boredinyak - Posted - 05/04/2018:  07:50:42

Hello everyone I am a new Mando player, I just got my first mando a week and a half ago and I am in love. I usually play Banjo and my daughter plays guitar. She however has recently gotten into playing the uke and well there is a reason you never see a banjo and a uke playing together. The banjo just drowns out the uke so I bought a inexpensive Mandolin so we could play tiny instruments together. In just a week and a half I am having a hoot with it to be honest. I have learned a few songs (drunken sailor, star wars opening, suicide is painless, the adams family, and sound of silence), I know that sounds pretty good but they are all picking songs and some of them I already knew on banjo.

My main issue being a banjo player is strumming, I never got into the guitar, I just started playing guitar a few months ago to learn our wedding song other than that I am just not into it. But the Mando has such a cool sound to it I love it (kind of like the banjo I just love the tone).

Any advice on strumming of learning to play the mando good songs to start off with would be great I can belt out the begining of loosing my religion that is about the best of my strumming capabilities,

Thank you all for taking the time to read this and to help you all have a great day and weekend.

Boredinyak

MandoTom2 - Posted - 05/05/2018:  02:42:50

Strumming = Rhythmic Accompaniment...

The majority of time signatures you run into in bluegrass, folk, old-time, country, rock, blues, etc., are either 4/4 time (where you have the equivalent of 4 quarter notes to a measure or 'note-strum-note-strum'), or, if you're playing rhythm... you are in 3/4 time with 3 quarter notes per measure. It is also called 'waltz time' as waltzes are in 3/4 time. Coincidentally, Amazing Grace is in 3/4 time.

So, most of the time you have 4/4 time or 3/4 time...

Humming or singing a song and strumming your accompaniment to it is an excellent way to get any song into your head and to learn to play rhythm in any time signature.

Song choices...

I would have a student work with well-known melodies, kids melodies, i.e., "Mary Had A Little Lamb", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", or common folk tunes, i.e., "Yellow Rose of Texas", "Red River Valley", etc., to get started...

Christmas song are a good idea too...

Well-known melodies in easy keys...

The keys I would choose to practice in initially are:

C, G, D, A and E...

Good luck...

MandoTom2, 5/5/2018

Edited by - MandoTom2 on 05/05/2018 02:44:29

Texasbanjo - Posted - 05/05/2018:  04:48:06

Invest in a good beginner book for mandolin. It will explain in detail (and the CD will let you listen to what you're learning) about strumming on the mandolin. There are different types of strums, so a little investment will help your picking in more ways than one.

I started out with Eddie Colllins' Basics of Bluegrass Mandolin. It comes with a CD so you can hear what he's asking you to do. I also play banjo and picked up the mandolin several years ago. It is a hoot to play and while you can teach yourself to a certain extent, if you want to get it right, get a book and go through it. Just my 2 cents worth.

Jimhand - Posted - 05/05/2018:  08:42:34

mandolessons.com/

Great website and a great teacher!! Practice, practice, practice!!

UsuallyPickin - Posted - 05/08/2018:  05:31:24

Well ... I am glad to hear that you are enjoying your mandolin experience. A good book amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords...k21gti3_e another amazon.com/Complete-Mandolin-M...n+method. Free YouTube lessons are very easy to find. A mandolin teacher and a few lessons would not be a bad idea to avoid poor playing habits at the start. A mandolin IMO does require a heavier pick to drive the double courses of short strings. Insofar as strumming is concerned loose wrist loose grip on the pick don't play too much from the elbow. If you don't drop your pick occasionally you are tense and that won't help. There's nothing more fun than playing music with your children. Grab a good chord chart and get to it. Lastly ... having double courses and short strings a good set up on a mandolin is incredibly important. Check out the Mandolin Café for a free copy of Rob Meldrum's freed to download set up book. Enjoy the journey. R/

Dadsaster - Posted - 10/02/2018:  13:28:12

When I play rhythm on the mandolin, I heavily favor 3-finger chord shapes and generally mute the E-string. I find these types of chords more pleasing to my ear. It also means that I'm never using 4-fingers for my chord shapes, which makes changes easier. The beauty of the mandolin and 5ths tuning is that once you learn a chord shape, it can be used all over the fingerboard. There are only 3 shapes to learn for every major chord. From those 3 shapes you can quickly learn the 3 minor chord shapes and eventually extend those shapes to 7ths, augmented, etc.

Most common songs/tunes rely heavily on a I-IV-V chord progression. Again, because it's a mandolin, the relationship from a I-chord to a IV-chord is going to be the same all over the mandolin. You can probably start with songs you already know. Nine Pound Hammer, You Are My Sunshine, Will the Circle Be Unbroken etc. are all simple tunes. Find the keys you or your daughter can sing in and start with that.

This also could get you started: youtube.com/watch?v=oUCHfqMXGCo

Tawanda - Posted - 10/02/2018:  17:40:41

I worked through Rich del Grosso Mandolin Method Book1 and drilled Page 32 (Texas Gales) to help get the placement of fingers into my skull. I play often with dulcimer players so I usually play at less than full volume. They play on Key of D mostly. I love the tremulo but get torn between playing it easy and playing it hard. It is to me a mix of both. Most people don't understand why I am satisfied with mandolin, but it is simple: lots of fun. Enjoy

Yooper - Posted - 05/23/2020:  07:33:22

Everybody eventually falls into their own sound. I like the way 4-finger chords sound and have trouble muting that extra string when playing 3-finger chords. But most great players seem to like the latter. E.G., really promoted in Butch Baldassari, Jethro Burns, etc instructional material.

mandoist - Posted - 05/27/2020:  01:47:47

I think the best "advice" these days is to not pay too much attention to the, let's say, less than able players offering their expertise on YouBoob.



With a bit of perusing and careful listening ... you can find decent instructors on YouBoob.

Othrwise there are some excellent online paid instruction available.

mandoteacher - Posted - 11/02/2021:  05:30:09

I offer a free video on strumming. Go to the mandolin lesson playlist on my YouTube channel

Youtube.com/c/adamsweet