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Excellent work! That will serve many a beginner. Very common sense patterns to help recognize relationships of chords and notes to each other.

I caught the same thing Phil noticed. It looks like...

What an impact Butch has left! He has certainly had one on my playing. Thank you, Butch, for the hours of joy playing along with you on your records and may you rest in peace. And may Sinclair,...

Another recommendation for Doug Edwards' McClung. I'll admit I prefer to play armrest free, but I have sampled a number of them, and the McClung was the only one that may me seriously consider using...

I once had one and had a lot of trouble with the bridge coming up - it happened three times despite my luthier's best efforts! I remember the neck was pretty chunky and the nut width small which is...

Just to add to the clues here, I had a recent one of these sent my way for a Craigslist ad. It looked better than Lionel's email: good grammar and spelling, personable language, and specific...

Scott,

Thank you for running a great site. Please go ahead and change me over to Andrew Lewis.

Thanks.

Brad Laird's Mandolin Master Class. It really hit on how to play music, not how to just memorize tunes.

Personally, I think it sounds great. I do it all the time. Tim O'Brien stuff, traditional bluegrass, old time, folk songs...they all sound nice. Open chords tend to sound best, but moveable barre...

More likely a shave and a haircut! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Haha! Fair enough. Got it done today, and it's quite amusing how different our takes were on the same song, especially when back-to-back. The guitar player and I got a good laugh out of it, but it...

Hey folks,

I'm interested in some quick opinions tonight if you can. I'm laying down a mandolin break tomorrow in the studio, but I'm sitting here working it out and am not sure which direction to...

I find that my best stuff comes when I hear a hook in my head and match it with some thematic lyrical ideas I've had rolling around in my head then sit down with a guitar or mandolin and flesh out...

I have found FT74s to have a softer, mellower sound than J74s. They have a nice tone, just softer. Feel nice, too. If I wasn't wanting a punchier, BG sound, I'd stick with the ones I've got on it now.

Butch Baldassari's recording of Pass Me Not.

When I switched to an A style, I tried going to the headstock (because I saw Steve Smith wear it that way on his Old Wave and thought it looked cool). I haven't looked back. It balances much better...

Rekx (and Stanley if you're reading this),
It doesn't look I'm going to make it out this weekend, but I hope y'all have a great time. I'm very jealous. See you at the next Charley's or SWBGC jam!

Interesting poll. I find it rotates in phases depending on what I'm working on in my playing at that time. At one time or another, I have used five of the above mentions: St. Anne's and Whiskey when...

Alternatives? Like what? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Tweedy, you may check out the look of a leather strip wound through the strings to accomplish the same...

Doug,
Lookin' great and sounding good, too! Sounds kind of oval hole-ish to me. It has a nice open ring to it. Congratulations on going for it and succeeding.
And I like the ebony pickguard on it,...

When I started, my existing grip wasn't that far off, but it still felt a little awkward. I made a gradual adjustment, but it was a quick gradual, and I'm really glad I got over the awkward and just...

I think one of the keys to the grip that Thile and others recommend is that it keeps your first finger and thumb #from flexing around to pick the strings. The picking motion should come from your...

Another thing that might help you in a jam situation or when figuring out a song is to remember the mobility of chord shapes. Make sure you learn those moveable chord shapes. That way, regardless of...

Thanks, Wes. I gave these guys a listen on iTunes and got a kick out of 'em.

"The Beauty of Her Face" is a beautiful song with almost literary quality narrative. Sound like something Cormac...

Yes, I would say if you're feeling soreness, you're holding it too tight. Sometimes it can be hard to tell how tightly someone's holding a pick (or the neck or whatever) from a pic even though their...

Guitar Center sells these and they're pretty nifty because you plug the tuner into a little cable on it and it feels the vibrations through the soundboard it's resting on. My father loves his. I'm...