No it's not a banjo mandolin. It was all wood, perfectly round and flat, no hole with an open back. Some kind of specialty mandolin. Imagine a flatiron mandolin without a hole and no back.
No it's not a banjo mandolin. It was all wood, perfectly round and flat, no hole with an open back. Some kind of specialty mandolin. Imagine a flatiron mandolin without a hole and no back.
That old book was actually pretty cool and worth a look. Some of the left hand things it touches on are similar in violin lessons (obviously you don't hold it the same).
I took violin lessons...
I have one of these and I replaced the first string with a heavier string, probably some kind of mandolin G string, and I tune it either DAEB or CGDA. It sounds sort of like a little banjo more than...
If money was no object and tone the only goal I would practice all day instead of working.
I carried a McNally Strumstick on a plane in its soft case (which unlike the picture in the link was green and has no giant logo on it). TSA did not hassle me. They asked me what it was and I just...
I love my octave banjolin. I think it sounds nice. I think accordions are great--a band in a box. The trumpet player in my high school jazz band had his choice of girls.
It doesn't have a strap at all (yet--I have a strap somewhere), but even with a strap, if you are sitting down to play it, it's going to be on your lap. I kind of like it without the resonator but...
Is there such a thing as a 3/4 of an octave mandolin? I turned a strumstick ukulele into something tuned in 5ths, DAEB. The D is an octave lower than a regular mandolin. The distance between the...
I have read a few threads here about Thomastik-Infeld strings. A friend of mine recommended them to me. He plays a flat-top Irish mandolin and it's very loud. He let me try the strings and they are...
I'm impressed by the upright bass. Maybe you think it is easy, but everybody is pretty used to bad fiddling and have long ago learned how to not even hear it. If you were bad at the bass, playing the...
I started out on fiddle and gave up for several years. Then I went back to it. I found that I had actually improved a little bit as far as being able to play in tune. I decided to cheat and bought...
Nobody likes the sound of their own voice on a recording.
I don't sing but the first time I recorded myself on mandolin and played it back I was surprised I was a lot better than I thought. Same...
My dad joined an orchestra as an adult. He chose the oboe because nobody plays the oboe and he figured if he could figure it out he would be first chair. The oboe sounded so horrible as he squawked...
I took piano as a child for 5 years. I don't play piano now. I can barely even read music anymore.
I sang in the choir in high school. Those are some of my fondest high school memories. I think...
I went to a concert last night in an intimate setting to see a very gifted mandolinist (a very gifted trio, really). I have never seen anyone play the mandolin with such skill in person. I took note...
At our jam we do have exclusive gigs and sessions and it's not to get away from newbies, it's more to play with the people we like to play with. I'm not invited to them all but I am invited to some....
A lot of people report wanting to have a solid base of tunes or skills before they play with others, or maybe that they just want to practice something more or have more variations they can rely on...
I want to second Mandobart's comment above. It's better to play with others earlier than later. You will learn a lot more when you play with others. As a person who learned how to play at the jam,...
Try playing in the dark or with your eyes closed. I really think the key to playing the mandolin is being able to do it without looking. I've tried to help a lady at my jam by telling her to stop...
I've taken a metronome and started slow, then ratchet it up more and more, little-by-little until I just can't do it at all. I practice some little piece that I struggle with. It helps a little, and...
Yeah, it took me about 180 days, counting the days off I took. Sometimes I hiked 30 or more miles a day, sometimes less. I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. I did about half of it in 2008 and half in...
Yes, we definitely need more hobby players.
A few years ago I went for a 3000 mile hike. Now nobody will go hiking with me because they think I'm "too fast". Well, first of all, that was long...
I always hate it when people tell me I'm so talented. I'm not. I have been playing the mandolin for over 10 years. I've worked at it causally, but I've still worked at it. 10 years of working on it,...
Embrace the mediocrity.
I think groove is sort of like lift in Irish music. It's when you get the flow and the tempo and the timing just right that it sounds right.