I need an "ah-ha" moment

[cedarhog]

I'm starting to get into a mandolin rut. Playing the same licks and songs. I'd like to possibly learn some little new nugget or gem to add to my quiver. I'm more of a visual learner so if you have come across a video on youtube or elsewhere that taught you something that has really helped you learn a lick, concept, pattern etc..that has enhanced your playing I'd love to watch it. I don't care what genre it is, I just want to taste something new. If not a video I'm open to other things.:)

[cedarhog]

guess my ah-ha moment is...I aint getting one..:))

[re simmers]

Re-tune and learn "Get Up John." I don't know if there's a video lesson on the web, but I think it's on the Monroe/Hartford/Bush 2-Video set.

Bob

[JeffD]

I took a week long advanced mandolin workshop and it rocked my world. Yea I learned a lot of "things" but mostly it was that I suddenly saw the mandolin fretboard in a new way. And a whole bunch of bits and pieces of mandolin technique and hints and tips suddenly came together.

I would not know what to do to replicate it for you, because the details as to what would do it for you are different. Everyone would find something else mind changing. But I know exactly what you are seeking, and it is out there.

Part of it was total immersion, I was away from my home, my work, my normal musical friends. That somehow freed me up, or opened me up - free to be a beginner again or something.

Part of it was that it was relentless. It was harder and more challenging than I wanted. Until I got it. I was forced over some line, forced out of some paradigm, forced to experience the limitations to how I saw things before. Something like that.

And part of it was probably that I was ready. I had enough technique and understanding to get it, but not enough to have gotten it on my own.

That was years ago, but I haven't come down yet. I would not have described myself as being in a rut necessarily, but everything moved to a higher level of technique, confidence, sound quality, enthusiasm.

Going with this theme of ah-ha zen like enlightment I have to say there is truth to the aphorism that when the student is ready the teacher appears.

[JeffD]

Here is something you might try.

Get a cheapy mandolin, a second. One that is not an investment but a back up, a way back there backup.

Tune it in a cross tuning. Leave it in cross, and noodle around and see what is possible.

[Ed Goist]

Nobody inspires me more than Jeff Bird.
So, here are a couple featuring his great playing. The first with him on his 1919 F2, and the second with him on his 1958 EM200 Florentine electric.
These videos have both kick-started my mando-juices at different times over the past year. I hope you find them inspirational as well!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_4sHghAdtU


https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1891427247882

[Don Grieser]

Thanks, Ed. That was a really cool Powderfinger.

cedarhog, learning some tunes in GDGD or AEAE tuning can really get me going. Or learning tunes I already know on the mandola can open up all kinds of new possibilities.

[Ivan Kelsall]

If i find myself getting in anything like a 'rut',i go onto YouTube,search for anything either Bluegrass / Mandolin & play along with anything that takes my fancy. Other than that,i also use 2 I'net Bluegrass radio stations to pick along with - 'The Bluegrass Mix' & 'Front Porch Bluegrass'. I use 'em like an on-line jam session,lots of stuff i've never heard of to try to pick along with. It certainly shakes the cobwebs off,
Ivan

[sgarrity]

If you're a visual learner, try challenging yourself to learn a tune completely by ear.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Cedar Hog,
Ted Eschliman's FFcP were a collective aha moment for me. I go back to those exercises when I feel rusty.

Daniel

[Cheryl Watson]

Start creating your own solos out of chords, arpeggios, and if you are good at humming out a tune, hum notes and find them on the mandolin. Tab out and/or record what you created.

[Matt Bowe]

Easy. Play something you don't know. :)

[farmerjones]

Along the lines of FFcF, and this is for somebody that doesn't nes. learn from tab or notation, learn a new key, or two. The cherries being G, D, & A. Learn some stuff in Bb, F or E. (C being somewhere in between) Going back to the easy keys, you may find new territory, or a new approach to the old stuff.

Or learn the "round the horn" turn around. The chord progression: B, Em, A, D, G.
Then just add that to some home-made I-IV-V tune. Viola, you're a jazz man. :)

[SternART]

Go to the Mandolin Symposium..........it will rock your mandolin world!

[CES]

Youtube Jim Richter and figure out Voodoo Chile by watching his video...

[AlanN]

The ease of the computer is both a boon and a bane. I don't do youtube for inspiration, licks, learning, etc. Perhaps I'm old school and am not running down the info super highway with everybody else (at the risk of being left behind, perhaps), but I find inspiration in the sounds and in my brain and fingers.

I hit a jam sometimes at a banjo picker's home. He is learning (ain't we all). He has the laptop within arms reach at all times. If a tune comes up he hasn't picked, he stops and youtubes it, invariably gets a Skaggs or a Hicks or a Monroe or a ... picking it. He stops and looks at it. I find that to be a jam deal killer, for me. He is looking for somebody else for guidance/ideas/groove, where he should be looking within. I am tempted to say "for 2 hours tonight, lose the laptop, work on your thing". But, I haven't. It's his home, his thing, his way of 'learning'.

I read in an interview with Jesse McReynolds where he was asked who he listened to. His answer was basically " I don't want to listen to anybody else. I want to make my own music". Or something like that. As though listening to other pickers may unduly influence his thing. Kind of my feeling, as well. And YMMV, of course. And don't get me wrong, youtube content is a marvel. Just last night was checking out an old Art Pepper video on there. Marvelous.

To the OP: to jazz up your picking, throw in a dim lick over the V chord. Works wonders.

[barney 59]

Huh! I never considered that there was a down side to all this very cool technology. Back in the day if you got into playing music there were records,lessons and when possible live performances. You would have to go out and seek others to play with and that is where you might learn a little trick or hear a name like Red Rector and then you would luckily run into one of his recordings at a record store.If you were really lucky it would be the right one. You would then have to wear the record out trying to decipher what was on the record. When all this stuff started to be available on the Internet my first reaction was "Oh Man, If this had been available when I started out!" Now you can SEE someone do something over and over and I find that to be invaluable in studying a particular players technique. The first time I heard Chris Thili what struck me was "How does he get that wonderful tone?" I can watch him now over and over -I can see how he holds the pick,uses his wrist etc. but I don't know what real use it would be if I hadn't learned some basic fundamentals that had to do with my EARS and my brain before hand. Music is invisible,there isn't much to see. I would suggest that you practice scales,and find a really good teacher. Listen to a piece of music until you can hum or whistle the melody all the way through then go and hunt it on the mandolin. Play the mandolin continuously until you reach a trance like state (about 6 hours for me) at that point you may be visited by one of the Muses that will impart some little tidbit of musical understanding that you had never known before.

[Tom F]

I agree with the.... learning something totally be ear. And for me, using the Amazing Slow Downer or similar program helps quite a bit and gets you started. Pick a song, input to the program, set up a "loop" for a set of measures, slow it down, grab the mando and keep repeating until you get it, then go on to the next set of measures. This can be quite time consuming the first couple times, but that will improve.

After about a half year of this, try not using the slow down program, but just listen to a tune many times over, learn the melody in your head, then try figuring it out on the instrument just by sheer noodling. Lots of folks learn the melody by singing it, then picking up the instrument. I am currently figuring out Mucky Duck by Greencards this way.

[farmerjones]

I'd have to interject, taking what you already know and putting it within the context of a jam, or even just playin with a pickin buddy, is the key to life IMHO.
Though i've never done it. Skype can be a connection to a pickin buddy, if a local just can't be found. Playing with somebody is so key, i've been known to "buy a buddy." Better known as, taking a lesson, or master class, when i'm away from home. :)

Banjer pickers with laptops umbillicaly connected? What next? Accordianist with a Marshall stack?:))

[Graham Rodger]

I have a Kentucky KM 160 and it is surprisingly good,a chinese 2006 model i think.I have tried older but laminate back and side instruments and the Kentucky still sounds pretty good,needed set up though,all solid but pressed top and back I think.

[Ivan Kelsall]

From AlanN - "I don't do youtube for inspiration......". I use YouTube almost solely because it's mostly stuff i haven't heard,plus,other than CD's it's the only chance i get to play with others,however remotely !. It's a sad fact that for many of us , that we don't have other musicians to play with. In 48 years of Banjo playing at a professional level of competance,i've probably spent 43 years as a 'bedroom picker'. You have to get music wherever you can find it - unfortunately for many of us,it's CDs,radio or zilch !!,
Ivan:(

[AlanN]

I understand completely. For those 'fellow-picker-constrained' folks, yt can be a blessing.

I am just saying that, for me, watching somebody else pick and do their thing (especially on a screen) only makes me want to do mine. And in a jam, I find the computer to be a general distraction.

There is nothing I like more than picking with somebody else and grabbing a nugget or 2. Thievery is a good thing :mandosmiley:. Like last night, was working on a JR waltz he used to pick in the TRU days, in D chord. Has this lovely D9 presence, he really gets it on his note selection and attack. Also messed with Vonetta, a la Dave Peters. "I lift, therefore I am".

[Perry]

Every once in a while I concentrate on my guitar playing for a few months. That helps me break through ruts on the mandolin. If you don't play another instrument just put the mandolin down for a week or two. Come back to it fresh.


Some other ideas that may help:

Take a fiddle tune you know very well and learn it in a different key.

If you don't already.....learn how to read standard notation.

Play some violin etudes or mandolin classical first position studies. Check out Mike Marshall's Bach book.

If you are a fiddle tune guy check out "Mark O'Connor: The Championship Years" book of transcriptions...chock full of fresh ideas.

Immerse yourself in Monroe style mandolin...an entirely different take on things.

[gr_store_feet]

cedarhog: I have been working on this and enjoying it:


http://vimeo.com/21608138

[AlanN]

That is very great, all the way around. Chops.

[Willie Poole]

I play everything by ear and I understand that some people never get to the point where they can do that, mainly because they never put the tabs or sheet music in a drawer or some where where they can`t rely on it everytime they pick......I go through my many song books and find a song that I am somewhat familiar with and work up my own version of it, like Allen stated, find your own style....I don`t know how many of you remember the days of good country music and traditional bluegrass but every band had its own sound and within three note of the intro you knew who the band/singer was without the announcer telling you, now days too many bands sound the same as the one that just finished a song on the radio, with digital equipment it will get even worse....

In short copying licks from someone else can be rewarding but try not to copy their complete style, we don`t want everyone to sound the same...I know people tell me my picking is far different from anyone elses, that could be good or bad, I don`t know but most people seem to enjoy it...

Good luck but don`t give up, we all get in a rut and a little bored at times......Willie

[Toycona]

When I hit the wall, I take a couple of days off, listen to lots of different kinds of music, then go back to it with a brand new song.

[cedarhog]

Thanks for the suggestions.......I will work on some of them. When I said I was a visual learner I like to know where to start and see that its possible........but I usually figure stuff out by ear. I try to get off paper as soon as possible.

[JonZ]

This oughtta do the trick!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwxvOKuLUQ0