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Metsäkukkia is a nice waltz and song.

videos:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mets%C3%A4kukkia

sheet music:
https://musescore.com/sheetmusic?text=Mets%C3%A4kukkia
and...

It's probably obvious anyway, but I would say that it's better to have a systematic approach than not to, and that it matters less what the method actually is (as long as it makes some sense, of...

DUD DUD for me too, but I try to avoid turning tarantella into a jig. John La Barbera in his book Italian Folk Music for Mandolin and Fiddle notates them mostly as DUD DUD, but occasionally as DDU...

There's a discussion of the same sort of thing going on at thesession right now, with some helpful pointers:
https://thesession.org/discussions/39020.

I would definitely second the suggestion...

I found Marilyn Mair's exercises helpful for this, especially this one: http://mandolinsessions.com/?p=991

In case it's interesting, here's a video of Martin Howley of We Banjo 3, but playing mandolin here, demonstrating variations on Dinny O' Briens.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-61uAuYRo

In Irish and Scottish music there is lilting (called puirt à beul in Scottish Gaelic), which is a kind of mouth music based on either wordless sounds made by the mouth or on nonsense words.
...

I got mine from stringsdirect, which is in the UK, so will most likely ship to Ireland.

Just realized I hadn't followed through with this point, so:

That's where it's different from touch-typing: a closer analogy is not looking at both the keys you're typing and the text you're...

Just to clarify: I don't think anyone's being prescriptive about this. In my view, where one looks is just part of one's own approach to playing; looking away from the left hand/fretboard is not a...

I hardly ever look at the fretboard except to find an out-of-the-way note somewhere high up the fretboard. I once saw a video of myself playing in a pub session and realized I was looking all over...

I hadn't heard that, but I'm not surprised.

I'm very fond of it myself because I had my how-to-play-a-jig epiphany with it.

It's also very open to variations which makes it good for further...

The Kerfunken Jig is quite simple and really very nice: https://thesession.org/tunes/139

Shady Grove, as played by David Grisman on the mandola.

Indeed. In this video, at around 3:12, Roland White says "you don't what to do tremolo like this <plays italian-classical tremolo>, that's not the type of music we're playing", and Marilynn Mair in...

I've been working on tremolo for the last six months or so too, but from a slightly different recipe supplied by Marilynn Mair. This involves a more pointed plectrum, which helps give greater volume....

I have an APC Carvahlo mandola with a 47cm (18.5") scale length that I tune DAEB like that to good effect.

It's a really nice instrument with a great big sound. My only complaint about it is that...