Stumbling Toward Competence

Not difficult.

I learned to do it as a child, and now I am being pushed by Mike Marshall to do it again. How I have gone about it.

1. Drill on the flash cards on Mandozine.com
2. Did the first couple of exercises in Marylinn Mair's book.
3. Picked a simple tune from the Fiddler's Fakebook.

Point 1: teaches you the notes on the staff (if you don't already know them from Every Good Boys Deserve Fudge type mnemonics) and more importantly where they lay on the fretboard. ...

I'm not sure what it is about picking up the mandolin after time away from it, but once I shake the dust out of the fingers and rebuild the calluses (if necessary) I have found that my playing has somehow gotten better. Its odd. Like my brain needed the time off to sort and arrange things for easier accessibility or something. I'm sure there are neuroscience articles on this, and I'm also sure time away should really best be limited to a week or two at most, not months at a time, but there we are. ...

...on fingertips. Highly annoying. And painful.

Lance it or leave it? Regardless, this callus will have a crater!