Hi fellow newbies! I've been playing mandolin for a few months and am just getting to the point where I can play a little bit without looking at the strings all the time -- however, I'm having trouble with the right hand being able to hit the correct strings without looking when there's a lot of string crossing. Needless to say, that results in some awful sounds! Do any of you have exercises that you've found helpful with string crossing? I'm mostly playing Celtic, old time, and classical -- not much Bluegrass, although I love to listen to BG. Thanks for any and all suggestions!
Soooooo - keep looking at the strings. There is a lot of nonsense floated around about how 'good players never look at their hands when they play'. While it sounds nice (and possibly even a bit intimidating) the fact is that it is just not true. Watch videos of any mandolin player, (unless they are actively reading sheet music) and you will see that sometimes they look at their hands, and sometimes they do not . . . even folks who have been playing for decades. Give yourself a break - look at what you are playing anytime you think you want and/or need to, and let yourself play well without worrying about 'am I doing it right'. If you are playing, and you are reasonably achieving the results that you want to, then you are doing it right - the little nuances of 'technique' will come later.
Hi Dacnis! Sounds like you are trying to play some tune or following sheet music? And you are coming to places where this is a problem? If so, then that would be my exercise. The mistake you might make when encountering a problem like that in your practice would be to continue on through. Another mistake you might make is to start all over at the top of piece to try again. What I would suggest is to find the areas that give you trouble -- the string crossing areas of the piece -- and make those an exercise. Take a phrase from that area, memorize and practice it. First practice it by looking at the strings, followed by practicing it while looking away. I can tell you that it will normally take a lot of time and a lot of practice before your body and brain can find the right string all the time without looking. That will be true, no matter what exercises you use. But eventually, it does get locked into your brain and your hand, arm, fingers and pick will become familiar with the micro-adjustments required. A lot of practice over time, and avoid discouragement, knowing that it will come and that it will take time. In my own opinion, this is the best practice exercise, the type that you create to solve specific problems you are having. However, there are string crossing exercises you can use. The only ones I would have written are from books like Mandolin Exercises for Dummies, or from PDFs that part of training series on video that are paid classes like the one from Mike Marshall, so someone else will have to point you to pre-made exercises, but even if you use them, I'd suggest you still make your own as described above.
Mike posted while I was typing, let me say there is nothing wrong with his advice, but we do know there are times you can't watch yourself playing. Maybe you will be playing something that requires you to look at the audience and engage them a bit -- or maybe you need to read sheet music. As far as the problem you're having, everybody experiences it. The greatest master had to overcome it when they started, and it took time and practice. So you're not alone, just keep practicing and believing and you'll be fine.
Thanks for the advice! I've played piano for many years and am so used to reading music as I'm playing that it really didn't occur to me that maybe that doesn't always work on the mandolin. So I'll try looking at my hands more, and also isolating the parts I'm having trouble with and working through those.
Welcome to the bunch Dacnis. And if I already welcomed you, well, you're still welcome. As far as I am concerned, look where you need to in order to feel comfortable with what you are doing. String (and fret) positional awareness will come naturally with time if you play and practice regularly. I am told that after a while one can even scope out smiling faces in the audience while playing flawlessly. I'm not there yet, though.
OK, if you play piano, you probably know something about how to practice. I would suggest looking through your baroque and Irish repertoire to find a good example of what's difficult. Play it 10x slowly, 10x quickly. 10x starting with an upstroke, 10 more starting down. Play it straight, play it swung, play it in a dotted rhythm. Like anything else in music, you just have to get it into your muscle memory.
Thanks guys. One of the tunes that gives me problems is Julia Delaney's -- it has a "backward" string change from d to a, and a couple of jumps back and forth from a to e. I tried isolating those phrases, watching my hands, and playing them in various tempos, oh, 40 or 50 times. It helped a lot!
I had to do the same with that tune about two-and-a-half years ago! One of the first I learned, and that B part can be maddening.
My teacher would tell you to play s-l-o-w-l-y and not increase the speed until you're happy with the sound at the slow speed.
Yesterday I tried playing along to a metronome set at 60, and that seemed to help -- both the slow speed and the reminder to stay in time.
Play even slower if you need to - like if you can't stay in time with the metronome. I hate playing slow, but it has paid off.
Awhile back I did the Artistworks online class and Mike Marshall demonstrated an exercise where you play the open G string with a downstroke then an upstroke on the D, then another downstroke G then up on the A, down on the G and up on the E. Then switch to starting the down stroke on the D up on the G, down on the D up on the A, down on the D up on the E. Then switch to starting with down strokes on the A string and finally the E string. I found this was a nice way to “map” the distance between strings and build up muscle memory in my picking hand without the added complication of learning a melody. After awhile you can really fly between strings and can feel how far away the G is from A string. It’s also a nice warm up exercise to loosen up the picking hand at the beginning of practice.
+1 on the Mike Marshall exercise for crossing over. It helps develop the spatial skills between the strings. Last month, I purchased Marilyn Mair's book 100 Techniques & Exercises for the Mandolinist. It, too, has some great cross-over exercises. I like hers even more than Mike's because she builds on each new exercise. The disadvantage is you don't have the video, but you can download the audio that goes along with it. Watching good mandolin player's technique, in person and on the Web, also helps.
Sherry's comment to play slower is a good, hard workout. I saw a video with Sierra Hull about practicing and she took the metronome down ridiculously low - 20-30 bpm. I tried it and it's a killer, but it helps.
Thanks Lex and Fred -- I tried the Mike Marshall exercise for string crossing and it's fun. Someone told me that Mair has a lot of good string-crossing exercises in her "Complete" book too. Lots of good ideas. I'm intrigued by the idea of slowing down to 20-30 beats.
Yes, Dacnis. Marilyn has it in her The Complete Mandolinist's book, too. I purchased that with her 100 Techniques & Exercises. Good stuff in there to with.
