Re: Learning mandolin and music theory?
That being said, I found it a great deal easier to practice scales, a useful skill, after someone explained to me why I should do so, that is, on the most basic level, so that whenever I play a new tune in D or G, for example, I don't have to search around to find the correct finger positions. Interestingly, I learned that in a workshop on theory by Calvin Vollrath, an outstanding fiddler and composer who can't read music and who has no formal musical training. Before that people just told me to practice my scales, never explaining why.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
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