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I play my F-style OM with a strap, neck angled up but not as high as the photo above. Maybe 30 degrees like Bertram above.

I'm fortunate to have a going-on 25 year relationship with another musician.

We didn't actually sync up musically until around 10 years into that relationship, because I was coming from the world...

I use the optional metronome add-on for the Peterson Stroboplus HD tuner:

https://www.petersontuners.com/products/stroboplus/

It's way too expensive for what it is -- $30 on top of the price of...

The Irish fiddler Martin Hayes has made a career out of slowing down and "milking" trad tunes for all they're worth on his duo albums with Dennis Cahill. He can play fast too. He's a member of a...

I wouldn't say that fast playing lacks expression, but it can make some trade-offs in the available ways to express the music.

For example, when I hear a good Bluegrass player doing "Fisher's...

There isn't much room in my Pegasus case, but there's enough room for this:

* Peterson Strobo-Clip tuner
* Extra battery for the tuner
* Spare set of strings
* Two Blue Chip TAD40-1R picks and...

Is that true? The roots may be in Appalachian dance music, but I thought Bill Monroe (and cohorts) envisioned it more as stage performance music unrelated to dancing. Which is why there is no natural...

There is one technique I use frequently but not everyone does, which requires the narrower string spacing.

I play mostly Irish and Scottish trad, where an "A modal" or "E modal" chord can be...

That's true in my areas as well, out here in the US Pacific Northwest. Good Irish backers on guitar are worth their weight in gold. It's like being a bass player in a rock band, you'll never lack for...

That $435 Ashbury Rathlin OM in the video looks interesting, and we could sure use some more affordable (and available) options.

One thing that worries me a bit though, is I don't see a cover...

For many of us, the decision of octave mandolin vs. bouzouki hinges on whether we plan to use the instrument for strummed accompaniment, or for playing melodies, or a mix of both.

The typically...

I played in a trio for a couple of years with myself on mandolin melody along with a very good fiddler, backed by acoustic guitar. I used an F-hole mandolin with a clear and punchy fundamental note,...

Totally! I'm playing my Weber Yellowstone F octave mandolin much more under the pandemic lockdown than I did in the Before Times. I was lucky to find this one secondhand, I don't think I could have...

Yeah, but guitar players usually get a pass on that, due to tuning differences and a variety of playing methods that don't exist in the mandolin world. I once visited a guitar player who had a dozen...

That's an interesting point. Maybe just semantics, but I think there's some truth to it. In that respect, I guess there was just one point in my musical life where I had a collection. It was when I...

That's certainly something to be aware of. However, if the OP plays pipes, I'm making the (possibly unfounded) assumption that the musical interest will be in similar areas, such as Scottish or Irish...

An octave mandolin would seem to be the obvious choice. However, one warning about OMs in a band context is that in my experience, they don't mix well with a guitar player. The note range overlaps...

Just echoing what others have said above, there doesn't seem to be a hard and fast rule for hornpipes with regard to a dotted feel, or bounce as I think of it. Some hornpipes seem to "want" a...

A mumblemouth singer who is lucky enough to catch the current spotlight, backed up by an Ace studio band. 'Twas ever thus.

True enough, and also it's practically mandatory for performing musicians to have a FB presence for promotion these days. Not too surprising then, if a few famous artists show up in the various...

There is more 'zouk discussion on thesession.org, possibly due to the exclusive focus on Irish music compared to Mandolin Cafe, where many other styles of music are discussed as well as Irish trad. ...

They are! But not all of them. There are a handful of "dark" minor key hornpipes that are some of my absolute favorites in the Irish repertoire.

This is one pair of "dark" hornpipes I'm working...

I have a few newer Peterson tuners with that "sweetened" mandolin tuning but I've never been able to figure out what it's supposed to do, and I can't hear any improvement in the tunes I normally play...

This my be duplicated in the thread linked above, but the main problem with playing slide on mandolin is the very short scale length, compared to guitar. This means you have to be much more finicky...

I've been playing my OM a bit more lately. Before the pandemic it didn't get much love because I don't bring it to sessions, but now I'm able to get a little practice in on instruments like this that...