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thistle3585
Feb-12-2004, 4:51pm
Another thread inspired me to ask this question. Instead of what tunes should I learn to go to jams. How about what tunes should I learn to develop/workon/practice specific techniques. Ie:crosspicking, righthand technique, tremelo etc.

I asked my instructor what songs I should play when we started and he asked what I wanted to learn. I had no idea, so he said lets learn songs that teach techniques. So, I learned Blackberry Blossom to get familiar with the fret board in the first position plus to use my pinky, Roland White's version of Amazing Grace to learn tremelo and sustained tremolo, "I'll Fly Away" to work on right hand technique(kind of that chug-chuga sound I hear from Compton, Evening Prayer Blues to get an idea of "playing hard"(At least, thats how Frank Wakefield described it.) and swallowtail jig to get an idea of playing triplets. Of course, at the time, I didn't know that is why these were being suggested, but I have found that by working on the techniques, that I stumble less when I go to learn a new song. Also, I did a Thile song to get an idea of crosspicking. That'll take some time.

So, what songs really reinforce what techniques?

John Flynn
Feb-12-2004, 5:46pm
I can relate to your question better if it is phrased another way: "What tune arrangements reinforce what techniques?" There may be exceptions, but most bare-bones tunes don't require any of the "special effects" techniques you mention. However, most good mandolin players out there use those techniques as "tools" if you will, to put thier own personal embellishments on tunes they record. Roland White could have just as easily done "Amazing Grace" with no tremlo, it just wouldn't have sounded like he obviously wanted it to. You can add any or all of those techniques you mention to most any tune.

The answer to that re-phrased question, IMHO, may sound evasive, but it is really meant to be helpful. The answer, IMHO, is "The tunes you hear that you like the sound of that technique on." If you just learn a tune to learn a technique, that is a much harder route than saying, "Boy, I like the tremlo sound that Roland White gets on "Amazing Grace. I am going to learn that arrangement of that tune to learn to make that sound." I find there is something that happens in the brain when you have that desired sound in your mind that facilitates learning and only you can pick those desired sounds/tunes for yourself.

Example: I tried unsuccessfully to learn crosspicking for months, just couldn't get the hang of it. Then my instructor taught me his version of "Westphalia Waltz," which has some cross-picking in it that just sounded really cool to me. I "turned the corner" on cross-picking within a week learning that tune and now I am doing it on a bunch of tunes that I have even never heard cross-picked before!