I bought a Fender FM-60E, sunburst, 5-string yesterday at the Philadelphia Guitar Show and am very excited. I've always wanted to play a 5 or 10 string mandolin, and this is the least expensive way I can try one out. I'd like recommendations concerning what strings to put on it and strategies for playing. I'm particularly curious concerning strategies for playing chords. I assume that I should be playing closed chords like when I play jazz melody guitar. I'd like to hear about the strategies folks use. I've played mandolin and started mandola a few months ago; hence the desire to have a C string on my mandolin. The 5-string gives me lots of options for playing melody on higher and lower notes, and I'm curious what strategies folks prefer. One immediate thing I note is that I can easily play my mandola and 5-string mandolin in C and that this opens up the possibility of playing songs in keys I commonly use on guitar. However, I've been making sure to learn songs in D and A so that I can play with mandolin players who play in these keys. What are your thoughts about keys? Please let me know whether there are any instructions books, websites, etc., that will help me learn the best way to play this instrument. Thanks, Mark
I'd get hold of Ted Eschliman's book from http://www.jazzmando.com/, the FFcP system about closed-position chords.
