New series of Mandolin Lessons

[el cro]

Hello everyone,
here in Madeira we are creating a new series of online Mandolin Lessons.
The lessons will be given by my friend and teacher Norberto Gonçalves da Cruz and although they are in Portuguese, we've included English captions.
As a starter, we hope to post at least ten lessons, one every week. The first two lessons are about picks (materials, sizes, holding them).



We would be glad to hear any comments.
Enjoy,

Élio

[Ali]

Very good - very interesting. I like the way he does not approach the lesson with "you MUST do this, or you MUST do that" but tries to explain his own personal preference and what has lead him to those conclusions. Great. I think project this might be useful to lots of people who don't have access to a good teacher but also to all of us to learn more about each other and why we do the things we do, play the way we play, and like the sounds we like! WELL DONE Norberto and Elio. With this kind of broad minded open thinking our instrument will continue to grow in many directions.

[swinginmandolins]

Thanks for this effort! I added a subscription to your Youtube channel so I won't miss the next lessons you post!

[el cro]

The second lesson is now available...
still about picks but focusing more on right hand technique.



Élio

[Gelsenbury]

These are great videos! The instructor is calm and charismatic - I want to be like him!

It's a very good metaphor about the right arm being like a snake, with the thumb and index finger as the head. Whenever I play a note that sounds rubbish, I usually find fault with the fingers of my right hand.

[Hiin]

Hi!

I just want to let you know that your video is of great quality and really helps me.
I joined a mandolin club at my university last year, and I was taught quite a different play style that you mentioned in your video.

For example, I was told hold the pick so that the three fingers below can support forefinger (in your video you seemed to hold the pick only with your thumb and forefinger). A reason for this is so that we have more support when doing up strokes (which is considerably harder than down strokes).

Also, we also try to not move our wrist while playing. We hold our lower arm parallel to the strings and we move our lower arm up and down. Some people claimed this do have some effect on quality of the sound , but some say that player would have more control.

I understand that there is no real consensus on how to play mandolin, so this video really broaden my experiences of other playing technique. I will be waiting for your next video!

[el cro]

We are a bit late this week but the lesson is now available. This lesson focus on a hybrid picking technique for moving across strings. The idea is that the pick should play the string in the same direction that the right hand is moving.



Élio

[vkioulaphides]

Very nice! And the friendly, unaffected manner of the instructor is perfectly matched by the laid-back, relaxed "poetry" of the language...

Cheers,

Victor

[Gelsenbury]

That's an interesting approach. I'm getting a sense that there is no authoritative answer to the question of pick direction. Your suggestion makes a lot of sense.

[el cro]

We have a new lesson available. This one is still about the right hand and moving across strings but focuses more on using all the strings.



Enjoy,
Élio

[MLT]

Élio,

Thanks. I look forward to these posts, I think that I may be learning Portuguese in addition to picking up tips from Norberto on playing technique.

Keep them coming.

[el cro]

Thank you for all your comments.
Some people have asked me what is Norberto's background. So, here goes a short biographical note:

He was born in Caracas, Venezuela. His parents moved back to Madeira when he was very young. He spent the last 10 years in Italy having graduated from mandolin at Conservatorio A. Casella in L'Aquila, under the guidance of Dorina Frati. He has played with great names from Rostropovich to Andrea Bocelli and, more recently, Morricone. He's a member of Quintetto a Plettro Giuseppe Anedda and besides classical he also has some works on experimental music.

I'll leave you with a couple of videos where you can see him perform (minus the beard)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXSq66GS8as
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnBAIa4-Dlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovy5OtnuaFs

[el cro]

The 5th lesson is now available... this time it's about the left hand and focus on techniques for changing positions.



Enjoy,
Élio

[el cro]

We have a new lesson. This time it's about tone (The 480p version has better sound)...



Enjoy,
Élio

[Gelsenbury]

I'm still really enjoying these. Thank you for making them available. Lesson 5 was a bit too advanced for me, but #6 is fundamental and very interestingly presented. I liked the approach of explaining tonal differences between the bridge and fretboard on a concrete musical example.

The serpent and the spider playing mandolin ... I love that image. Who will be the first to have a serpent and a spider "tattooed" on their mandolin?

[Hiin]

Your Mandocello sounds superb!
Daigo Marumoto is very popular among Japanese mandolinists, but I'm suprised that he is also quite well known there!
Always enjoying your lesson, keep posting!

[el cro]

@Gelsenbury The main idea on lesson #5 is that you have more options than just jumping around with left hand. Stretching you fingers can sometimes be a better option. You can do the exercise very slowly and still get a feel of that.

@Hiin Actually he is quite unknown for most people here. Unfortunately we don't get much information about the Japanese mandolin scene. Daigo Marumoto is a wonderful composer. Last year we had the opportunity to acquire some of his works and Azzurro is simply beautiful.

Thank you for your comments.

[vkioulaphides]

A question, "colored" of course by my daily experience with bowed string instruments: yes, you can get a lovely sul tasto effect on the mandolin (and its relatives), as well as a sparkling sul ponticello. But those are "special" effects, used for variety, contrast, etc.

Do mandolinists make a "regular" practice of moving the pick towards the bridge as the left hand moves into higher positions? That is, of course, a bread-and-butter "automation" that is ingrained in the muscular memory of violinists/violists/cellists/bassists little by little, ever since Day #1 of their studies. The physics behind it is that you bow (pluck?) in a proportional ratio to the ringing string-length (i.e. and not to the total scale/mensure, as if the string were open).

In simpler terms, do/should mandolinists pluck gradually closer to the bridge as they play in higher positions? I've always wondered...

Cheers,

Victor

[Hiin]

＾
Never thought about that before...

Though, concerning phrases that needed to be played on higher fret, if the sound is too different than what i'm imagining (too "sul tasto", for example), I would deliberately move my hand closer to the bridge prior playing that particular phrases.
But, we never train to "automate" the movement in every phrases...

I think mandolinists don't do that. Concerning whether it should be done or not, it is quite interesting matter to be discussed. I shall wait for experts here to respond.

[vkioulaphides]

Never thought about that before...

I suspected so. And yet that is perhaps the VERY first thing bowed-string players are taught to build into our kinesthetic memory! The idea is, as I wrote, that you should bow at a point that is an XYZ-ratio to the stopped, ringing string; as the left hand "shortens" the string by playing in the higher positions, ipso facto the bow's point-of-contact MUST move towards the bridge, so as to maintain the same ratio, and thus the same "contour" of vibration. Otherwise you end up getting all sorts of unintentional variances of tone, either towards a sul tasto or a sul ponticello sonority. You change point-of-contact so as NOT to change tonal quality.

I, too, await word from the experts— of whom, admittedly, I am not one ;-)

Cheers,

Victor

[Martin Jonas]

Don't know if mandolinists in general do it -- I personally am very much aware of the physics of this and that one should shift the picking position closer to the bridge the higher one frets with the left hand, in order to achieve a consistency of tone. I think I wrote a post about that a few years ago here. If anything, the effect is more dramatic on mandolin than on violin, because most people pick further away from the bridge than violinists bow, and thus they would have to make greater adjustments in pick position to maintain string ratios.

Whether I consistently do this myself when playing is a different matter -- I think on balance the answer is "no".

Martin (a much more inexpert player than Victor...)

[el cro]

I'm far from being an expert but I discussed this with Norberto today. He tells me that the same principle applies to plucked strings instruments also. However, it's not as evident as in a violin because there isn't a school or method that talks about that. This knowledge results mostly from the player's need when they reach a certain level of experience, especially in classical music.
There isn't a standard thinking, but if the player needs a controlled and balanced sound he has to worry making slight compensations all the time. At the same time, building also a right hand capable of searching for different colors that are fundamental for musical interpretation. It's an endless universe to explore...

[vkioulaphides]

Martin (a much more inexpert player than Victor...)

Hmm... I'm not so sure about that, Martin. Whatever "expertise" I can claim comes from the bass, not the mandolin.

Still, I hear (many) mandolinists' tone getting duller and less well-defined as they finger higher— clearly, visibly, undeniably because their right hand remains more or less in the same place :-(

The "poles" of the string-player's world are the two points-of-contact: the point at which the left hand stops the string, and the point at which the bow/pick causes the string to vibrate. I am no physicist, of course, but the above dictum is as much of an all-purpose, self-evident truth/mantra as any I can think of.

Now... if only I could play worth anything... (HA!)

Cheers,

Victor

[Martin Jonas]

Hmm... I'm not so sure about that, Martin. Whatever "expertise" I can claim comes from the bass, not the mandolin.

Well, if you can play your own solo compositions, then you're better than me -- I certainly can't (much as I'd like to).

On the topic of this discussion, yes, I agree -- it's something that's never mentioned in any tutorials and it's often really quite obvious when listening to recordings or videos of otherwise very accomplished players.

Martin

[Ali]

Do mandolinists make a "regular" practice of moving the pick towards the bridge as the left hand moves into higher positions?

I tend to - yes, and I certainly encourage students to too - certainly when playing in third or 4th position and higher you surely have to move your right hand plucking position to get the best tone and volume from the instrument? Of course this also depends on where your "normal" plucking position is. Mine (for first position is pretty much through the centre of the sound hole....). Also, many players (including me) tend to move their plucking position a lot anyway depending on the colour of the music and the notes and all sorts, using every possible mm of string length between "sul tasto" and "sul ponticello" regularly and often changing "tone" by tiny amounts several times a bar. Its helps to breath life into the music and ensure that the notes don't come out colourless and lifeless.
You can practise it slowly doing scales moving through positions (3 octaves). You can get over concerned with it but it ceratinly is an idea more than entertained (and executed) by many players.