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Thread: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

  1. #1
    Registered User Jonathan K's Avatar
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    Default This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    Hi!

    Recently, I've started playing with an acoustic classic rock band. Lots of Clapton unplugged, Maggie May (obviously), etc. I'm playing a lot of the guitar leads and I'm excited to realize that my improvisational speed is increasing.

    I played my first gig with them last week and it was a blast.

    A few times as I was trying to be Clapton-esque on the mandolin, I thought to myself "Well, this sounds great, it's a nice minor blues solo, I'm hitting lots of 7ths, but, darn it, it still sounds bluegrass to me! It does not sound like Cream on a mandolin!" Although that does sound delicious. But I digress...

    And then it hit me. I realized that the issue is the mandolin's wider voicings as opposed to the guitar's closer voicings. Fast rock guitar solos are happening in those little "blues boxes" which are very close and mostly within the same octave. Fast bluegrass solos on mandolin are wide and frequently multi-octave.

    So, to pretend to be a rock guitarist a la Clapton or Page, one needs to focus on closer voicings.

    That was my epiphany.

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  3. #2
    Registered User Christine Robins's Avatar
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    Thanks for the insight.

    I too, play in an acoustic classic rock band, both mando & fiddle. I'm currently learning a lot form Matt Flinner's online archived course, "Rock & Roll Mandolin".

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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    Quote Originally Posted by Christine Robins View Post
    Thanks for the insight.

    I too, play in an acoustic classic rock band, both mando & fiddle. I'm currently learning a lot form Matt Flinner's online archived course, "Rock & Roll Mandolin".
    Hi
    Thanks for the info about Matt Flinner's classes.
    I can't find his class on Rock & Roll Mandolin in the archives. Can you point me in the right direction ? What month and year this is archived in ?
    Thanks
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  5. #4
    Registered User Christine Robins's Avatar
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    By "archived, I didn't mean you can find it here at the Cafe.

    What I meant is that it isn't one of his currently interactive "live" courses. But I was able to buy the original video lessons, mp3s, and printed music and work on it myself. I've emailed him to see if these are available to anyone, or just his former "live" students.

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  7. #5
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    Quote Originally Posted by Christine Robins View Post
    By "archived, I didn't mean you can find it here at the Cafe.

    What I meant is that it isn't one of his currently interactive "live" courses. But I was able to buy the original video lessons, mp3s, and printed music and work on it myself. I've emailed him to see if these are available to anyone, or just his former "live" students.

    Thanks....I did go to his website and thats what I meant by "Archives" (sorry for the confusion)...as he archives everything by month and year...
    Thanks again ...hope he makes it available !!
    Eastman MD-305 Left Handed Version
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    67.4 % of all statistics are made up !

  8. #6
    Registered User Christine Robins's Avatar
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    I finally got a response from Matt Flinner about his "Rock & Roll Mando" course:

    "I haven't opened the [archived] courses up to the general public yet---only to past students thus far. But I'm going to offer another Rock and Roll course in the spring, starting sometime in late March/early April."

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  10. #7
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    Quote Originally Posted by Christine Robins View Post
    I finally got a response from Matt Flinner about his "Rock & Roll Mando" course:

    "I haven't opened the [archived] courses up to the general public yet---only to past students thus far. But I'm going to offer another Rock and Roll course in the spring, starting sometime in late March/early April."
    Christine.... THANK YOU for the follow up !!!!! I'll keep an eye on his website about the upcoming course in March / April.

    THANKS AGAIN.... I appreciate the follow through.

    Don
    Eastman MD-305 Left Handed Version
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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: This Week's Mandolin Playing Epiphany

    “Cream on the mandolin” I love it!
    There’s a clip of John Duffey playing “I know you Rider” where he proclaim he’s using his “Eric Clapton” lick!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

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