The 12 Rules of Practicing from Wynton Marsalis

[tree]

You could certainly express pessimism, or some other negative emotion, in your playing.

Neither pessimism nor optimism are really emotions . . . rather, they reflect one's outlook or expectations.

Emotions are feelings - which the medium of music is perfectly suited to communicate.

[hank]

Originally John Ely's quote
[QUOTE] How could you play any murder ballad without expressing some negative emotion like sadness or futility?/QUOTE]
This reminds me of a funny story. Once when I was visiting my mom I volunteered to watch the Opera on PBS with her as everyone else in our clan ran for high ground. Like any good son I was prepared to endure whatever they could throw my way but decided a few pints of Guinness would ease any pain and multiply my Opera appreciation abilities by at least ten fold. I had done this before on a few other occasions when visiting but in the past I was left guessing what the artist were sing about. This time the songs had the lyrics below as they sang like hearing impaired caption. Well, alright now. This should be a lot more interesting, these had to be very serious eloquent lines. I thought I would die laughing. "Where did you put the body?" "I put it in the closet." My mom threatened to rough me up but I'll always get a big stupid grin on my face now when I hear Opera.

[OldSausage]

It's almost like operas were written as some kind of entertainment.

[Cathal Whelehan]

I can't even fit my brain around number 12

I have an example which might explain.

My biggest problem when learning the standard pick grip and hand shape was that it seemed to be a completely unnatural way of holding my hand - I had to have a little think before even trying to form the shape at first as I just couldn't equate it with any other natural hand shape.

That is, until one day when I was putting my key into the Yale lock to open my apartment door. I walked in and took my key-gripping position with me, removed the key from my grip (keeping that sort of pressure) and replaced it with a pick pointing downwards rather than forwards like the key.

Within an hour my picking and picking control was 500% improved and I've never looked back. I just needed to rid myself of my mental block that it was a hand position that I would never naturally assume. Fitting that a key should have been the key to finding this out.

[hank]

Thank's Cathal. Your post helps me to keep my mind anchored in a musical context as I go through this life. I've been directing my practice toward Pick losers excellent study of double stops. Pick loser's descriptions of their relationship to each other and the resultant pattern has been very helpful to me in breaking down the whole into smaller repeated patterns like FFcP study. What seemed like a wall before my mind is slowing breaking down from the help that folks like you, Pick loser, Ted E. and the many Cafe' minds that provide a new way of comprehending music. My hat is off to Scott and our moderator's for making this site the wonderful resource it is.

[G string]

it could be a good classical conditioning to the people who are beginning to play mandolin like me. thanks for the tips and advise.