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https://youtu.be/U3In9TUsdbo

I know what it means to be lonesome is one of my favorites for this progression.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS2lFbBq1rc

I've often thought that best of all would be an assistant who would hold the instrument in any position for you. And in an inconspicuous manner so as not to distract your audience.

Actually, I...

It's interesting that the common key for a tune is not always the most suitable key for a particular instrument. Also, even playing the same notes in a different key can change the feel of the tune....

Here's an attempt to illustrate the difference between DUDDUD and DUDUDU.

It's NOT a fair example, as I use DUDDUD mostly for jigs and therefore I'm better at playing that way. But I think it does...

Sessions! Just playing in a session will be great, but aside from the enjoyment of playing music with others there's the additional random element:
- Going to sessions where you don't know anyone...

Certainly wouldn't suggest my practice is a model for everybody, but on tenor banjo (similar scale length) I find that I use mandolin fingering unless:
- The tune requires notes on first fret (e.g....

Everybody's different so for me... you only need to feel that this mandolin is sufficient to satisfy the criteria you had when you started looking. And I've had quite a few instruments over the years...

Hi Folks,

Just thought I'd let you know in case any of you might be interested. I'm playing for an hour on Zoom this Sunday at 4pm PST (midnight in Ireland, sorry!). I'll be playing mandolin and...

Never Too Late by John Holt. Not sure when it was published, but I'm guessing seventies. No mandolin content, but it's a great book about an adult beginner taking up cello (after a brief dalliance...

Lovely, and really nice how you've played it.

If you mean is this generally considered a vital part of the tune, I'd say no. There are tunes where triplets are an integral part of the tune and can't be omitted without losing something, but for...

Fun to play around with, well done. As well as being able to play a note by clicking on it or numbered key, I think it'd be nice to have a button that plays the scale.

Suggestions and answers given are very good, but I'd like to mention the issue of trying too hard when playing out. One aspect of this I've found is trying to be heard! Playing in your living room...

Possibly another example of innate talent that enabled practice under adverse conditions...

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/nov/22/experience-i-learned-to-play-piano-without-a-piano

I second Never Too Late. Wonderful book that I've been giving as a gift or loan for many years now.
In a somewhat similar vein, that of trying to become better at music later in life, I rather...

I think that particular Blind Blake song would be hard to do on mandolin while keeping the feel of the original. I've had a go at another Blind Blake song, basically just copying one fill to try to...

I found that for me what worked was refretting my mandolin with wider frets, specifically the gold EVO ones. Prior to that the frets were made of much smaller fretwire. The difference in doing slides...

Most enjoyable 20mins I've had since I don't know when. Thanks for posting!

In Tony Sullivan's Irish Tenor Banjo book he describes a method of playing using what he calls a "thimble", essentially a small piece of plastic piping that slides over the first finger and is held...

Thanks. Yes, I used hammer-on, pull-off, pull-off, pull-off. The notation you're following would seem to indicate that the last not should be picked not a pull-off, but I find it sounds better to...

Perhaps playing from the wrist is the ideal - I'm not so sure. It seems like it may give more control. But lots of great players play very much with the entire arm and seem to play accurately and...

What I'd say to anyone struggling with this is to be sure that you hear the rhythmic sound of a treble in your mind's ear when you think about the tune. One way to try thinking about this is to try...

I've been trying to throw in a little bit of cross picking into breaks but I find it quite a bit harder to do an entire break cross picked. Here's my try at I Know What It Means to be Lonesome (well...

Would love to go to Achiltibuie Piping Centre in glorious Coigach this summer if only to be able to answer the qu "Where did you go on your hols?" with, "Achiltibuie in Coigach!" (though I'd have to...