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Music theory isn't a set of rules you follow to make music, it's a description of the music, and a language for describing music. The theory comes from the music, not the other way round.

No, but there are plenty of situations in which people attempt to learn music without spending more than minimal time listening. I've heard many people who thought they'd learned, say, Cape Breton or...

I appreciate the AI-dude's take on using the word "always" and the examples he gave.

Just wondering - is there a situation where listening would not be recommended when playing music?

Kirk

Wait, you're having AI write your forum posts? :disbelief:

Couldn't that be construed as taking a turn toward the dark side? :whistling:

From AI (because I’m busy at the moment):

In the context of music and music theory, the word "always" can be considered a form of hyperbole, which is a figure of speech involving exaggeration for...

I wholeheartedly agree.

– Learning a tune by hearing it
– Learning a tune by reading notation
– Learning a tune by reading tab

Depending on your preference, one of these methods may work better for you than the others....

My wife chose “Give me Your Hand” which was very appropriate, since we met on the dance floor. Now it’s one of the tunes I play it on mandolin. And you can’t go wrong with O’Carolan - lots of...

That is a classic choice. There's also the Felix Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" in C major which would be a good option for the recessional.

Also other option would be the trumpet tunes or...

Learning the piano keyboard, even just as a music theory learning tool, is very useful. One advantage over the mandolin fingerboard is that each discrete pitch has only a single place to play them....

I spent alot of time with a tuner just playing something I knew and learning the fretboard as I did that. Playing twinkle twinkle little star will take you a long way.

Another good suggestion is...

“Anything played wrong twice in a row is the beginning of an arrangement”

I must be an arranging master by now! :mandosmiley::mandosmiley::mandosmiley:

https://www.americanbluesscene.com/2024/03/swamp-dogg-announces-new-album-blackgrass-from-west-virginia-to-125th-st/

"Not a lot of people talk about the true origins of bluegrass music, but it...

gah! honey, I shrunk Mike Marshall! that's a beastly machine with amazing tone. pete, thanks for posting it!

With the number of views, I suspect this hasn’t been posted on the Café forum before, with Mike Marshall playing a Berg 10 string mandocello:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZWwrL-2uS8

BTW I no...

Emphatic YES!!

Plus, it took some time to learn what "holding the pick loosely" is supposed to feel like, allowing it to angle down on the upstrokes while still not, ya know, flying across the...

Wood will always gets to EMC which depends on RH of air around it. Thermally processed wood has slightly lower EMC and has generally better dimensional stability which was the main argument for doing...

That’s sound advice, I haven’t had an opportunity to play a Red Diamond. But still, I’d be more likely to lay the success of one at the feet of Dan himself; that is, to Macrostie’s lutherie skills...

This is one of my warm up exercises, recorded during hybrid-style-folksongs sessions in March 6, 2020.

1dMfTwkHH24

Toomas Rannu
Flat-backed mandolin, crafted by Viljar Kuusk in 2008 (Tallinn,...

This is a lovely Scottish slow air composed by Charles Grant, a 19th Century fiddler and composer from Morayshire.

My version is on octave, mandolin and guitar and based on an arrangement got from...

Continuing the open ended 'kind of random' theme:

Often capo's are used (in Trad Irish at least) to get a certain voicing. Sometimes accompaniment is done with two guitars, one with a capo, the...

if you look at very early Gregorian Chant notation there is no key indication, we've come full circle in the 20th century when Arnold Schoenberg proposed the 12 tone system, there are 12 tones - do...

Despite the title, I believe his real issue is with a cumbersome software as he explains above. Obviously the original post is rather confusing, he explains his real issue later.

Good explanation...

After reading both posts, I'm not quite sure what you're asking!

If it's "Nashville Numbering" system, a single number by itself means that's the chord that is played for the entire measure. The...

Individual capacity for alcohol varies and so do the effects. So it's not a one-size-fits all kind of thing. I spent some time as a bartender when I was in college, and my experience was that your...