Tremolo tips: breaking the process down

[verbs4us]

Best vid I've seen so far on tremolo technique. 15 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxvD...e_gdata_player

[John Flynn]

I think the young lady made a great video and I hope it helps people. Each to one's own.

The following only applies to me, YMMV. I have been pretty satisfied with my tremolo for many years. Her method is not the way I learned to do it and I think I would have never learned it if I tried it that way. I just don't have much patience with formal pedagogy.

Also, I don't get her whole rest stroke concept with tremolo. I think it would slow you down. I have had more than a dozen very good instructors and I have never seen one of them combine a rest stroke with tremolo. Mike Marshall does not teach that way on Artist Works. In fact, he teaches to avoid touching adjacent strings on tremolo. I also think her tremolo sounds very mechanical when she is demonstrating at the end of the video.

IMHO, tremolo should not be a mechanical technique. It should be expressive. The way learned it was to find a recording of a tune that used tremolo that really sounded good to me, but was not too challenging. Then I learned that tune, working to make that sound. It took a while, but once "the light came on" I could do it anytime I wanted, in any tune, and do it in a way that expressed something I wanted to express musically where I used it. Just MHO. There are many ways to get there.

[bayAreaDude]

I've found the most important thing is to start it and stop it precisely, which is all about right hand technique and rhythm. What happens in between is less important if you nail the entrance and exit. Sometimes I do it metered, sometimes not. I've seen that video before and I think she recommends some very useful right hand technique concepts.

[Mandoplumb]

I agree with John, to learn to do tremolo listen to someone who you like and try to sound like them, then listen again and try again, then listen again etc. If you over think it and over "break it down" you are going to sound mechanical, then you have to work on unlearning the mechanics and unlearning is harder than learning IMHO.

[Tobin]

I thought it was a decent primer on one way of looking at tremolo. It does make it easier, I think, to put a little more emphasis on the first downstroke of the beat when you're trying to play a metered tremolo. It helps keep it straight in your mind, and with your muscles. With experience, one can drift away from that technique, but it's probably a good help when starting out.

Tremolo on a single string, as she is doing, is one thing. Where it falls apart for me is trying to tremolo double-stops. The greater range of wrist motion required to cleanly hit both courses of strings just makes it exponentially harder. Especially since the 'feel' of the strings changes when you move from the G/D strings to the D/A strings or A/E strings.

[SincereCorgi]

If you over think it and over "break it down" you are going to sound mechanical, then you have to work on unlearning the mechanics and unlearning is harder than learning IMHO.

Yeah, but it depends on the style, too. A lot of classical mandolinists seek to develop a strictly metered tremolo, although, based on the background music, I don't think this person had that in mind. I think most people could get %95 this out of reading one page of the Bickford mandolin method.

[belbein]

I just got my first a lesson in tremolo last week. My teacher gave me this exercise: Set the beat to 50 bpm. Play 1/8 notes on E for one measure. The next measures, play 1/16 notes. The next measure, 1/32th notes. Then without missing a beat (so to speak) go to the A string, repeat; all the way through the courses, then back down. She says do this for a week religiously before speeding up the metronome. Rinse and repeat. She says that this is the best way to practice precisely stopping.

Uh ... haven't tried it yet.

[jshane]

When we play a note on the mandolin (or any instrument with a pick), we get a sound that consists of "attack-decay". In contrast, a bowed instrument can sustain a note, augment or decrease the volume of a note while it is sustained, create little "mini-secondary-attacks" while the note is sustained, etc, etc, etc.

My tremolo- while not perfect or anything- began to get decent when I realized that the tremolo is basically the "plucked string" answer to the use of a bow. I listen to the effect(s) that a fiddle player can achieve with bow technique, and try and get the same effect with tremolo. Whatever my right hand has to do to get that effect, I try and learn.

Probably doesn't work for everyone, but it gave me something non-abstract to shoot for.

[Phil Goodson]

.... I listen to the effect(s) that a fiddle player can achieve with bow technique, and try and get the same effect with tremolo. Whatever my right hand has to do to get that effect, I try and learn.

Probably doesn't work for everyone, but it gave me something non-abstract to shoot for.

Yep. I often find (especially with low volume) that my pick never actually completely leaves contact with at least one string while I'm tremoloing. Like I'm surfing the top of a wave and slipping back & forth across the crest. YMMV

[Jon Hall]

For several months I've been practicing the suggestions that Don Julin made in his Dummies book.
60 to 70 bpm 32nd notes with 8/beat.
72 to 96 bpm divide each beat into 6/beat
100 to 152 bpm 1/16 notes with 4/beat.

I always practice with a metronome and keep my grip, my wrist and my arm as relaxed as possible. Practice daily and keep a log of your progress.

[Pasha Alden]

I concur with John Flyn. I am not great on the rest stroke. I found the down bit great, the down stroke, to kind of set the tremolo in motion. The rest stroke? I as a visually impaired player found it encouraged me to inadvertently touch other strings, actually play incorrectly then. So I did not focus on the rest stroke. Playing for under two years I find my tremolo is slowly taking shape and I can manage short tremolos of moderate tempo.

However, if the rest stroke works for some, I guess it's a case of "Different strokes for different folks". (pun intended)


Happy picking.

[Pete Martin]

Tremolo technique



How to practice to develop a controlled tremolo

[bart mcneil]

I think that the development of a really consistent tremolo is critical to development of mando playing and unfortunately it takes a long time to develop the skill so that it seems effortless. In fact for me it is the most difficult technique. Shortly after I began practicing I could do a fairly consistent tremolo but could not get in or out of it successfully. That took a couple more years of practice before I could do it seamlessly. But what a great feeling to have tremolo as an available technique.