Re: Does mandolin improve guitar technique
I believe that any time you spend with an instrument on your lap and a pick in your hand is time well spent. Probably 45 years ago I worked out (on guitar) a "Medley Of Irish Fiddle Tunes" off David Bromberg's Demon In Disguise album. Every time I have a guitar out, I go through them once before I put it away. I have probably played this medley thousands of times. I have never played them all the way through correctly, though I have played every part of them correctly at some point. I swear SOMEDAY I will get all the way through them without screwing something up. After many months of playing only mandolin, I had a guitar out a few weeks back, and before I put it in the case, I went through the fiddle tunes like always. To my utter amazement, I blew effortlessly through all the passages that have consistently tripped me up all these years. That's not to say I didn't trip over some other things, but the known trouble spots were no longer trouble. Others have theorized, and I also believe, that the increased precision needed to play the mandolin transfers over wonderfully to guitar. And, in an unrelated development, last week I decided to see if I could play that same medley of fiddle tunes on the mandolin, which I had never tried before - and to my amazement, they were RIGHT THERE under my fingers. So I have concluded that all the mandolin time has done wonders for my ear and my familiarity with mandolin, and it has also done wonders for both right- and left-hand mechanics and precision on guitar. Either way, I'm a happy picker!
All my life I wanted to be somebody, now I realize I should have been more specific.
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