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Yes! This Cheshire Cat should make it easy to identify. See it?

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Hello Mandolin Cafe members,

Last August I purchased a 1920’s Gibson F4 mandolin, serial number 66824, from Drum & Strum, a music store in Warrenton Virginia. It arrived safe and sound and,...

Why do you play? Perfection is a harsh mistress.

I agree, recordings are really how you sound. Do you sound sloppy? You can fix that. Get a metronome and slow it down until you can play cleanly,...

OK, I promise to stop next time. My preference though is to fly into Midland (where I've found excellent Mexican chow) and save the extra 90 minutes of driving but the rates to fly in there can be...

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Video links and PDF files here:

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_e9m-KqsBE
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2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CodmFqb_Jw
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3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJpt7CDk8lY...

I am posting a series of videos aimed at players who dont improvise but want to learn. So far there are 8 videos with more on the way. The first is here:

https://youtu.be/1_e9m-KqsBE

My...

Ukes are cool.

Beautiful dimensional wall quilt my daughter made from photographs my wife sent her...lots of hours. Zoom in f you can. The bridge pins are real pin heads and the strings are a cording quilters use....

Play it twenty times a day for a week. Then play it every day for a month. The next month play it once a week. Then play it once a month for the rest of your life. You will remember the tune for as...

I don't start learning a song on any instrument until I can sing/whistle/hum it quasi accurately.

If you dislike that....don't go to a Shinyribs concert!

Dr Banjo (drbanjo.com) has a great article on dealing with stage fright. He says he gets nervous before every gig, and he's been a pro over 50 years. He's got some very good strategies to help...

Jeopardy doesn't always get it right either. I've been tempted on a number of occasions to set them straight about the Chicago "Black Sox." The Black Sox had that nickname long before the 1908 World...

Here's a short little vid that shows how to play the CCR song "Down on the Corner" on the mandolin, with on screen tab. A fairly easy song that could be good for beginners. I use chop chords on the...

Re: Tab vs ear, I'd stick with ear work unless your goal is to play classical music. Then you'll need to read score, which you already can do.

One of my musical mentors always said "Become a...

A 2 point oval hole Monte. Wonder where that mando is....

There's more.

How High the Moon

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Jethro's Tune

And that Eldon Shamblin guy on guitar.

Blues in G followed by Fat Boy Rag

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Some fiddling

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Many threads over the years on the Cafe have Bill Monroe videos posted to them, but in my search I've yet to see a thread dedicated just to Monroe videos.

With that in mind my thoughts are a...

I have a few extra items that are not being used, so I'd like to offer these as a giveaway. Post if you are interested and at some point tomorrow, I'll randomly choose a number.

Shipped to CONUS...

For many years, the RM-75 had no competition. Of course that just put a big target on its headstock and other makers had it in their sights! Despite there being several options now, the Rover still...

Thanks, I just did and found useful stuff.

But I suppose there would be 90% less threads and 95% less discussion if each question was only allowed to be asked once or twice.

On other forums...

OTOH every famous musician who picks up a mandolin, and especially if they include it in a song, raises exposure to the instrument. Maybe you consider that a bad thing, but if it means one less...

Just found this on youtube. Maybe it's been posted before, but here goes: Don Julin shredding it bluegrass style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdo7pxCvUto

My first mando was a Rover RM-25 and I found it to be quite serviceable. It needed decent strings and some adjusting of the bridge, but I was able to set it up to play well without too much...