So I guess I'll practice scales some more....
I've had my mandolin for a month and a half now. I has been frustrating for me because, while I am no great shakes at all as a guitar player, on mandolin I am very much so a beginner all over again.
One of my biggest frustrations, both back when I was a beginner guitar player and now that I'm a beginner-all-over-again mandolin player, is playing cleanly. I'm finding that the mandolin is much more sensitive to correct fingering, and if you don't finger the note right AT the fret then the mandolin makes some very unmusical sounds.
So I've begun starting every practice session by playing scales for an extended period. Now you can play an open scale using just your index, middle, and ring fingers, but I make a point of using my pinky and going all the way up to the 7th fret on every course. Sometimes I'll even do middle-ring-pinky runs up and down the courses, just to exercise the hell out of my pinky.
And it's probably going to lead to some bad habits down the road, but to paraphrase a famous guitar maxim "There's no money after the 7th fret." I make a point to go up to the 7th fret, but unless I'm stretching for one of those "Bill Monroe must have HATED mandolin players" chop chords then I don't make an effort to practice further up the neck.
And a couple of things that cross my mind every time I do my scales practice:
"My next mandolin is gonna have GIANT frets like the Great Wall of China!"
and
"I wonder how much my guitar tech would charge me to scallop my mandolin's fretboard?"
Eastman MD-514 (F body, Sitka & maple, oval hole)
Klos Carbon Fiber (on order)
And still saving my nickels & dimes & bottle caps & breakfast cereal box tops for my lifetime mandolin.
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