Hi Y'all, I'm still learning mandolin

  1. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Haven't posted much recently, but I'm still kicking and enjoying trying to learn to play the mandolin. Back when I got started, I posted progress videos here regularly, and participated in the TOTM when we got that rolling ...

    Lately I've been focusing on learning blues mandolin, and thought I'd share a couple of videos.

    The first one is showing some Blues licks I've been working on that are based off YouTube videos by Rich DelGrosso.

    https://youtu.be/aRe6DohDaN8



    The videos I've been learning from are these two:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzQlTR2inEw
    and
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqOA2P1OHZg
  2. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    And then there's this

    The guitarist, Eddie Tatum, and I are a gigging duo, we play at a hamburger joint once a month.

    In this video, we are attempting Gypsy Woman Blues after a few drinks in Eddie's yard. I played this tune and sang it & Eddie joined in and it was great, we had a blast, so he was determined we should record it.



    Well, I set up the phone and we went for it, but the second time it didn't go as smoothly. Still it was fun, and we will soon actually settle on an arrangement and polish it up for the show.

    Charlie McCoy's "Gypsy Woman Blues" brutalized by Eddie & me:

    https://youtu.be/bxaAGHjw_bo

  3. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    That sounds so fun! Love it!
    Now I want to learn the Blues
  4. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Sue, you want to do it all! Go for it, girl!

    Mark, I look forward to watching your videos this evening. I might even post the one of you and me!
  5. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Playing blues is a lot of fun if you're into blues music, go for it Sue!

    Hi Sherry, hope you are well. It was fun playing together that day.
  6. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    From 3 years ago. Thankfully, I've stopped that silly rocking.

  7. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I'm still listening -- Keep playin'! I had forgotten all about that Birdfeeder Waltz.

    Can you do Shave and a Haircut in blues style?

    Thanks for the videos Mark and Sherry and Eddie. Well done by all. I hadn't thought about blues on the mandolin, but it absolutely does work.
  8. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Sherry and Mark, that's way cool!! Thanks for sharing that. I wasn't here three years ago, so... I appreciate it !
  9. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Mark, that is certainly some smooth jazz!

    We seem to be into hijacking Newbies threads these days. I hope you don't mind my hijacking yours. I hope we have the opportunity to play together again one of these days.
  10. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Hijack away I'm easy, lol. I had forgotten how that lil performance ended Sherry, what a hoot!~

    "Its still goin', keep playing!"

    Henry, I'm coming after you. No really, if we live long enough I'm gonna come up there and record a tune with you some day. When Denise retires in a few years, I hope to drag the RV around the country and have little recording sessions with my mandolin internet buddies. I hope we get to meet someday.
  11. NDO
    NDO
    Mark, thanks for sharing that! That really inspires me, I love playing harps with my band on some blues tunes like Crossroads, Walking Blues, etc. ... now you’re making me think I need to try some mando breaks with those too! That’s great stuff.
  12. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thanks NDO, I’m a long time blues player but only now trying to really focus on mandolin blues playing and enjoying the challenge of learning. BTW, keep posting your progress! We’ve enjoyed the videos.
  13. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Hey Mark - spring has sprung in the NW. Spring is probably a nice time to visit just about anywhere. And the bonus is that it is never really ugly here (for long, anyway). Pick a time, point North and West, and hit the road!
  14. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thank you Henry! I've actually spent my spring thus far in the Pacific Northwest. Actually, I started in San Francisco, CA and 8 days ago flew from there to Seattle. I'll be headed back home when my job is done, probably Tuesday or Wednesday. But my slow travel days are waiting on the wife's retirement. I'm only semi-retired til then, and if people want to pay to fly me around the country on occasion in the meantime, who am I to complain?
  15. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Thanks for the videos, Mark (and Sherry). I enjoyed the blues playing.
  16. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    Nice work on the blues, Mark, and it's good to see you back around here.

    I love the Mark-and-Sherry video. It sounds great, and you're both really into it, and then the end comes! You'll have to redo it with Sherry's new Weber!
  17. bbcee
    bbcee
    Also glad to see you posting, Mark, and really like the tone of that F. Birdfeeder is on my list of perpetual favorites, but I never thought of ending it that way!

    I hope that RV has pontoons so you can float on over here for a visit on fine day.
  18. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    The end was a riot!
  19. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Louise and Sue, I have several videos from that day. Honestly, that one is most flattering to me. Plus I figured we may as well see who watches the video to the end. Lol 😆
  20. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Wasn't that tune (Birdfeeder Waltz) composed by one of the regulars out on the main forum?
  21. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    John Kelly. Maybe I'll tell him about the video.
  22. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I bet he would get a kick out of it.
  23. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Bruce Calder said, "Birdfeeder is on my list of perpetual favorites, but I never thought of ending it that way!"

    I laughed so hard at that

    It reminds me of a story Del McCoury tells. Bill Monroe asked him to sing the lead on a song with which he wasn't that familiar, so Del spent the day spinning a record and copying the lyrics. Song had four verses.

    That night, when they performed it on stage, Del got lost and began mixing up one part of each verse with another until he'd run out of memory, and there was still supposed to be one more verse to go!

    According to Del, when the show was over, he hung close to Monroe - ready to "take his medicine" for screwing up. After a while, Bill looked at him and simply said, "You know, I don't think I've ever heard it sung that way." And that was that.
  24. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    For the blues aficionados, here is a video I recorded in a hotel room about six months ago ... it is my version of Bo Carter's tune Ways Like A Crawfish.

    I posted this in the main forum about six months ago, I played it pretty slowly here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8BMYMwzE5g

  25. NDO
    NDO
    Mark, you are a natural blues singer. Your mando playing was awesome on that song but it was your voice that made the blues. You’re a natural and I loved every minute of it. “Made me wish I was playin’ my harps with ya”.
    Great stuff.
  26. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    That was great, Mark. Don's right, you're a natural. Have any more?
  27. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Not bad pipes, either! Let us see your face, though, Mark.
  28. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    On that one, I didn't mind the close up of the mando. I might see if I can copy some of it.
  29. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    I like face and mando. I can expand for a close-up of hands, which is great.
  30. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Good job, Mark.
  31. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Thanks folks. Don, maybe we'll get a chance to play together some day, I'd like that.

    Sue, I do actually, but I haven't recorded them. The first one I figured out on mandolin during pandemic days was Robert Johnson's Kind Hearted Woman* and I was pleased with the way it fell on mandolin. Of course I'd like to record it some day. Also I like to play Diving Duck Blues and have played it for audiences a couple times but never recorded it. I learned that one from Steve James in his blues mandolin video lessons from Homespun. I have big plans to record some blues numbers in C, A & G, then do video lessons on how I play them, to be posted in the Woodshed Study Group here at the cafe ... but my plans rarely come to fruition.

    Sherry, my face would give anyone the blues lol.

    *Kind Hearted Woman Blues ~ I did record this one a few years ago, but my guitar version which I've played for a long time. The mandolin version is new. Here is the guitar version:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdW_GSdYW_8

  32. NDO
    NDO
    Dang Mark, you really are a blues natural. Great stuff! I would love to play with you sometime.
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