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
Good job! I enjoyed listening.
I had to sing along to Tupelo Honey! Love it. Thanks for sharing.
I'll be joining NDO. Thanks for keeping the timbers going
Finally took the time to listen tonight. You really put on a good show, NDO. Well done!
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
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.
Great job Angela! Getting up the nerve to record yourself is the hardest part You’re off and running.
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.
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
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.
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
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!
Good job, NDO, and quite a mandolin collection!
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.
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!
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
Good job on the bonus track, Don.
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!
Thanks for pointing that out, I'd missed it as well. Sounding good, Angela. Your bravery in posting early efforts encourages us all
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!
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
Good job, Don. And playing two instruments at the same time! The octave mandolin sounds almost like a guitar.
Yeah it feels like cheating! Suddenly it’s almost like I learned overnight to play the guitar
Not a monthly progress video… but it’s Christmas https://youtube.com/watch?v=GHMqsy7Wlis&feature=shares
Thanks, Don. Merry Christmas to you and all the Newbies! Nice job on the song, too.
Thank you Don (good job on the song!), and Merry Christmas to you and all the other Newbies!
Haven’t posted one for a while so here are some new covers. Steve Earl: https://youtube.com/watch?v=R0euzVqWci8&feature=shares Tommy Prine: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T35PZ9XWQPs&feature=shares Jason Isbell: https://youtube.com/watch?v=k1iqWDywztc&feature=shares
Forgot to record Zach Bryan last night… https://youtube.com/watch?v=vzMR8445Ls8&feature=shares
Thanks, Don. I enjoyed your singing and playing. I really like the mandola. Does a mandola play with the same fingering as a mandolin?
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.
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
Thanks Don and Sue. I am not well educated on all the stringed variations of the mandolin. Very helpful information!
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.
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
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
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
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
I played the mandolin instead of the octave at an open mic a week or two and this one came out pretty well. Usually my recordings from live settings end up pretty noisy with crowd noise but this time everyone pretty much stopped what they were doing and listened https://youtu.be/0qngRn14n3U?si=Tbpu2zdu27uMH1t8
When you're cruising through a solo at top speed And your callus snags on a string
Haha BEM luckily I avoid that by not playing any high speed solos unless they’re on the harmonica
Another consideration is just what is top speed. Mine's not too dangerous, lol. I am playing a solo of my own creation at the NH Fiddle Ensemble concerts this year. The song is "Jolene" and it's not too fast (but the timing is a little crooked). Hopefully I can keep my footing and keep on surfin' with the aliens, ha ha.