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Type: Posts; User: Miss Lonelyhearts

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    Re: My pinky won't go where I tell it!

    This isn't an exercise to do at the steering wheel, but maybe the idea will help you get where you want to be. I call it "clamping." The goal is to get your fingers to work as one unit.

    Hold a...
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    Re: Advice on how to learn sheet music?

    Yep, if you can already sight read, all you have to add is memorizing the chart supplied by Cobalt above. Bear in mind that mandolin is tuned in fifths, so you can start on an open string and play a...
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    Re: Training the Mind

    Cindy, I get what you're saying--that when were immersed in playing, our conscious minds aren't doing their usual monologues. But the point the OP was getting at, and what seems to be true for many...
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    Re: Training the Mind

    A P.S. to my mega-post above. It helped me a lot to think about my intent when I sat down to play. Most of us want to play well every time, whether that's in practice or performance. But I was stuck...
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    Re: Training the Mind

    I remember having these same struggles with losing focus and weapons of self-distraction. One of my fiddle students summed the problem up nicely: "My biggest obstacle is myself."

    Here are some...
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    Re: Set lists for sessions?

    The Foinn Seisiun books and cds thru Comhaltas are a decent place to start--straightforward settings of widely played tunes arranged in common sets.

    If you have a local session, listen to what...
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    Re: Instantly absorbing tunes

    Explorer, my previous posts were in response to the OP's request for "strategies for instant absorption" to learn by ear. I agree with you that teaching tunes from scratch at workshops tends to be a...
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    Re: Instantly absorbing tunes

    Yes, it helps to have a memory aid when you come back to the tune the next day, or a month later. It's also good to catch what the teacher says while teaching the tune (before, during, and after).
    ...
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    Re: Instantly absorbing tunes

    P.S. I agree with JeffD that singing the tune, even if just in your head, really helps in learning. You can do this even in the heat of the moment--sing each phrase in your mind's ear as the teacher...
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    Re: Instantly absorbing tunes

    Learning tunes by ear on the fly--either phrase by phrase or entire parts/whole tunes--requires two broad skill sets: (1) knowing your way around your instrument and (2) being able to hear and...
  11. Re: Son of "How to increase picking speed?"

    Stringalong, I hope I'm still playing tunes at 76. A friend of mine is still gigging on fiddle at 80, sounding as good as he ever has. I'll be happy if I can continue to enjoy a few tunes at home.
    ...
  12. Re: Son of "How to increase picking speed?"

    Bill, thanks for the PM that this thread revived.

    FWIW, I'm a "he." My username here is ironic: Miss Lonelyhearts is a 1930s novel by Nathanial West about a man who becomes an advice columnist,...
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    Re: How do I play faster?

    When you're fluent with the tunes and on your instrument, loud or soft is a choice, not a limitation. Same goes with everything else--tone, swing, timing, speed, style, etc.
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    Re: Afraid to play for others - advice?

    "... the music plays the instrument, and the music is you."
    Well put! I tend to think of this as "we play music with our brains--the instrument is just the mechanical part that lets the music...
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    Re: How do I play faster?

    P.S. For most people, jigs work best when picked DUD DUD.
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    Re: How do I play faster?

    sbhikes, based on what you've described here, I'll suggest a few things no one else has yet mentioned:

    1. The most important part of playing music well is to make it sound effortless, no matter...
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    Re: Building ITM repertoire

    Jim, Brian Conway knows a lot of tunes, but the heart of his repertoire is "NY Sligo," which narrows the focus on what tunes to learn, and also which recordings to listen to. If you like that style,...
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    Re: I want to cut off my right hand

    George, is this a new problem? I don't recall your right hand stalling back when we were doing lessons....

    I'm taking the summer off from teaching, but maybe a one-shot troubleshooting clinic is...
  19. Re: Tunes that are better for CBOM than Mandolin?

    Doug, yes, lots of Dmix and Ddor tunes sound great on an OM or tenor banjo/guitar. Gdor too, though they tend to feature more of a reach from 1st to 5th frets so aren't the best choice for someone...
  20. Re: Tunes that are better for CBOM than Mandolin?

    When I was first getting accustomed to the longer scale and nice growl-y low end of tenor banjo, I gave this some thought and came up with some tunes that, to my ear, really do bring out the best of...
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    Re: ABC notation

    John, my point above is that I saw old, hand-written ABC notation in the 1970s that was nearly identical to what we today think of as Walshaw's system but it had nothing to do with computers. Walshaw...
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    Re: Treble ornaments in reels

    Never mind that rolls aren't triplets, but that fiddle video on rolls doesn't match much of anything I've ever heard from a host of great Irish fiddlers, especially the timing. Short rolls don't...
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    Re: ABC notation

    ABC notation has been around longer than computers. It doesn't need to be much more complicated than the letters that represent the notes, with numbers to show note length, and bar lines. Some Irish...
  24. Re: Just playing around with a Mungo Jerry Tune "In The Summertim

    I thought the song was written by Ray Dorset, lead singer for Mungo Jerry.
  25. Re: Just playing around with a Mungo Jerry Tune "In The Summertim

    Yep, it works fine in D, too. Just one of those fun, catchy, instantly happy tunes. Here's tab for the lead line in D:

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