I got my mandola with the deliberate intention of staying in the same key with the tunes I know. Working out the tunes takes me sometimes up, sometimes down the neck compared to what I'm used to on mandolin. With enough repetition of a particular tune in a practice session, I become less mindful of the actual key I am playing in, and instead new ear/finger connections get made: subliminal learning which is transferable back to the mandolin. Plus a bonus in improved pinky function.
Still, being able to play them interchangeably in public remains a dream for me. Anytime I've taken the mandola "out" I've run into the instant brain-lock which is the curse of my over-analytical type. -- Paul
He joyously felt himself idling, an unreflective mood in which water was water, sky was sky, breeze was breeze. He knew it couldn't last. -- Thomas McGuane, "Nothing but Blue Skies"
Bookmarks