I posted this on another site but thought I would try here as well!
I attended a layed back school for bluegrass music enthusiast yesterday and of course I signed up for the mandolin class. It was about a 2 hour course put on by some of the better local players. The guy giving tips and pointers on the mandolin was a very good player but at first he asked the 4 of us in his class how experienced we were. We ALL said beginner which we are. He asked each of us what songs we knew and what type pic we used while he examined our mandolins. After that, he went right in to playing minor chords. UH ok now I'm lost! REALLY lost since I have almost learned fingering for major chords. Anyway, I faked it as much as I could but then he noticed I was using a 4 finger chording and he said I would be better off using only 3 fingers. Something about being able to do leads easier straight from the chord.
Another thing he showed us was to play a pattern of notes with an open note in between such as if your playing in a "G" chord, you would then play:
D string 5th fret
D string 4th fret
D string 5th fret
open A
A string 2nd fret
A string open
A string 2nd fret
A string 3rd fret
A string 5thfret
A string 4th fret
A string 5th fret
open E
E string 3rd fret
Since I am going on memory this could be wrong but it's something like this!
OK when and where is this used? I asked him and he said you can use this pattern while playing ANY chord and it used as mainly as fill and it gets you bye if you don't know the song that is being played! Does this make any sense to you more experienced players? I tried it on a "A" chord but it doesn't sound much good to me.
All I really was hoping for was to see how to do "lead" and "fill in" but came away totally confused especialy now with trying to use 3 fingers over 4!
Thanks
Ace
Oh other than that, I had a good time! 10 bucks was well spent, I guess. At least it helps the organization!
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