year ago. I bought a new mando for myself and play everyday. want to get better though.

[Explorer]

I'm definitely better than I was just 3 months ago.

I decided to rip my way through "The Complete Mandolinist" by Marilynn Mair for work on sight reading, classical chops and reading across two staves (combining the duets into one coherent piece), while simultaneously working through "Getting Into Jazz Mandolin" by Ted Eschliman and "Swing Jazz Violin With Hot Club Rhythm" by Jeremy Cohen and Dix Bruce. My sight reading is definitely light years ahead of when I started (to say nothing of standard reading), my picking and fingering have improved, and I'm getting much better at ear work.

I have to say that I was mainly inspired by those who kept arguing that practice alone wasn't enough to get to where others say one is talented. If I had been naturally talented at these things, I would have gotten to this point on my own long ago, and yet 3 months of these excellent teachers, combined with dedicated practice, have gotten me to the point where others assume that it's just natural.

It is interesting, though, to see the inertia of those who would rather put the credit for someone's ability on talent. It's as if they want to be let off the hook for not putting in the time themselves, and so it has to be something other than their own lack of grunt work that keeps them from achieving....

[Rick Schmidlin]

Much much better, getting better all the time.

[Jill McAuley]

Oh, miles better! I trace it all back to getting a nicer mandolin, which was so lovely to play that I couldn't put it down, so I played/practiced more - it's one of the laws of learning: behavior that is reinforced goes up in frequency!

Cheers,
Jill

[Matt DeBlass]

Definitely, especially since I didn't even own a mandolin until this June.

[John Flynn]

Not sure, honestly. I'm definitely better at some things, like reading music and also playing the octave mandolin, which I only started about a year and a half ago. Not mandolin-related, but I have been singing more in my church music group, rather than just being and instrumentalist, and I've made great leaps ahead vocally in the last year. That's pretty satisfying to me.

But there are some other things I used to be good at that I think I've let slip. I'm no longer in a string band, I don't go to jams much any more and I've stopped taking lessons. That may or may not have affected my actual ability, but I haven't been progressing like I had in past years and my fiddle tune repertoire has just gone to heck. After about six years of pretty steady improvement, I think I've hit a plateau, although I have enough other issues in my life right now that it's not a priority. Outside of church, I pretty much just plunk around on the mandolin to de-stress.

[Cathal Whelehan]

I didn't play the mandolin a year ago so I'm significantly better at it than last year :mandosmiley:

To answer the question differently, though, I'd definitely say I'm a much better alround musician than I was a year ago, thanks to the mando.

I first picked up guitar many years ago with the aid of a brother and his knowledge of four chords and a songbook of The Smiths with chord diagrams. Never had any formal training (and being honest you could always tell).

Three or four months ago I bought a cheap mandolin to speed up tune learning for the tenor banjo (which was originally what I wanted to learn) but I've hardly been able to put it down. I did soon realise though that the way I'd been picking a guitar for years was not going to work on it so learned the proper pick grip and hand actions etc.

As I thoroughly enjoyed that and especially the difference in the results I got from it (my mandolin even sounded like a mandolin!) I decided to do everything properly and get as good a footing in it as I can and so started with learning music theory which I'm getting along with surprisingly quickly.

I didn't have the first clue about scales before but now I even know what note I'm playing and have started to learn the same theories on the guitar so that I can get beyond the point I've been stuck at for years.

The mandolin has certainly been the catalyst for improvements all across the board. Absolutely delighted to have discovered it.

[farmerjones]

Sure, why not.
To me music is a habit. Like flossing, but more fun. I may not catch (learn) something everyday, but i cast my net everyday just in case.

It's interesting to read about people quitting. Do you quit drinking water?
Do you quit washing your socks? If you do something to the point of not thinking about it, you sort of remove the comparison to others. But it does sometimes get to the same point of discussing washing socks or drinking water.

This place helps keep things fresh.

[Cathal Whelehan]

Sure, why not.
To me music is a habit. Like flossing, but more fun. I may not catch (learn) something everyday, but i cast my net everyday just in case.

It's interesting to read about people quitting. Do you quit drinking water?
Do you quit washing your socks? If you do something to the point of not thinking about it, you sort of remove the comparison to others. But it does sometimes get to the same point of discussing washing socks or drinking water.

This place helps keep things fresh.

Thanks farmerjones, you've just reminded me of one other enormous improvement mandolin playing has brought about in me.

I'm a translator by profession (German -> English, mostly real estate stuff) and work from home. When I'm working and a lot of complex topics are being dealt with (or even if I just feel like it) frequent short breaks are needed to clear the head.

Before I bought a mandolin, these breaks would be used for smoking (I don't smoke at my desk; I go to another room where there's a balcony and smoke out there).

Once the mandolin was bought and no thought had been given to where it would be propped (it didn't have a case), I just leaned it against a bookcase on top of a stack of magazines and the like, directly within arm's reach of my seat.

Now when I'm taking a break from complicated words I don't even get up. Gone from smoking about 30 a day to about 4 or 5 and I haven't even noticed it happening on account of being completely engrossed in a musical instrument.

I bet noone else has a $40 mandolin that they can really claim to have got so much value from. :)

[JeffD]

It's interesting to read about people quitting. Do you quit drinking water?


Wow. Thats it exactly.

[James P]

Chop chords, drink water. ;-)

[JeffD]

Seeing progress is a gigantic motivator.

If your goals are specific, is easier to tell if you have made progress.

Goal: play tremolo
Assessment: Can I tremolo?
Result: Yes
Progress: Yes

Just because of the way things have worked out, I had much more opportunity to play this year than in past years.

The result is an increase in jam skills: learning tunes on the fly, remembering tunes I learned years ago, figuring out how to play a known tune in a different key on the fly, two finger backups and turn arounds in different keys, and plain old duration.

One goal I have made progress on is increased patience with all levels of playing, and I am having more fun as a result.

[John Flynn]

Do you quit washing your socks?
You're supposed to wash them? Why? :disbelief:

Seriously, I went through the "quitting" thing with my wife. For years she said she wanted to learn to play the dulcimer, so I built her one from a kit as a surprise gift for Christmas one year. The dulcimer turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. Also, with her permission, I enrolled her in a dulcimer class, got her private lessons with the teacher of the class, who was a friend of mine, and got her all kinds of instructional aids. I was also as careful as I could be not to put any undue pressure on her about it, other than providing the resources. She tried it for a while, and then gave it up.

Her main problem, and I think this is key to this topic, was that she was embarrassed that she "wasn't learning it right away" and was "not showing any musical aptitude," even though I thought she was making progress and so did her instructor. I explained that instant progress is not necessarily the name of the game and while she agreed intellectually, she just couldn't get past it. So the dulcimer sits in the closet, except when I play it occasionally.

I think you have to love playing, even when, I take that back, ESPECIALLY when, you are not making some objective concept of "progress." I think you have to say to yourself, "I am going to try my best to get better at this, but even if I don't, I will continue to enjoy playing, even if it's only three chords or the melody to 'Three Blind Mice'"

[farmerjones]

Ha! Did you know Jerry Lewis wore socks once, then pitched them?

I suppose everybody has an inner voice that tells them to do something a second, then a third time. If it's a good thing, it's a "habit." If it's a bad, it's an "addiction." There's probably endorphens involved, im sure somebody here knows. But that early success builds upon itself doesn't it? I mean, if you want to play Woodchoppers, and you just wiggle your fingers and it comes out, that encourages you. That's not a teacher, or a spouse, that's a personal zinger.

For 20 years i was musically dormant. Then i found these things tuned in 5ths.
It just clicked. It could have just as easily not.

Thanks for the story about the dulcimer. That's so unfortunate.

BTW i cannot play woodchoppers. . . . . yet

[Rob Gerety]

Yea, - but one would hope so since a year ago I didn't play mandolin at all.
Maybe its just my way of rationalizing - but I do find that when I spring for a real good instrument it motivates me and makes it all easier and more fun. That happened to me with guitar. So, plans are in the works on the mando front.

[Alex Orr]

Yep, much, much better, though still lots of room for improvement. I've been playing for nearly three years and I think I'm kind of reaching my first plateau. On the one hand it's kind of frustrating: I don't think there's going to be much more rapid progress doing the things I've been doing and it's leaving me less enthused about practicing. On the other hand it's sort've exciting: I've worked hard enough and learned enough that I may have reached a point where I can't really teach myself anymore. I've got a few things I want to wrap up in the next few weeks but within a month I'm going to start taking lessons for the first time. I want to spend the next year or more really working at creating decent improvisational lead breaks, making my playing bluesier and more biting, and digging into Monroe style. I've got a shelf full of instructional materials that I've either skimmed through and worked over very dilligently in the last three years. I feel like where I'm at in terms of my goals and my current skill level sort've demands a good instructor. Luckily there are several good ones in the D.C. region.

[gregjones]

No, I'm not. There could be several easy explanations as to why I'm not, but the bottom line places the blame on me.

Lack of practice (I blame it on lack of time, but it's really time not spent well), and discipline in the time I do get to practice.

Last month I got a beater. It's at arms length. If I get a few minutes I can grab it. No case, no worries about dings, no wiping down when done and no climate concerns. I get a lot of "bits" of time to use it. All in all, I probably practice twice as much as I did two months ago.

I wrote down a practice routine. I have my target in front of me. No more trying to do everything. I aim at improving a few select areas and spend the "bits" of time I get working on them.

I'm not a better player than I was a year ago, but I'm a better player than I was a month ago.

Ask this question next year.

[Dave Weiss]

Quite a bit of improvement in the last year (also my first year). I'd bought a Christmas book last year and really struggled with it, I pulled it out a couple of weeks ago and breezed through every song... I mostly learn by playing tunes (daily). There are many, many things that I want (read that need) to learn, but I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making so far. I play for my own recreation and don't have any time limits

[James P]

I'm better at my set 'cause that's about all I have time to work on. There's some material I had down last year that would need a little work to play now, but I think that'll always be the case.

[ApK]

Nope, I'm not. I'm totally OK with that, since I really just own a mandolin and enjoy playing it occasionally. I have no mandolin-specific goals or aspirations. That I can strum a couple chords and pick out a fiddle tune or two is more than I ever thought I'd be able to do.

My guitar goals were similar, All I ever hoped for was to be able to strum three-chords songs around a campfire. My progress past that point over the past few years is all gravy. I thought about setting new goals, but that would turn it into work, and I'm just too happy having fun with it.

ApK

[Steelee]

Yes - for sure.

Now in year 3. Can play over 30 bg tunes. Can play abit of tremelo. Can play with a guitar friend. Speed and up/down picking improved. Ear for music is the most improved over last year.

I practice almost every night for an hour before bed - I sleep better. Also, got a better quality mandolin which seems to help.

I like learning. Even if I don't get any better, I will continue to play and learn new tunes and stuff. I am 60 years old now, and having a blast playing the mandolin.

[smokyt81]

Taking into account that I didn't own a mandolin, I think I've improved in leaps and bounds, especially over the past few months. I think the biggest thing that's helped me is not only the obvious answer(practicing every chance I get), but also the variety of music I've been playing. I play every sat. morning at the sat. morning jam at the local music store, where I get a chance to play off the other break player(my dad, who's been flatpicking since he was 9), I back another singer up in a duet setting, which let's me kind of fly on my own, and I pick tunes with my dad. The last one let's me get a chance to really work on embellishing a melody. The bluegrass band I'm in has two/three singers, neither of whom sound like my duet partner, which gives me three different styles of singing to learn to work with. And most importantly to me, it's all helped me ear and increased my knowledge of the fretboard immensely.:mandosmiley:

[Dfyngravity]

For certain. But I am playing with people much more often now and that has really pushed my playing into another level. Sitting and practicing by yourself is great but nothing beats playing with a group of people.