Why there are no Youtube lessons of Octave Mandolin ?

[gerardo1000]

I play acoustic guitar, I have a mandolin and now an octave mandolin.
I am less than an intermediate player with guitar, and a beginner with mandolin.If I want to learn a song or a well known piece of music for guitar or even mandolin, I can go to Youtube and usually I find plenty of "how to play...." that song, or music, where the player shows all the notes and/or chords, plays first slowly and then faster etc....
As fas as I know, there are no such videos for octave mandolin. I have this beautiful instrument in my hand but, not being a professional musicians, I don't really know how to use it. I just learned some chord patterns downloaded from Internet.
Any suggestion ? Thanks !

[whyner]

I don't have an octave, so FWIW... The tuning for the octave is the same as the mandolin but an octave lower. Maybe just try mandolin vids and you'll simply be playing an octave lower.

Steve - bone head noob
Oregon

[Steve-o]

I play an OM. Not sure about the dearth of lessons on youtube, but suspect it is due to the relative rarity of the instrument. There are some instructional DVDs. I have Tim O'Brien's and Mickey Cochran's OM DVDs, and both are suitable for beginner to intermediate level students. You can buy them at Elderly or even Amazon.com. I may list one in the classifieds shortly. I've been meaning to thin my DVD herd.

[foldedpath]

The OM is a niche instrument, so while there are some nice YouTube clips of people playing tunes, it hasn't had the same exposure in terms of free online lessons. Also, as a fairly recent instrument on the musical scene, there isn't a standardized way to play it. So that may be another reason why there aren't any formalized online lessons. We're all figuring it out as we go along. It slots into some established bouzouki territory in Irish trad, but some players are exploring other ways to use it.

For example... when I bought my OM, I looked around for learning info too, and ran across these book/CD and DVD lessons (Elderly links):

The Mandolin and Bouzouki of Tim O'Brien

A Guide to Octave Mandolin and Bouzouki by John McGann (Cafe forum member)

Between the two, I think John McGann's book and CD is the most useful, but it also requires the most work in puzzling out why he's doing what he's doing. It's really more of an intermediate-level book that shows the possibilities of the instrument. I still recommend it, even for beginners. It'll open your ears about the potential.

Tim O'Brien's DVD is entertaining, but only about a half of it actually covers the OM. The other half is mandolin, which you may find useful because you're just starting on that instrument also. It's not so much a general treatise on OM, as it is one of those "this is how I play the songs and tunes on my latest album" things. But there is still some good info there, and it's always a kick watching and hearing Tim play.

Finally, I recommend listening to some good OM players (one of my favorites is Ale Möller; check out his playing with fiddler Aly Bain on "Fully Rigged" and "Beyond the Stacks"). See if you can train your ear to figure out what the great players are doing, and why.

[Bertram Henze]

If it's chords you're after, you can go a long way with open 2-finger chords borrowed from the mandolin. No use trying mandolin closed position chords (ffcp) except you have huge hands.

[nkforster]

I'll have a word with Ian Stephenson who plays my instruments. He has made an excellent series of beginners DADGAD guitar videos for YouTube. Perhaps he can make a OM or Bouzouki one too.

Perhaps I can get Ian to explain how he plays what he does here:


http://www.nkforsterguitars.com

[Tavy]

I'll have a word with Ian Stephenson who plays my instruments. He has made an excellent series of beginners DADGAD guitar videos for YouTube. Perhaps he can make a OM or Bouzouki one too.

That would be great, maybe we should start a "tips and tricks thread" and get the members of this forum to chip in with what they're figured out the hard way? Like others have said, there's no "single correct way" just yet, we're all still figuring this stuff out. Heck there's not even a single established scale length or design for these instruments yet...

[Bertram Henze]

maybe we should start a "tips and tricks thread" and get the members of this forum to chip in with what they're figured out the hard way?

You had me with "hard way". So here goes.
Caveats: I am no good instructor (any students would probably run from the classroom screaming after 5 minutes). Enhancing a melody with doublestops precludes being familiar with the melody, being able to reliably play it and build from that. The doublestops shown in the example (05, 00, 23 frets on adjacent courses) are not the only ones - try also 52, 20, 30, 24 etc. This is just to show the way, it does not deliver anyone to their destination.
On second thoughts, the 23 I called a minor 6th in the video should be called a diminished 6th I guess. I am not too deep into music theory. Don't listen to me, just play what sounds good.

[Leigh Coates]

Thanks Bertram, that was wonderful! Very helpful. I'm a beginner at the OM, and it's nice to see other people's techniques.

[Earl Gamage]

Nice work Bertram. Thanks

[whyner]

Don't listen to me, just play what sounds good.

NGC 224 (M31) - Andromeda Galaxy. Coulda picked somewhere a little closer, LOL!

Steve
Oregon

[JeffD]

On second thoughts, the 23 I called a minor 6th in the video should be called a diminished 6th I guess.

I don't know what it should be called, but it works because its the root note and the third of its major chord below it.

Really good stuff.

[Bertram Henze]

NGC 224 (M31) - Andromeda Galaxy. Coulda picked somewhere a little closer, LOL!

Patience - that galaxy is coming our way

Thanks all for the kind words.

[Tom Wright]

800,000 parsecs in what direction? (Not that I can't guess.)

[man dough nollij]

800,000 parsecs in what direction? (Not that I can't guess.)

Up.

[bjshear]

also a good question: why are there only like 3-4 good quality vids of people playing OM on youtube?

[Bertram Henze]

why are there only like 3-4 good quality vids of people playing OM on youtube?

If good quality means that
- the instrument is played well, AND
- the video has a high visual resolution, excellent audio and both in sync,
then the answer is easy: either you spend your time practising OR battling with cam/mic/compression/editing problems, but it is hard to do both.
For example, I have a cheap web cam and an expensive mic, and I set compression to make the most out of the audio because that's what is most important and most easy to achieve IMHO, so I can't fully meet the requirements stated above.

[bjshear]

If good quality means that
- the instrument is played well, AND
- the video has a high visual resolution, excellent audio and both in sync,
then the answer is easy: either you spend your time practising OR battling with cam/mic/compression/editing problems, but it is hard to do both.
For example, I have a cheap web cam and an expensive mic, and I set compression to make the most out of the audio because that's what is most important and most easy to achieve IMHO, so I can't fully meet the requirements stated above.

i really just meant that the audio is decent and the playing is decent.

[Bertram Henze]

i really just meant that the audio is decent and the playing is decent.

Everybody who start recording experience a phenomenon known as "cam fright", just like stage fright, only colder. As soon as the recording indicator lights up, everything you have practised suddenly seems to be gone and there you are, alone, facing a task like a bomb specialist wondering which wire to cut while the counter approaches zero. Somehow you know that, other than a human audience, the machine will cruelly remember every little glitch to be used against you later.
It gets a little more relaxed after a few hundred takes...

So for any given instrument, there is only a small percentage of players prepared to go through this ordeal. And since OM players are a minority anyway (compared to guitar, fiddle etc. players), you don't get to see that many.

[bjshear]

Everybody who start recording experience a phenomenon known as "cam fright", just like stage fright, only colder. As soon as the recording indicator lights up, everything you have practised suddenly seems to be gone and there you are, alone, facing a task like a bomb specialist wondering which wire to cut while the counter approaches zero. Somehow you know that, other than a human audience, the machine will cruelly remember every little glitch to be used against you later.
It gets a little more relaxed after a few hundred takes...

So for any given instrument, there is only a small percentage of players prepared to go through this ordeal. And since OM players are a minority anyway (compared to guitar, fiddle etc. players), you don't get to see that many.

lol, that makes sense.