Good job, Sue! And I can hear why you like that Strad-O-Lin so much. I have now heard only two of them and both surprised me with the nice tone.
Thanks, Don and Henry. My singing needs work. I can sing loud okay at church, where I can follow along with everybody else (not lately though). But if I were to sing loud by myself, you guys would be wincing, I think. I will be working on it, though, because I had fun with my husband's mother and sisters yesterday. As I said to my sister in law, the voice is also an instrument that needs practice. Sherry, here are some notes that I took from Mike Marshall's Open Chords lesson on strumming. Maybe they will be of some use to you. I always have this page in my notebook open when I work on these songs. I have a book called "Fun with Strums" as well; it is useful but a little confusing. 2 beat folk strum (2/2) D D-U (where the first beat is on the lower string(s) and the D-U is on the upper strings. Songs being worked on were "You are My Sunshine" and "Nine Pound Hammer". Waltz time (3/4) B D D-U (Bass strum strumma). The song is "In the Pines" 4/4 Time D D D-U D-U (Boom daca daca daca). Alternate the picked bass on the G and D strings. Songs are "Will the Circle be Unbroken" and "Foggy Mt. Breakdown" (a tune I don't know at all). I am not having an easy time with this last one at all. Just found this video for WCBU, which I think will be helpful. Ha ha, now I have thoroughly hijacked Don's thread.
Thanks for the vid, Sue. Don's thread, did you say? Not anymore! Lol
Lol I love it!
Good job, Sue! I enjoyed watching it. I am way too self conscious to vidoe myself playing and then put the video out on the internet for the whole world to see. Nah.
It's not the whole world, SO. Just us chickens. Post it here. Don won't mind.
Definitely! I love seeing everyone’s videos!
Just to add my hijack to this thread - congrats Sue, you've crossed the line & made a video! It only gets easier from here. That Strad-o-lin sounds really fine, and I like that you don't stare at the fretboard the whole time (like someone I know-me!). Singing is still a pipedream for me, so color me jealous - of you as well, Don. Good job!
Thanks to both of you SOMorris and bbcee for the moral support. It's not any easy line to cross, either. I'm the biggest chicken there is on stuff like this, so there's alot of psyching up (not to mention umpteen takes ) It really helps to see other people at similar skill levels posting, so thank goodness for the Newbie page! You should hear how good this mandolin sounds when it's played by someone who really knows what they're doing
I like the idea of this thread being a judgement-free zone for posting videos that I’d be embarrassed to post on the big-boy forum Thanks for the comments on the singing, I’ve pretty much gotten completely over my abject terror of it from a few years ago. What made the difference for me was starting out with some harmonies and backups so it wasn’t so glaringly obvious if I screwed up The funny part to me is how hard it is to play straight through a song without mistakes when the camera is rolling. I can sit around a table with friends and a cigar and a beer mug and play a couple dozen songs with just a few minor flubs total... sit me in a chair with a camera and any one of those same songs and it’ll take ten takes to get through it clean.
Try making a video that Mike Marshall is going to see and critique (He's been pretty kind and positive, though) I could never do that all the way through, several tunes in one take. Thank goodness for Premiere Elements "Judgement Free Zone" ha ha, the Planet Fitness of mandolin playing. I like it!
My teacher, the professional violinist, says there's no such thing as a perfect performance.
Sue! That is awesome! Nice to pop some corn and watch Sue live in concert!
Well, not live. Probably 30 - 50 takes over the course of 3 days
The good news is I can now strum Lyin Eyes fine. The bad news is half of my other songs now I scramble up all sorts of strums because I want to strum DDUUDU all the time now.
Two steps forward, one step back At least you're moving in the right direction
Nice job on the songs, guys! Sherry, your teacher is spot-on about perfect performances. So much of what we listen to (especially during this last year of never leaving the house) are studio recordings where every tiny imperfection is spliced out and corrected. When we hear a recording or watch a video we subconsciously expect that flawlessness. In a live performance you don't notice mistakes, short of a train wreck or tipped-over music stand.
Okay, I think I’ve mostly gotten over my brain-freeze on Lyin’ Eyes and it’s about time for a monthly progress video, so I figured I’d post it up. Of course it took me about four takes to get through it once I started the camera, as usual. And there are a couple of clams in it but I knew it would take another ten takes to get through it completely clean, if ever So here goes...
I like it. It sounds good.
Don, great job! I had forgotten what a great song that is. One more piece of sheet music i need to get!
Well done, NDO.
Wow, how cool to see Sue's first video. Great job! And great progress Don, thanks for sharing your progress here.
Thanks, Mark. I guess at some point you have to put a stake in the ground, then it's all uphill from there
NDO, The D Du uDu is one of the only strum patterns I have down really well. I definitely use it, intentionally or not, on a bunch of different songs. I still need to figure out how to pick out the strumming pattern for different songs, especially rock songs. I just kind of fool around with a couple of different ones and see if I can find one that fits. It really screws me up when I can't use the same pattern for the entire song, though. I'm gonna try posting a video or two. I've avoided doing that, I guess out of self-consciouness. There are none here, or on facebook, or anywhere. Probably a good tool.
Southern Man, please do post a video! We want to see your face and hands
Yeah, if I can do it, you can do it If you want, you can put it here in the "No Judgement Zone".
Sherry, nobody wants to see my face, but I'll make sure my hands are visible. commit to putting something up in the next week. Sue, I listened to an interview with Mike Marshall on the "mandolins and beer" podcast and he said that for his Artistworks courses, when people were trying 10 takes to make an acceptable video of themselves to submit, that right there was motivational practice. I failed at the artistworks courses, but that definitely motivated me to make a video and post it. If I have to workshop it that much, it must be worthwhile.
I listened to that podcast as well. When I made my (2 so far) artistworks videos, I ended up splicing together several shorter videos. No way I could get through more than one tune without completely falling apart. It would take *way* more than 10 takes.
Sue, I'm impressed you know how to splice. (I don't!) You are multi-talented!
There were a lot of rude words associated with my first attempts. Luckily, no one but the cats were around to hear them.
Don, let's hear more of harmonica from you. I just watched your first video again and really enjoyed that part.
I listened to a whole hour of his band on the You Tube channel yesterday while I was wasting time on the internet. Loved it, Don. Highly recommended Great repertoire and I love the sound of harps!
Thank you! I feel a whole lot more competent on harps but playing a harmonica on a rack is a lot different than playing it in the hand... I have a lot harder time adding expression, and instead of moving my hands I have to move my head Not to mention the walking-while-chewing-bubble-gum effect of playing two instruments at once. I sometimes lose my way on the harmonica or mandolin or both
sneaking this in here so it goes unnoticed...first video of me playing anywhere, if I can even figure out the linking thing...gonna try two ways, but not sure I can get it to embed here:
C’mon Southern Man! We believe in you!
Hey Southern Man, don't forget you have to host it somewhere. I put mine on Youtube. Once it's uploaded, copy the link they give you. Come here, and under the Reply window open Go Advanced. Click the YouTube icon. Paste in the link copied from YouTube, but take out all but the long series of letters at the end, i.e., if the copied link is https://youtube.be/hrsowker3wddd, take out the https://youtube.be/. Hit Preview to see if it displays correctly. Good luck, look forward to your video!
And don't forget you can make it unlisted on YouTube so the only people who can see it are those to whom you give the link. This was very important for me
Trying this again. I put it on Vimeo, so I have it hosted. Hope I don't need even more remedial instruction....vimeo doesn't appear to have the private setting except as a pay option, may need to put it on Youtube instead at some point, but I think this is going to work...
That was so easy, once I got the remedial directions, that I'm posting a second one...
Hey, Southern Man, that sounded pretty darn good! Nice clear notes. Nice sounding Big Muddy, too! And wait, did I see a video of you jumping out of a perfectly good airplane
Great job! Thanks for posting. I need to start learning some picking songs.
Glad you figured out the video posting, SM. We expect to see many more!
Good mandolinnin' there Southern Man. But my big question is did the main chute open, too?
I do love my Big Muddy. I haven't done very much on my electric since getting it, because I like playing this one so much, plus I'm working on bluegrass things. Sue, anybody making that "perfectly good airplanes" joke has never spent much time in actual skydiving airplanes, there is a reason we jump our of them. I made a little over 400 jumps. I think you have done some flying?? Wondering if you ever put in any time as a jumper dumper. Hank, my main chute always opened. Don, I need to work on some strumming. I do very little rhythm practice with bluegrass (frankly playing bluegrass rhythm by myself is boring and the interruption of playing with other people really set back my progress on that front). I spend most of my time picking bluegrass and fiddle tunes and the time I spend on strumming is more on rock/jam types of music. It has more variety than the bluegrass. I still need work there too.
Ha ha, yes, I've done some flying, but never jumped. I kind of wanted to try it, but never did. Never got a commercial certificate either. I had a friend with a C-172 that featured a fair amount of what looked like structural duct tape. Does that count? "Jumper dumper" Never heard that one before, ha! My Mid Mo M-15 is my second favorite instrument. Hmmm. I think I'll get it out today, I've been neglecting it.
Both those tunes sounded good, Southern Man. Keep up the good work.
It’s been a while since I posted a video so I figured it’s time for a progress update. I was at my place in Montana last week so I thought it would be a good time for a little music at the campfire. It’s a little long but I did include a few songs with some harmonica accompaniment just for Sherry
Don, I believe you've given us a concert! I listened to the first song this afternoon. Look forward to hearing the rest.
Me as well. I'll listen to some more with my coffee tomorrow
Haha better settle in, it’s over an hour long
