Chris Thile Soloing tips

[Hardesty]

Here are a couple videos with CT giving some mandolin playing tips. I though you guys might enjoy these.

[Hardesty]

WOW... embedding the videos was WAY easier than I was trying to make it!

[CES]

Man, really enjoyed that. Thanks for posting!

Though he's often criticized (not by me) for getting too far from the melody on his improv, I love his advice to stay true to a beautiful melody when soloing...

Critter's a pretty darn amazing player, too...

[Young Will]

That was awesome.
I really like listening to him talk about as well as play the mandolin.
Pick position (angle) was something I didn't know.
I have been getting that metallic sound......thought it was the pick........guess it was the picker.

[Mike Bromley]

Critter indeed. Bright, informative and hilarious. He sure as heck earned all three. I love the thirty-second mandolin condensation.

[ToneSter]

this guy is pretty good...................who is he?........... ...........

[Londy]

Wow, what a difference the pick angle makes. I never knew this and when I gave it a try it was a great improvement in my sound. Great stuff, thanks for posting this!

[djidaho]

Good post "Hardesty" I got more out of it then some material I paid for. But maybe now I know more about what to pay attention to!

Good stuffff!!!

[Keith Witty]

Favorited!

[Bing Cullen]

now that's a beautiful sounding mando (both clips) and its not the Loar as the extension is fretless. Must be the Dudenbostel...

[mandolirius]

I just figured out why I like CT doing classical stuff the best. He has the towering technical ability that music requires but I also like that it keeps him occupied in reproducing the piece. I've not always found his soloing to my personal taste and some of the material he has done leaves me a bit cold ("Deceiver", anyone?). But when he plays Bach or something like that, every note is golden and he just makes a beautiful mandolin sound. Love it!

[sachmo63]

Thanks for posting, i'll be steeling many of those licks.............

[albeham]

I can't see the links...Damm I am at work...8 hours a day getting in the way of life....

Will watch it at home..

[Ken_P]

some of the material he has done leaves me a bit cold ("Deceiver", anyone?). But when he plays Bach or something like that, every note is golden and he just makes a beautiful mandolin sound. Love it!

To be fair, he's basically disowned Deceiver at this point. Most of it is terrible and he'll be the first to tell you that. Your point about Bach is quite correct, though. I've found that true in my own study of Bach. I don't have anywhere near the talent of Thile, of course, but I really feel that playing Bach makes me a better player on all levels because it demands 100% of my attention.

I also love what he has to say about building solos over different types of tunes. It's actually a very classical approach in that he tries to break down a tune to it's component elements (motifs, in theory speak) and uses them to build something different, but still familiar. He also hits on something that composers have known for hundreds of years - complex, humable melodies are harder to work with than simpler, less memorable ones if you want to take them apart and play with them.

[BradKlein]

I'm going to presume to expand on the valuable advice Chris is giving on right hand technique. The comments on pick angle, have a lot to do with how he is able to achieve an UPstroke that is the equal of the DOWNstroke. This is really hard for me, and I think I'm not alone. Both Chris and Michael Daves have incredible right hand technique - not all that different from each other even though their style differ a lot. Daves plays with a high action and a heavy hand and Thile with a super low action and a lighter touch. I've never watched Critter's right hand with this in mind, but I will. That upstroke is a life-long challenge, especially if you want to play fiddle tunes with feeling. As big a challenge as bow technique is for fiddlers.

[kmiller1610]

Nice to see Chris walking in his father's shoes a bit. I am thinking of 10 years from now and imagining him as a professor and mainly doing avante gard classical composition work. He'd be past his teen idol, freak a zoid phase and really being who is, an intellectual who wants to live and breathe music at a complex level.

http://campus.murraystate.edu/staff/...hile/index.htm

[BradKlein]

Thanks for posting the senior Thile's CV. Anyone whose interests span both pipe making and pipe organs seems like an interesting guy.

"Other Experience and Interests - 1974 to present: Double bass player -
Grumpy Old Men (2004 to April 2009, April 2009 to present occasional sub). Todd Hill Quartet (occasional sub, 2006 to present). Former credits include recording and touring with Chris Thile, mandolinist and recording artist. Recording and touring with the award-winning new acoustic music group Nickel Creek (1988 - 2000), on Sugar Hill Records. Former bassist for the La Jolla Civic Orchestra. Former bassist for Peter Sprague's Dance of the Universe Orchestra (1976 -1978)"

[SternART]

I love the way on the Temperance duet..... Chris sounds like an acrobat on a tightrope when he moves up the neck......messes with the time a bit......you're waiting for him to fall.......but of course he lands it perfectly. FUN!!!

[draino]

its interesting to see these two clips together. I like the solo in the second clip, but I gotta say -- after Thile finishes playing the A part, I don't hear any hint of the melody. Maybe my ears aren't good enough, or I haven't been listening to Temperance Reel for enough decades to track it -- but nothing about it sounds like what he talked about in the first clip (i.e., giving "service" to the pretty melody without going too far out.) Like I said, I like it -- but it definitely doesn't match up to what he said his goals are when soloing over a fiddle tune in that first clip.

Thile is clearly a brilliant musician - whether "one" likes his music or not, "one" must admit that his brain has an incredible capacity to process music. But I hate listening to him talk about music (to be fair, this holds true for a lot of really great musicians). Its almost like he feels the weight of his mind's brilliance in processing music and instead of just either (i) simply trying to explain how his brain works or (ii) saying "uh, I dunno, it's just how my brain works and I can't explain it, he instead seems to make his words sound weighty and impressive -- but they just sound kinda pompous to me. The music, though -- its awesome!

[Caleb]

To me he just sounds like a fellow who knows what he's talking about. I would love to be able to play Bach like that.

[albeham]

wow..that kicked butt...one day..maybe one day...what a player...

Thanks for posting this..

AL

[Schlegel]

its interesting to see these two clips together. I like the solo in the second clip, but I gotta say -- after Thile finishes playing the A part, I don't hear any hint of the melody. Maybe my ears aren't good enough, or I haven't been listening to Temperance Reel for enough decades to track it -- but nothing about it sounds like what he talked about in the first clip (i.e., giving "service" to the pretty melody without going too far out.) Like I said, I like it -- but it definitely doesn't match up to what he said his goals are when soloing over a fiddle tune in that first clip.

Weird. I never heard the tune before, and I would have said just the opposite, that it did sound like an elaboration of the basic tune to me.

I don't think my ears are better than yours, or that I'm more knowledgeable. I'm pretty new to fiddle tunes. I wonder if it could be that I didn't have any expectations of what it was "supposed" to sound like and therefore my brain didn't go "Hey, that doesn't sound right!"

I could totally buy that Thile's idea of "a little variation on the tune" is more varied than most guys. So to him, he is following his own advice.

[SternART]

I could totally buy that Thile's idea of "a little variation on the tune" is more varied than most guys. So to him, he is following his own advice.

VERY good point!

[mandolirius]

To be fair, he's basically disowned Deceiver at this point. Most of it is terrible and he'll be the first to tell you that.

I wasn't aware of that. I guess my estimation of him just went up. It takes some nerve to admit you put out something you wish you hadn't.

[billkilpatrick]

anyone else surprised by his "no blues in bluegrass" advise in the first video (2:10)?