Modest Mandolin Malarky

Here's sound sample of the results of my efforts. It sounds kind of rough to my ears. I would work to smooth out my picking so variation in dynamic is more subtle and less harsh when I'm emphasizing some of the high notes in the melody section. In our performance I played melody, so I'm a bit rusty on the harmony.

As I've mentioned before, I have the utmost respect to those whose recording sound good, 'cause making a decent recording is very hard work.

Attached Files

• MandolinFanfare12182008.mp3 (886.4 KB, 940 views)

Success is in the eyes of the audience, it seems. Jeff and I had a very successful performance this morning. There must have been well over 100 people/co-workers/administrators in the audience. We both choked a bit at different times, but both kept playing through it all. It felt great to hear lots of very positive feedback throughout the day. Biggest high for me was simply playing a duet together with someone else who enjoys it. The timing was good, tone was good, mutual support was good. I'd gladly ...

More practice on that transition is helping. Taking things very slowly to analyze the hand and finger movement to make it happen have really started to pay off. Holding the last G with my ring finger while starting to move my index finger up is the trick here. It brings back old "shifting" memories when I played cello many years ago.

Speaking of 'cello, I got to play around on a wonderful baritone guitar this morning. Got me chomping at the bit for the 4 string 'cello still ...

Got to play both melody and harmony many times over the weekend. The tune is finally starting to sink in and fall under my fingers. The transition is slowly getting easier. Got to play it once briefly with Les at our church retreat. That helped tremendously. Now to actually get together with Jeff and practice the thing. Only 10 days to go.

Continuing to work-out the transition. Taking it slow. Also practicing some with my eyes closed so I can simply "feel it" instead of count on my eyes to "see it." Haven't touched that harmony part since day 1.