Thank you Bertram & Gary for your kind comments. I had a nice Memorial Day watching the local parade during a beautiful sunny day! Bertram, the cup looks like it is about to fall off, but it really is ok, and there is more space that it seems.
Welcome Peter, amazing playing after 2 months. OS's tips on holding the instrument are on spot, IMHO. Tony, good to see you back with a solid effort. So many great and varied renditions of this tune. David H., pressed for time I had to resort to 'lazy' triplets, too. Trying to catch up after vacation in wild and wonderful West Virginia. No WiFi or cell phone most of the time! Which was great, only missed access to this great group.
Fresh'n Funny Manfred - I see you have a different playing position, reading the music from near the camera (one of the dots is really the lens?); looks very cool, like you were idly glancing at a vast audience, rows after rows of expectant faces shining up at you
OK, so I now redone my video but with Nigel Gatherer's version - I have only been on this website for 2 days and already I have learned loads from everybody (hold pick flatter, left hand not palming etc..), so thanks to y'all (see, I'm learning the lingo too!), but any more comments are welcome!
Peter... you are a quick learner! Both hands are much improved! You even kind of have the Chris Thile body language going on, too!
Manfred.... great to have you back and posting! It's quite a deal to be on vacation from the internet, isn't it? Hope you had a wonderful time!
Sounds great, Manfred and Peter. Here's one time through from me.
You're a professional, Peter, quickest adaptation I ever saw. Plus, what Barb said about Chris Thile body language, although you don't look as close to nirvana as he usually does. Don, those are clear statements for practical beauty, both the natural C and your mandolin apparently hanging from your neck by means of a computer cable
Bertram, the C seemed natural.
I'm another infiltrator from the Newbies group! Well, I've been learning mandolin for 2 1/2 years, but I had no experience with similar instruments before, and progress has been slow. I thought I knew the Galway Hornpipe well enough, but getting a full take on video is another story. This is as good as I've managed in the time available. I'm learning to put in some of the nice ornamentation I've seen and heard here, but I'm nowhere near up to speed with that yet. It's nice to revisit and rework this tune.
Gelsenbury, welcome to the group! Great first video.... tell us a little about yourself!
Nice playing everyone. I couldn't get this song out of my head (and into my hands). It was driving me nuts! I could not seem to get past section A and then only got section B. Anyway, here is my newbie version (4 months in) mistakes and all. I just noticed that my camera angle is not that good.
Ha, Gelsenbury, you made it to the right place, and with a good solid rendition at that! Good attack, solid timing, impeccable smile. Nanaimo, you've played all the notes and none missing. However, I think there is a giant metronome waiting in that closet behind you
Yes I do need to make friends with my metronome. Timing is all over the place! Yesterday I wanted to throw the notation out and today, it is all that is in my head. How can one song be so frustrating and yet so fun to play with?
Nanaimo, the metronome will help, and will help you get the the tunes right. For example, in this tune, which is 4/4 time, where will be four beats in every measure. When you are just starting out with the metronome, have it set to click 4 times for every measure (as you go along, you'll eventually most likely set it to click twice for every measure.) It was the measures with all those triplets that was tripping you up.... you have to get those three notes played in the space of one click (beat). In order to get them in, you'll probably have to start playing the whole tune slower, but that's OK. Just practicing (not a tune, just notes), with the metronome, to get the feel of playing at a steady pace, with various combinations of note values (quarter notes, eighth notes, dotted notes (like in the hornpipes) and triplets, and getting the feel of the what you have to do to keep on beat, will help immensely! The measures in this tune, with 4 sets of triplets in one measure, is something that takes a lot of practice, and there are probably many different ways that we all accomplish that. Personally, I believe that paying attention to your pick direction, is very important. I believe that (with rare occasions otherwise, and some may say this is one of those), you should be picking a down stroke on the beat. I play a lot of jigs, which I employ the Down Up Down, Down Up Down picking school of thought. I have that ingrained into my picking arsenal. So, when I come upon triplets in hornpipes, I now pick them DUD, like I pick jigs. However, in this type of measure, once up to speed, I have a tendency to hammer the 2nd fret of the E string, and hammer the 2nd fret of the A string (not pick) on the second notes of those particular triplets, and then pick DUD on the other triplets. It's hard to put it into words, but easy to do! All it takes is practice.... LOTS of practice! Welcome to the group!
Good effort, Gelsenbury. Here is a piece of advice from a not-so-long-ago newbie: At this stage, don't worry about ornamentation too much. Play with a metronome most of the time and try to play EVERY note CLEANLY. Once you can do that, speed it up a few clicks. (Relative) speed will come with time. Nanaimo, almost everything has been said above. I only would like to add that you should first play a version WITHOUT triplets and try to get that right and clean with your metronome. Triplets are a challenge both in terms of timing AND speed. You will get to them eventually. Just my humble opinion.
Thanks for the feedback. Pick direction something I have been working on. I have used the metronome during to practice timing as you have suggested. I just need to do this more frequently.
Manfred, I agree. In my mind, though, the triplets in this tune aren't really ornamentation, rather, notes of the tune. However, I see how you could pare the tune down, and play it with 2 notes in the space of the three notes, which makes it easier, but in this case, I think that learning how to put the triplets into a tune where they really are, is something worth working on! Nanaimo.... I believe that pick direction is a very important thing to work on. When I am learning a tune, or even a tune I've known for a while, and I come to a measure where I just stumble.... if I slow it down, and play it, almost always, the place where I'm having problems, is one where I've inadvertently gotten my pick direction out of whack. I like to think of my picking hand like a metronome... The habit that I had ingrained in my playing, before I realized the importance of pick direction, was when I was going from a higher string (ie A) to the next lower string (ie D), I would pick the note on the D string up, since I was going in that direction. However, many times, that note is on the beat, and should be picked as a down stroke.
Since starting with my teacher, Don, 2 months ago, pick direction and right hand have been the main concentration. I agree that when I notice an error in my play, it is often when the pick direction is incorrect. My brain has a tendency to freeze up for a moment at that stage and it throws the series of notes off. Lots to work on! Still having fun! Kelly
Thank you for the welcome and comments! Barbara, I'll post an introduction in the just-bumped thread in a minute. Manfred, I agree with you. My priorities so far have been to learn tunes and to play as cleanly as possible. The video isn't my best effort, but the best I could do for the moment (with the scary video running!). I'm now at a stage where I've been playing my first few tunes for quite a long time and want to do something else with them.
I made a video with a metronome set at 60 bpm, and went through some practice picking.... just down strokes, then added in the dotted upstrokes, then demonstrated how I pick the triplets in a hornpipe. Then I ran through the measure of 4 sets of triplets, showing how I hammer the first and third set in the measure. Then, I played the hornpipe once through, along with the metronome.
Thank you Barbara. That is helpful. Kelly
I have just spent the last hour and a half at 60 bpm and have been able to work through the tune pretty well with triplets and correct picking direction. It allowed me to count properly and breath too! I know that starting at a slow tempo and playing it in correct time and clearly is going to become my mantra. As has been stated many times in this thread - good technique before speed.
Thanks Barbara. I'm on my metronome here too. Right where I need to be.
Here it is, rough and ready...
Long way to go on it ... but...still workin' on it. Hope I can keep on and in another 6 months have something better. Really like having these memorized tunes as platforms for practice. Hope it's ok to bring in 'progress reports.' Karon
The most important thing you've got down Karon: timing is right. Slow but steady. The rest will be just peanuts
I'm with Bertram about getting the timing right and then on to the peanuts ... and you have the timing down. Memorized tunes are the best way to practice for me as well.
Wow this tune really was popular! Lots of great picking and different approaches. It was great fun listening to all the different versions. I was especially interested in the tenor banjo versions -- I'm definitely going to try that! I thought I might as well post my efforts on the tune. The first is an attempt on the mandolin that I did a while ago. I'm playing along with a computer generated program of chords. The second I did today on my Weber octave. Here I am playing along with a fine Irish team (Joe and Adele Greene) they are playing just a tad too fast for me I found out as I get into the tune -- I was gasping to keep up. I need to go to the wood shed and work on it I guess!
That's one solid right hand technique Bernie, knocking maximum tone out of any instrument. It's one of the pillars unbeatable style rests on; another pillar would be exact timing, that's one for the woodshed. On the octave, you are sometimes behind the background track, sometimes in front, just a little bit - I know you know that, from the way you finished that video
Thanks! Yeah I was really frustrated with the octave "tempo flux"!. I'll probably re-post it soon -- it was indeed annoying. At the end of the fist two recording attempts were some verbal expressions of my dissatisfaction. I think I know the problem though I was having trouble hearing the back up -- so I need to rearrange things so the can turn volume on the back up track and still match the octave. But also fiddlers need to slow down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Galway Hornpipe played on my first good mandolin, and still my best, a 1920 A model with J75's.
I love the tone on your mandolin. I had a 1919 A model which I traded for my present F2 and I still miss that old mandolin greatly. Nice playing on the tune too! I tend to like the heavier strings and I've been using EXP75s on all my mandolins for years now. They just last and last...
