Hey everyone! I'm brand new here and also to the mandolin
First of all, I really love the mando and have never been this thrilled to learn and play (heck, I'm even reading a bit theory!). I have now, since getting it, become interested in learning how to play the mandolin like a mandolin as well. Thing is, I'm not super-into the typical genres (bluegrass etc). Where my passion lies is in my usual blues/rock/folk-esque vocals+acoustic guitar music! However, I haven't felt inspired to learn anything new on guitar for several years and it's just been a strummin' tool to accompany my vocals.
Doing what I know, which is strumming chords, has been great on the mandolin. I even catch myself playing more funky/experimental, along with adding small licks here and there! I have some thoughts/worries/questions though, that I'd greatly appreciate if someone here could help me with!
One thing is the overall transferability between the guitar and the mandolin for my type of genre.
I did search the forum about it this morning and I am a bit calmer since many have said that you can play any genre with a mando! Being that I never bothered with any type of theory before (wasn't interesting for self-taught pre-teen me), my biggest challenge so far has been to transfer riffs and such to the mandolin. Fewer strings and notes (range) and thus further between the notes on the fretboard makes it a bit awkward for me. Is this something that I can work around somehow?
Another thing that is kind of related to the previous dilemma is that I find myself trying to transpose songs into G to be able to use the full range. Is this a valid solution or is it just 'noob-reasoning'?
For one thing, it means you can't play along to the original song, and also G (or another range-fitting key) might not be where my vocals would wanna be. In another thread on here (about playing in any key) it seemed like you can play all keys/scales. Are some of the more common keys (A, B, C, D, E, F and G) extra tricky to use? For example, E (for me) seems harder to 'fit' and that's quite a few guitar songs there.
Yet another thought I've been having, that's also related, is whether I should also get an Octave Mandolin or perhaps, an Irish Bouzouki (heavily leaning towards OM though). The regular mandolin is great and I love how it sounds, but the flexibility of key to match my vocal range is a bit limited. I frequently capo the guitar to find my sweet spot. Could an OM work in my favor here?
Just like the regular mandolin, I intend to play traditional music on the OM as well. I've read here about scale length and smaller hands and someone recommended a scale length of 20" - 22" (approx. 51-56 cm) if you have smaller hands (recommended to a 5'2" woman, though). I can't say I have big hands though, and for reference; having my index finger on the 1st fret on a regular mando, I can reach the 8th with my pinky and get off somewhat of a tone, not comfortable, however. The only OM in my price range that's available here has a 23" (58.5 cm) scale length, could that work?
And one last thing! What really excites me is to, eventually, be able to mix the kind of music I usually play with 'mandolinny' style and techniques. So far, the only one I can think of, is using tremolo maybe? Is there other mando-typical stuff I haven't heard about yet? It would be awesome to even rewrite riffs and such to be more mandolinny.
I haven't found overly much music out there like that. I am getting into some Chris Thile stuff even though most of it is not in the genre I'm looking for. He uses a lot of fun styles/techniques, though! Also, the odd psych/classic rock cover on youtube by various artists but it doesn't seem to be a thing really.
I hope this all doesn't sound like I'm trying to make the mandolin into a guitar! It's not at all what I meant, but 'an old dog...' and so on . The main thing is that I would love to go 'all-in' on mandolin/octave mandolin! But before getting my hopes too high, I thought I'd ask you wizards if it's even translatable in the long run (for what I usually listen to and play that is).
Quite the wall of text... I tried my best to shorten it but it came out too dry-sounding when I did. Anyway, thank you if you were curious/bored enough to read all the way to this here end
//Isaiah
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