Hello everybody, In my 9 months of mandolin playing I have to admit to a lot of laziness. I do not take lessons (although I am working through Greg Horne's very good books), and I have been playing just....whenever. It is easy to get disheartened, because progress is slow....which leads to less practice....even slower progress....more discouragement. OK, so my new goal is to play at least a little every day, and I am already seeing the fruits. "My Darling Asleep" and "Sally Gooden" are coming along, as I keep working toward more smoothness and speed. I have started looking at "Marie's Wedding" (great little tune), and I'm trying an experiment with it. Some folks say it is good to start by learning the last measure of a song first and then work backwards, measure by measure, to the beginning. The theory is that when you perform the song, you will become more and more confident as you approach the end. I've never tried that before, but that is how I am approaching "Marie's Wedding." Keep you posted! Karen
Hi Karen, Sounds like an interesting way to approach learning a song. I had never heard of it, so may give it a try to see what happens. I have been learning mandolin for a little over a year now and know a few songs. I also have guitars, ukulele, and a 3-row diatonic accordion which is my primary instrument. So, in my case it is not finding time to practice, but trying to practice with all of them. Too many toys! Perhaps, you can upload a video of Marie's Wedding when your ready. Take Care, Tony
If I may make a recommendation (I have similar experience with other hobbies), I'd say getting more serious is most often a bad idea. It usually ends up making a hobby into a chore that you have to do, in which case it's more like an addiction. I would recommend just playing it however you enjoy playing it. Making slow progress? Who cares! Unless you're trying to make money off playing it, there's really no NEED for you to get good fast, and you'll most likely progress faster if you just play it however makes you happy anyways. Then again, most of my experience comes from playing online games, so I could be wrong, but I think it translates well enough in this case. On another note, yes! You should post a video of Marie's Wedding :D I'd love to see someone else playing it on the mandolin. As I said before, it's one of my favorite tunes ^^
I'm going to have to split hairs with Didge on this one.... Structure doesn't have to result in drudgery. Personally, I like having a structured practice time, as well as time to fool around with the mandolin. I spend about 20 minutes doing structured stuff, and then the rest of the time messing with tunes. I don't do the same exercises every time, though. I'll pick a theme that I want to work on and choose exercises to help with that. Sometimes that exercise might be to really work out the proper pick direction on a tune, or work on FFCP, or simply to practice picking if I've discovered something (else) sloppy in how I'm doing it. I find it emotionally satisfying to put in the structure and see improvement... and that's how it has been on all of my hobbies. Then again, I'm the kind of person that has a box of index cards with mandolin exercises on them... so maybe I'm a sick,sick man who enjoys drudgery and addiction.... :\ In the end, I think it depends on your personality more than anything.
That's a very good point. I don't know, I suppose it does depend on your personality. I'm one who rarely takes hobbies too seriously, so I wouldn't, say, practice tremolo for a half-hour a day unless there was a tune I desperately wanted to play that required good tremolo. I just don't want to see anyone go down the road of, "I hate doing this but I have to get better." with a hobby. I guess it's just important to ask yourself "Why do I want to progress with this, and why do I want to progress at a certain rate?" Unless you have some sort of commitment to the hobby, there's no reason to beat yourself up for being lazy about it (not saying that Garden Music is), when it should just be for fun. I'm probably just taking the "lazy teenager" point of view, I just wouldn't continue with a hobby/practice regiment if the fruits of my labor weren't going to be worth it. Also, like I said earlier, people tend to progress more quickly when they're doing something they enjoy. So if you mix up your practice regiment (without being lazy like me) and make it more enjoyable, you'll probably end up progressing much faster, as well. But then again, this is coming from a college student with a couple months of mandolin experience, so *shrug*
Hello everyone, Now Didge, I said a "little" more serious! Trust me, I am only in this for the fun, and I won't let it become drudgery. However, that being said, I am finding that by trying to find at least a few minutes each day to practice/play, I am getting into a positive feedback loop of practice--see incremental improvement--get encouraged by it--look forward to the next practice. Ryan, my approach is similar to yours in that I begin with some scales or exercises (to keep limbering and stretching the fingers as well as learn the fretboard). Then I work on my current songs, and then mess around with whatever else has captured my interest. Tony, the "back to front" method is interesting. No matter what, every part of a song has to be played a zillion times (in my experience) until it is ingrained enough to be "easy." I have not mastered "My Darling Asleep" or "Sally Gooden" or "Marie's Wedding" at this point, but I have memorized them and can play them so-so. I get to a certain point with a song, get tired of it, and then look to a new song to begin while still practicing and improving the others. Works for me. Concerning posting a video, I don't have the equipment and don't know how. I'm a little bit "last century" when it comes to technology. Sorry. Karen
Personally, I think the back-to-front helps combat the tendancy to restart at the beginning when things go horribly wrong. It also means you relax more as you play into familiar territory, rather than getting more and more stressed as things get stranger.
