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Stumbling Toward Competence

Random thoughts of a hobby player with delusions of melody.

  1. One hour practice routine

    Despite the pressures of work, I am keeping my discipline and am practicing at least an hour at least 5 days a week! I am really pleased that my fingering is so much lighter, because that helps to play faster, cleaner.

    But what I am working on most is relaxed, good tone. And chords, what I have been skipping to date. Now seems to be a good time to work on them.

    How I am breaking down an hour to ensure I get a full workout:
    1. Aonzo scale exercise, at 90, 115,
    ...
  2. Playing what you know

    Back from vacation, and a few outstanding questions have been answered. One, it takes only two practice sessions until you can noticeably tell the callouses are rebuilding. Two, going from 85F to 0F can depress your immune system (*cough*).

    My last blog entry provoked more response than any other, centering around this comment:
    The biggest problem I have had before is that my background is not from bluegrass, and learning a new genre of music when learning an instrument is
    ...
  3. Long time off

    The past few years have been difficult for various personal reasons, and this year has been a bit of a tipping point for me. It just got so that playing the mandolin brought no joy--or seemed too much of an effort to bother.

    So, I went on a hiatus for a while, and knowing that exercise helps mild depressions, I placed some focus there for a while. After some minor surgery on my wrist (mentioned in the forums) I started reading the forums again, and listening to the mandolin music ...
  4. 6 Years

    6 years. Its been 6 years...and only now am I comfortable picking up, holding, and picking on the mandolin in the most basic way. Competence really is a stumble...one of these days I'll figure out how to fret clean every time.

    Still, got my first tune picked at 230 BPM the other day. I feel some sort of limit has been raised.
  5. Playing fast is easy

    Canadian mandolin wiz Andrew Collins made this point to me, so I should give credit where its due. His quote is, "Playing fast is easy. Can you tremolo? You can play fast."

    The trick to the whole thing is to skip strings and play cleanly. That takes time with a metronome. There is no escaping the work.

    But rest assured, if you can tremolo, you will get there.

    Updated Jan-16-2010 at 6:50pm by jasona

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  6. "A complete musical workout"

    From a post in the musical theory forum, re: listen!

    I'm working through Bluegrass Up the Neck right now, and its proving to be a complete musical workout. Working just from tab leads me to play the notes like what Don Steirnberg has elsewhere called a "sewing machine". Listening to Niles and Eric on the CD, there is a bounce to the playing that I can only work out through hearing it, internalizing it, and playing it until it sounds right.

    This book is a ...
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  7. 2010 reset

    If Star Trek can reset an entire universe's continuity, I can reset my dedication and focus to the mandolin, right? Right?

    Work kept me hopping through the summer and fall, but I have regained some control over my schedule. I have picked up my mandolin again in early December (interrupted by two weeks vacation on Maui--it really lives up to all the hype), and have now rebuilt my callouses.

    I have Blackberry Blossom under my belt (am playing the O'Brien version from ...
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  8. Progress

    ...but not on the tune front.

    I've assumed some more responsibilities at work, and have taken up a hobby small business (to fund MAS of course!), and have been picking somewhat intermittently as a result over the past month and a half. I've returned with more dedication in recent days, and my newly set up mandolin has been playing so nicely that I realized today I wasn't thinking about how much better a thinner neck would be. I was just enjoying the tunes.
    ...
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  9. Adding tunes...

    So, this year's goal of adding in some serious tunage, and the related technique required to play them, is well underway. I'm working Billy in the Low Ground and Salt Creek up to speed (topping out around 180 bpm before it all falls apart). Next up will be two more standards: Cherokee Shuffle and Blackberry Blossom. All from the Steve Kaufman book I bought from him after his Calgary workshop. Thanks again Steve!

    Meanwhile, the discussion I raised about having too many things to work on at once ...
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  10. OK, chose.

    Tunes it is. I'll get as many as I can this year.

    Its the 8th of January, so I learned a simple little version of it today. Came nice and quick too!
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