Re: Beyond Bluegrass Mandolin - First Impressions?
A few months into my mandolin playing I worked real hard for a while on learning and polishing a "set" of three tunes so that I could have something interesting to play when somebody said "Can you play us something on the mandolin". Right when I getting pleased with myself over how evenly I could keep time and how smoothly and connected I could play, my mandolin teacher said "If you're going to play that for someone who doesn't know those Scottish fiddle tunes, you've got to give them some phrasing cues or it will just sound like a 2-minute string of eighth notes".
The amazing thing was once that had been pointed out, what had sounded so smooth and even to me now sounded like one big blur of notes. Suddenly it seemed awful when I started listening to myself as a listener and not someone who, as a player, knew when the A part ended and B part started or whatever. Just when you think you're getting somewhere you gain some perspective and realize how far you still have to go.
I am confused as ever, but now I'm confused on a higher level and about more important things.
The first man who whistled
thought he had a wren in his mouth.
He went around all day
with his lips puckered,
afraid to swallow.
--"The First" by Wendell Berry
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