Monthly progress videos

  1. NDO
    NDO
    Post your own tune-of-the-month!
    Until we can get back in the swing of having a tune of the month, how about everyone committing to learning at least one new song of their own choosing… and post it up here.

    I’ll kick it off with this one. It’s not a hard song but it sure has some chords I’d never seen before! Look at some of the oddball ones…
    Gmaj7 0022
    A/C# 2240
    Bm/A 4002
    Bm/G# 1022
    D/F# 2002, 2052
    G/D 4023
    A/D 2040
    F# 6446

    https://youtu.be/7wFAG7M41tc



    I actually overachieved this month and learned about a half dozen new songs. It was a nice night last night (though a bit cool) so I lit up the fire pit and played them all (plus a warm-up with a tried-and-true Tyler Childers song). They’re all in the playlist here.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...eyMwtpasFhKye0
  2. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Good job! I enjoyed listening.
  3. angilles
    angilles
    I had to sing along to Tupelo Honey! Love it. Thanks for sharing.
  4. Ellsdemon
    Ellsdemon
    I'll be joining NDO. Thanks for keeping the timbers going
  5. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Finally took the time to listen tonight. You really put on a good show, NDO. Well done!
  6. angilles
    angilles
    I am still working on making the first song in my class sound like a song and not a series of unconnected notes. Need to work on getting a steady right hand a practice more. Maybe this thread will keep me accountable?? I forgot to repeat the B part. Also I am playing the A and E strings together for some of the notes on purpose...I like the bigger sound there.
    https://youtu.be/fAqmotS8CcQ
  7. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    I like the drone sound there too. Especially for that tune.

    Playing scales up and down will help your fingers learn where to go and make everything feel natural. I am doing that for my re-learning experience. Not as much fun as an actual tune, so it is quite OK to intersperse a tune or two.
  8. NDO
    NDO
    Great job Angela! Getting up the nerve to record yourself is the hardest part
    You’re off and running.
  9. bbcee
    bbcee
    Congrats Angela, it's great you've jumped into recording right away. It only gets easier, both the playing and recording.
    Look forward to following your progress.
  10. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    You don't look nervous at all, Angela, good for you! I find recording myself to be very nerve wracking and it never comes out as well as when the camera isn't one
  11. NDO
    NDO
    My next attempt will be “Knee Deep” by Zac Brown band. I started it last week and spent a week despairing of figuring out the intro since I couldn’t find any tabs or scores for it. But I had a breakthrough yesterday when I capoed to match key of the recording (Eb) and then picked out most of it while listening to the song, then went back to D. Now it’s coming along fast (though I’ll be missing a few embellishments on the picking). It’s a super fun song.
  12. NDO
    NDO
    Not really a monthly progress video but I decided to get out all my neglected mandolins at the same time.
    It does technically include a couple of new songs since I’ve learned some new ones this week.

    https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...kyEFfZPziTj-tf
  13. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Wow, Don, you have amassed quite a herd. My favorites are the Wilcox and the Morris. But the Eastmans are close runners up.

    Your ability to pick up tunes quickly and then present them well, is enviable. You go, boy!
  14. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Good job, NDO, and quite a mandolin collection!
  15. NDO
    NDO
    Thanks all!
    Yes Hank, I think sound wise the BRW, then the Morris, then the MD415 and then the MD605.
    Playability it’s probably the Morris, the Eastmans then the BRW only because the BRW is a flat fretboard and I’m used to radius. It’s also a tiny bit higher action and I didn’t want to mess with it . However I hardly notice the difference anymore, much different than a year ago.
  16. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Great to see the whole ensemble.
    Nice playing, Don. I like that you are brave enough to put out there songs that aren't fully perfect yet. You're an inspiration to the rest of us newbies!
  17. NDO
    NDO
    Well, I didn’t expect this one… I was working on a different song this week and just picked on this one as a second song for the week and discovered I really liked some of the actual mandolinny things in the intro. So here’s a bonus track for the week. It’s an obscure Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song most of you have probably never heard of.

    https://youtu.be/2_cvoOHq5J0

  18. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Good job on the bonus track, Don.
  19. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    I missed your Youtube earlier, Angela. Good job! I have only played in front of other people a few times in the few years I have been plunking now and here you are a new player and already performing! Thanks for posting!
  20. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Thanks for pointing that out, I'd missed it as well.
    Sounding good, Angela. Your bravery in posting early efforts encourages us all
  21. NDO
    NDO
    No video this time, but I will report a breakthrough of sorts. Normally I look up chord sheets for songs using the ultimate guitar app. In the rare cases they don’t have a song, I can usually find one somewhere on the interwebs. I heard another obscure NGDB song the other day on my Apple Music and decided I’d learn to play it. But… no chords on UG or anywhere else I could find. So I thought dang it, maybe I can work it out myself. And I’ll be darned if five minutes later I was playing the whole song because it turned out to just be a simple GCD progression and I already knew most of the lyrics.
    I’m sure most won’t be so easy but I felt really good about being able to guess the chords by ear!
  22. NDO
    NDO
    Okay here’s a double dip… my new octave mandolin (arrived yesterday) and the song I had to learn by ear, the day before.

    https://youtu.be/yvf0jBJhwFg

  23. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Good job, Don. And playing two instruments at the same time! The octave mandolin sounds almost like a guitar.
  24. NDO
    NDO
    Yeah it feels like cheating! Suddenly it’s almost like I learned overnight to play the guitar
  25. NDO
    NDO
    Not a monthly progress video… but it’s Christmas

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=GHMqsy7Wlis&feature=shares

  26. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Thanks, Don. Merry Christmas to you and all the Newbies! Nice job on the song, too.
  27. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Thank you Don (good job on the song!), and Merry Christmas to you and all the other Newbies!
  28. NDO
    NDO
  29. NDO
    NDO
    Forgot to record Zach Bryan last night…
    https://youtube.com/watch?v=vzMR8445Ls8&feature=shares

  30. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Thanks, Don. I enjoyed your singing and playing. I really like the mandola. Does a mandola play with the same fingering as a mandolin?
  31. NDO
    NDO
    That’s actually an octave mandolin, so same fingering as a mandolin (hence my overnight fake guitar-ish sound). A mandola is typically tuned a fifth lower (CGDA) so I’m interested in trying that someday.
  32. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Stacey, I have a mandola and find that I need to think about it as a mandolin with one less string at the top and one more at the bottom. So I shift over one string to start and then if I run out of strings at the top (A string), I either go up the neck or down an octave. I haven't used it for rhythm playing yet. I'm still learning the various chord shapes on mandolin (am taking Matt Flinner's Mandolin Rhythm class right now), but feel like it will be a similar approach.

    Don, I think you would like that class when he offers it again. So many fairly advanced rhythm ideas! You'd probably crank right away; for me it's practice, practice, practice
  33. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Thanks Don and Sue. I am not well educated on all the stringed variations of the mandolin. Very helpful information!
  34. NDO
    NDO
    Sue, you should be able to play all your familiar chord shapes on the mandola- they’ll just be off by a fifth. So when you play a G shape it’ll make a C. Play a C and it’ll be an F. Play a D and it will be a G, etc.
  35. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Yes, the shapes will be the same, just moved over one string. I could confuse myself trying to work on rhythm on both instruments at the same time, though. (It's sometimes easy to do LOL). I'm learning alot of new chord groups in short order and need some breathing room to practice them (the fire hose affect, ha ha). Right now I'm working on a 12-bar blues shuffle in A and a swing progression in C with lots of 7 chords and a few 6 chords and minors thrown in, chords change almost every measure. Fun but a serious challenge.

    Your songs sound great, Don. I especially like the last one. That's an amazing amount of coordination, singing, mando, harmonica. Very impressive
  36. NDO
    NDO
    So at the same time I decided to learn the GL songs, I also decided to learn a Robert Earl Keen cover that a friend of mine always plays. Not perfect yet but it’s a pretty easy song to play so I thought I’d post the cover in case anyone wants to try to learn it.

    https://youtu.be/MWkhvYuI4gs

  37. NDO
    NDO
    Been a while since I posted a video… here are some I played the other night that I’ve been working on.

    https://youtu.be/vo57_jZQyEw



    https://youtu.be/8FENruCrk90



    https://youtu.be/5tj1NUoV50s



    https://youtu.be/ZbmAVRM-uSw

  38. NDO
    NDO
    Been a while since I posted a song… here’s a new one I wrote last week (only the second song I’ve written so be gentle)


    https://youtu.be/M4Imkq1jnmo?si=KhKCS5xyN3_SU0FT

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