Re: Finger placement
Carl makes all the right points.
Put your fingers on the instrument and move the bottom of the mandolin up to your chin as if it were a violin/fiddle. You see the angle your hands have moved to? that's a pretty good place to start for finger position. Most people, especially those who are looking at the fretboard to make sure their fingers are on the right strings, wildly underestimate the angle they need to place their hands/fingers at.
I don't play chords very often and only know perhaps 3 of them. When I play chords, they are muddy, my fingers overlap and it hurts. I've been told this will disappear with practice. One estimate was that if I continue to play chords for two or three weeks, a lot of those problems will disappear. I can't say I've ever tried this -- my need for chords is pretty non-existent -- but that's what i've been told. You may just need to practice more chording, paying particular attention to your fingers, and then look away. don't look at your hands. just don't. You have to twist the mandolin too much and that makes chording even more awkward.
If your fingers hurt too much, try lighter weight strings. It's not 'giving up' or 'taking the easy route' or any other of those things. You do what you need to do to make music. You can always put on heavier strings once you get fretting, chording or whatever under your belt. Truly, nobody has any idea what strings you have on your mandolin unless they ask you and you tell them.
Obviously, one of the most important things is setup. But you know that.
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1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
1952 Strad-o-lin
1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
2011 Eastman MD305
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