How do you get better at the mandolin?

[ChrisStewart]

I find playing in a band works best for me. It gives us a reason to get together and practice every week. Even though my progress is very slow I believe I continue to progress.

[mrbook]

I try to think about what I'm playing when I practice. Playing in a band makes me learn new things - I always have new songs to learn, and I don't want to keep playing the same thing on the old ones. An audience usually lets you know if the new things work.

[billkilpatrick]

from what i've heard, you sound ok.

i've no idea where you want to go or what you want to do ... but - (sorry, this is from a film) - ... "know your limitations." the first time i heard that i thought it was a put down - now i know it's wisdom. it's possible you'll be as good as whoever you want to sound like - in your wildest dream - but it may not be all that probable.

i repeat: "you sound good" - like someone who doesn't drop the ball. happy to jam with you anytime - i'd probably learn something.

- bill

[GTG]

Variety. Try playing a huge variety of music, and this will undoubtedly include stuff that challenges you, and thereby makes you better. Play bluegrass, rock, old-time, jazz, cajun, classical, folk tunes, blisteringly fast as well as sleepy slow, waltzes, reels, jigs, marches, freeform improvisation as well as strictly notated charts. Play some drills too, although not too many that you get bored or frustrated. Play with a metronome, play without a metronome. Play with people and on your own, play in the park, play for family, go to jams and eventually open mic sessions. Play enough that it feels just like a bit of work, but not too much so that you start to dread your practices. There you go - easier said than done, right?

Edit - I guess Mandozilla really said it all in post #3.

[sgarrity]

Play with others, play with others, play with others......
I made a huge leap when I moved from OK to VA and went from jamming once every month or so to virtually once a week. If you can't play with other people as much, practice along with people on YouTube, play with recordings, etc.

But if you want to get better, don't just sit at home and play by yourself. I know this from personal experience!

[cedarhog]

After reading all the post I thing I should have used that fancy bold print to ask my question it should have been. "How do YOU get better at the mandolin?" I wasn't really asking specifically about me, I was hoping to learn something new that you guys do.

[billkilpatrick]

ahhh ... i'm still working on it - be sure to let you know.

[Cliff D]

I don't pretend I can improve on the advice already given, but proffer the following suggestions;

1) use your ear as well as an electronic tuner: again putting some time in learning to play slide will make your ear that much keener over intonation.

2) Timing: Bass players tend to anticipate the beat, good singers & soloists will often lazily follow it, but developing the precision & the sensitivity to vary how you play whilst still playing cohesively with others is I submit a significant mark of good musicianship.

3) Taste. Analyze what works for you, & attempt to apply that to your playing. Guitarists (I am one!) often hold up Clapton as "the most inspired" blues axeman, but for me its Peter Green. The important thing is being able to appreciate how the styles differ. Again, to try & put it another way, many guitarists chase the "Holy Grail" of technique, but this can quickly become one dimensional. To cite the old cliche, it ain't what you do, its the way that you do it.

4) Whilst it is useful to copy other folks techniques, try & develop something that is your own. I think spending a lifetime trying to ape some other man's song is a bit of a waste. Go get one of your own. Maybe one day someone will want to copy you. Ain't that worth reaching for?

[Dave Schimming]

Ask more experienced players to show you mandolin lead runs (slow and up to speed), play along with the experienced picker until you are starting to store the patterns in your brain cells. Ears can play tricks on you trying to copy something from a recording as to what is being played.

[fishdawg40]

This is it.....

Hog, listen, listen, listen, practice, practice, practice, play, play, play, jam with others, jam with others, jam with others, take some lessons, take some lessons, take some lessons, this and as long as you're loving it you'll keep progressing...IMHO.

There's no secret magic just a lot of hard work.

[chip]

It seems obvious to me how to get better so let me ask you a question:
How do you think you get better with the mandolin, or anything really...?

[Pete Martin]

There are probably as many ways to improve as there are players. NO ONE WAY IS CORRECT. You need to find what works for you. My favorite is the first one...

Some things that work for others:

• Transcribing and learning great player solos
• Scales and arpeggio exercises
• Right and left hand technique exercises
• Speed and accuracy drills with the metronome
• Playing with others as much as possible
• Practicing as much as you can between times when playing with others
• Join a band
• Study with a good teacher
• Learn music theory

Try all of these and as many others as you can think of. When you find something that works, stay with it!

Best of luck!

[cedarhog]

Chip to answer your question of a question...it depends. I could play, listen to songs, do tab, play with others..blah blah.......and then there is a chance of asking a pool of knowledge in a forum like this and someone might suggest something that I had never thought about. There are those few that have something that works for them and might work for me. I never want anyone to think I am not willing to work for it. I practice so much and enjoy every minute.

Once this guy in another forum sent me a weird scale that was really like a fingers tongue twister. It pissed me off for a week because it was so fricken hard. It was way out of my skill range, but I am stubborn and I wasn't going to let an 8-16 measure piece of tab beat me. So I kept at it. The strange thing was after a month or so I had it down and increasing speed. What it ultimately did was put those notes on my fingertips to a degree. My improv on breaks took a huge leap and I became a different level player in a very short time. So to me there are magic bullets out there, not magic pills. I'll work at it feverishly on the bullets.

[journeybear]

...Right now I am trying to add singing to my playing and trying to "fake" breaks. But I would truly like to know how you guys increase your skills so you don't plateau for years at a time.

That's exactly what I did - first I got good enough at "faking it" that I could play with people better than myself and hopefully learn from them. Somewhere along the line I realized this faking it approach had somehow become my style. Then I plateaued. Got good enough for what I like to do, and when I do jam I get enough enjoyment out of it and impress others enough that it's satisfying. Works for me. The best thing about mandolin is it's unusual - at least in the areas where I've lived - so all I have to do is show up at a jam with something other than guitar and play fairly well and that seems to be good enough. Sometimes I'd just rather play more than better. Of course, if you can play with better and better musicians you'l find yourself getting better and better, it's only natural. Fortunately I'm neither a purist nor a traditionalist, and don't hang out at those kind of campfires, or I'd get booted out of bluegrass festivals.

For me, the instrument is a tool used in service of the music, a means of expressing what I'm thinking or feeling musically. It's the means, not the end, though I do enjoy both aspects.

Sorry if that sounds cynical; I prefer to think of it as pragmatic.

[Phil Goodson]

... "How do YOU get better at the mandolin?"...

Ok, cedar, here's my approach for myself: I listen to music and hear someone do something (a run, a lick, a moving set of doublestops, etc) that I can't do. Then I sit down and figure out that specific thing.
Then, because it's in my analytic nature, I try to generalize the lick (or whatever). I look to see if it always starts on the tonic note, or the 5 note of the scale (or whatever).
Then I play it in a different key, and with no open strings. Then try a different tune & try to stick in the "new run" to see if I can use it in a different setting.
Sometimes I fail and the exercise has just turned out to be "finger practice". Sometimes I get a new arrow for the quiver.
I'm still hoping to be able to shoot the arrows accurately some day.

[Mandophyte]

cedarhog,

Re:
"Once this guy in another forum sent me a weird scale that was really like a fingers tongue twister. It pissed me off for a week because it was so fricken hard. It was way out of my skill range, but I am stubborn and I wasn't going to let an 8-16 measure piece of tab beat me. So I kept at it. The strange thing was after a month or so I had it down and increasing speed. What it ultimately did was put those notes on my fingertips to a degree. My improv on breaks took a huge leap and I became a different level player in a very short time."

Do you still have this piece? Could provide a link or post it please?

[JonZ]

1. The old band teacher's mantra: practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.
2. Practice right and left hand technique. There are many free exercises on the net that will get you started. Check out Jazzmando or Mandozine. Then get a book or DVD on technique that appeals to you. I like Thiele's, Marshall's, Eschliman's and Mair's materials, having already mastered some fiddle tune books.
3. Get one or two method books or song books that appeal to you and work your way completely through each book.
4. Each week make a plan for your daily practice, but don't get into a rut. Switch things around. Start with your method book and end with your warmup on some days. Don't get bogged down in any one technique exercise. Move on and come back again later. You will be practicing these execises "forever", so you don't need to spend a year on becoming a professional quality major scale player.
5. If you want to be good at improvising, practice improvising with other people and recordings.
6. Learn to read standard notation. Otherwise you close yourself off to a whole world of music liturature.

[woodwizard]

Personally ... I know what makes me a better player. One word ... PRACTICE and that consists of everything you do whenever you pick up your mandolin anytime. I might add ... the key is to pick it up often.

[jitaylor]

I do the home studio computer thing and record bass, guitar, and my as yet beginning banjo, and then play with that and even record it. I even burn it and play it in my car sometimes. It is not the Dillards, but it is fun and sounds good to me and is motivating.

[mando-tech]

I know there are mandolin players with less than a year to over 30yrs of experience in this forum. When I played guitar I learned quick..I peaked...then just fizzled and stayed about an early intermediate skill level. I enjoy the mandolin so much more than guitar and I still have a lot of passion for this instrument. It seems to be on my mind probably more than it should be.

I don't want to fizzle or plateau on the mandolin. Many people get their panties in a wad if you say I practice the mandolin...they say "I play" the mandolin. In any even, how do you guys continue to grow as mandolin players. Are there things you decided to spend a little more time trying to learn, or are you just constantly just going for it on the fly. Being self taught its easy to not know exactly what to practice/play to make myself a better player. Right now I am trying to add singing to my playing and trying to "fake" breaks. But I would truly like to know how you guys increase your skills so you don't plateau for years at a time.

I try to emphasize that one MUST be able to hum the tune that you wish to play, -if you can't hum it then you can't play it, (unless you go the tablature route).,,,.next- you must learn to 'shuffle' ....
play four hours per day if possible !

MAPLE VALLEY BOYS, Bluegrass Band (Google up on U-tube)

[Denny Gies]

Not to be too snarky, you get better on the mandolin the same way you get to Carnegie Hall...........practice, practice, practice.

[OneChordTrick]

I try to emphasize that one MUST be able to hum the tune that you wish to play, -if you can't hum it then you can't play it, (unless you go the tablature route).,,,.next- you must learn to 'shuffle' ....
play four hours per day if possible !

Good advice, but even with tablature it works better if you can hum it.

[Freddyfingers]

Other than visiting this site, what’s practice.

[Mark Wilson]

I try to emphasize that one MUST be able to hum the tune that you wish to play, -if you can't hum it then you can't play it, (unless you go the tablature route).,,,.next- you must learn to 'shuffle'

I'm intrigued. What the heck is mandolin shuffling and why is it the most important thing after learning to hum?

[LostVenture]

There just seems to be no way to get around practicing to get better. No matter what instrument you play.
The OP mentioned that he played guitar before, and I know that 50+ years of guitar has helped with playing the mandolin more than I could have imagined. Even if it has primarily been the finger dexterity required.
I took up the mandolin, or vice versa, a little over a year ago, and have found that the wealth of on-line information can be staggering. My original plan was to lean toward traditional Irish folk tunes. With that in mind, I discovered "Mandolessons" through YouTube. I think that the creator (Baron) of that site may be a member here also.
Anyway, his site offers great visual and play along methods. He even provides tab sheets, which I personally found a great way to get moving.
Good luck with your pursuit and remember to challenge yourself.