Mandolin Cafe's Song a Week Social Group

[Barbara Shultz]

Hello! I've decided to post this in this forum, since it's the one that appears to have the most traffic!

For those of you who are not aware, Mandolin Cafe has a sub-set of forums, which can be found by clicking on the Learn/Listen tab near the top of page, under the main Mandolin Cafe logo. There you will see 'Social Groups'. If you click on it, it will take you to the various social groups there are. Scott added this function several years ago, and there are quite a number of Social Groups there.

The two biggest ones that I can tell, are the "Song A Week Social Group" (the one I maintain), and "Newbies", which are both in the Miscellaneous category.

If you are a newcomer to mandolin, by all means, join the Newbies group, as I am sure you will find many helpful members and posts.

No matter WHAT your level of playing, or your genre interest, I encourage you to check out the Song a Week Social Group.

It's been going strong for something like 8 years! While we do have a poll, and a new tune voted on every week (the Official Tune of the Week), we also have hundreds of tunes that have been submitted. It's not a contest, and it's not a race. You don't have to learn a tune a week. It's just that we have a new official tune every week.

I have three Table of Contents posts, that are usually near the top of the first page of discussions. These Table of Contents contain clickable links that will take you to the discussion for each tune. Most tunes have videos, both those submitted by our members, and videos of the tunes, to give you an idea of the ways that they are played. Many also have links to tablature or standard notation.

Anyone can read the group, but I encourage you to join the group, that way you can post and interact.

You can start wherever you want. You can take as long as you want to learn a tune. You are not obligated to video yourself playing the tune, but, it's a great learning experience if you do! We are a friendly bunch, ranging from professional to rank amateur!

If you read the blurb at the top of the page, it will give you an idea of how we operate. There is also a long post called "New to Our Social Group? ~ Read Me First!!" which goes into detail how this group works, and how best to utilize it.

Even if you aren't inclined to post a video, I urge you to make comments, just to give me a heads up, that you are out there, enjoying our group, and learning from it!

[ccravens]

Barbara, your contributions are appreciated.

While never posting there, I have used the Song a Week index to look up different ideas on how to play certain tunes.

[Al Trujillo]

As I posted in the group thread yesterday, SOWSG is one of the best resources on Mandolin Cafe and anything that can be done to bring it more into the forefront of the forum would be a great benefit - both to the Cafe and to its viewers.

I regularly spend a lot of time on the internet searching for new songs, and then I find that many of them are already posted on this Social Group.

Thanks for all your hard work, Barbara.

[Mark Gunter]

I've recently begun using the advanced search feature (for search group messages) on the advice of one of your posts, Barbara, to check for songs I'm learning and songs I've learned, and find so much has been covered there over the past eight years. The resource there in SAW is astounding. Kudos to all who have participated in there.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Barbara, I'm always astonished when I browse the groups to see how much content is there. It's an amazing resource, a real wealth of knowledge. My hat is off to you for a job well done.

[Jess L.]

Thanks, Barbara!

... anything that can be done to bring it more into the forefront of the forum would be a great benefit - both to the Cafe and to its viewers. ...

I agree completely.

[colorado_al]

I've been a member here for 10 years and didn't even know that area of the site existed. Thanks for the heads up! So many really fantastic tunes!
For such a great resource, why is it so buried in the forum?

[Mandolin Cafe]

For such a great resource, why is it so buried in the forum?

It's the second link in the main navigation on every page on the entire web site.

[NursingDaBlues]

I, too, had no idea that this group and its offerings existed. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

[Barbara Shultz]

I am no expert on how websites are put together! As I remember it, though, several years ago, Scott announced that the website program that Mandolin Cafe was using, offered this sub-forum of Social Groups, so he opened it up, and encouraged anyone who wanted to start a group, to do so. It operates slightly different from the main forums. I also believe that in the beginning, the link to the social groups was more apparent, but some time in the past, the format was redesigned, and it was more hidden in the 'learn/listen' tab.

I think the problem is, that nowadays, a person finds a website, sees what there is on the main page, and rarely investigates where the links are, and where they take you! I know that I have never clicked on all the links, myself!

So, now that you know, check out the social groups, check out the great resource of the Song a Week Social Group, and, while you are at it, click around all the other 'hidden' resources here in the Cafe!

[Mark Gunter]

Well, this is a really big, and really robust website. The mandolincafe.com website is an unparalleled resource on all things mandolin. You couldn't possibly put everything on one page, organization and categorization is necessary.

Maybe this post by Barbara will, for the time being, serve a useful dual purpose of promoting the SAW group and of encouraging people to browse the links here. You will find an incredible amount of 'hidden' resources here besides the homepage, the classifieds and the forum.

[AlanN]

Thanks to all, especially Barbara, for the nudge to check out that leg of the cafe. Simply fantastic (I had no idea...). Now, I'm learning Chinquapin Hunting. Finally.

[red7flag]

Barbara and her cohorts have been turning me on to a wide variety of tunes for some time. Barbara also has a youtube channel that demonstrates a number of the Song a Week songs. Thanks. https://www.youtube.com/user/barbarashultz/videos

[Barbara Shultz]

We have a large number of members who have been active regularly for years, with YouTube channels that are great resources. Most of these YouTube videos are embedded in the discussion for each tune. You might notice, however, that the embedded or linked videos in the early discussions, no longer work. That is because of changes along the way, with how you embedded or linked to a video. If you find an early discussion for a tune that you like, and you see that the link no longer works to the video, if you just make a comment on the tune, it will bring that discussion back up to the top of the list, and chances are, someone will either submit another video, or if the original poster is still active, they may be able to do what it takes to make the link work!

[Matt]

Truest form of an on-line social experience. Thank you for your commitment.
Matt Thomas