Search:

Also, even in solo playing, root can be omitted on many chords. It will be implied in the context of the chord progression, so the listener will “hear” the root - actually the modulation of the...

Using the bottom 2 or 3 strings to do most of the work (G & D courses with the A course) and using the top two strings (sometimes the A course used this way and very often the E course) to simply add...

Bill, it is not the name of the landing note that makes a fifth or fourth; the note names and chord names are relative. A fifth does not refer to a chord or note but rather names an interval. The...

I highly recommend the book by Stuart Isacoff, Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Greatest Minds of Western Civilization

Study a bit about music history in regards to tunings - you’ll learn why the true intervals cannot be practically accounted for in any portable musical instrument, what tuning schemes were developed...

I continue to neglect guitar in my own life. Once I really got interested in mandolin, the first couple years I hardly ever practiced or learned anything on guitar, but I still used it when playing...

Just to say there seem to be the impression in a few of the posts that aliphatic resin glue joints are non-reversible - this is not the case. Most of those glues are both thermoplastic (can be...

I have grown to detest string changes on slot heads. Applaud your efforts, but this doesn’t make the task appear any more appealing to me :)

Most mandolin and guitar methods and tablatures, and some sheets, use something more like the capital Pi symbol and the carat or (often inverted) v letter.

An "open bottomed box" similar to the...

Sherry, you won't find an example like that because you are putting the terms "flat picking" and "cross picking" vs. each other ... but they are not opposed to one another. "Cross picking" is "flat...

Step one: Pick a tune that you really love to work with.

Step two: If you don't already know it, learn the melody in first position along with learning the chord changes.

Step three: Go up the...

Both

Default - not absolute, just default. Why? To set the groove. But this does not apply to some musical forms, necessarily, like jigs,etc.

Playing 2/2 or 4/4 (common time, "common" is sort of...

Really interesting and imaginative, but I doubt its practicality re: acoustics. I think there is good reason why the traditional Gibson scroll of the F models was placed "outside" the sound chamber,...

Thousands of members here were in your shoes at some point, guitar players drawn to the mandolin. It took me a year or so to sort of begin to find a mandolinny voice for myself, as in the beginning I...

Keep it simple, just learn the dominant 7 chord of every chord you know by adding the flat 7 note to those chords. Then just learn how to make the major 7 chords by simply adding the 7 note.

you...

Yes indeed, this happens to most, if not all, musicians.

This can be especially daunting to a beginner - and exacerbated by the beginner's growth in 'hearing' more accurately what they're doing,...

Great work, I like it!

I'm on a job in sunny L.A. at the moment, while my wife is home alone in a home covered with icicles, surrounded by snow, only one water tap working ... thankfully she hasn't lost power. My...

Hey string along, you posted a link to your video in the YouTube studio edit mode - link won’t work that way. Post a link to the video itself, I’d surely like to hear it!

Thanks for that tip! I’ve read numerous Kellerman novels, but knew nothing of his musical life.

Which one do you have, David? Mine is the M106SWK

I made a bone nut for it and set the action low when I got it years ago. It has been a serviceable mandolin, used from time to time as a backup...

I own an Americana A style and have played it for many years. It is not a good value in a mandolin at retail price. Spending the equivalent on a Kentucky would get a much better mandolin.

Biggest...

FWIW Justin lowered the tension ever so slightly by tuning down a half step to play the above, not a bad idea if you want to do this.

I use the TF120 (white) and the TF140 (black) more than any other picks. The JT Pix #2 blue polycarbonate (1.2 mm) gets almost as much play, though, when I want a bit brighter tone.