luckylarue writes:

Great tunes and very nice pickin’. The Duff sounds terrific.
Will you post Old Mountaineer vid as well? Funny, you seem a few steps ahead of certain tunes I’m working on and I appreciate the videos to help the learning process.

Mike briefly ran down Old Mountaineer for me at this year’s Symposium - what a great mando tune! Now I feel an xtra bit of motivation to get it down. Also, I notice that your right hand playing is up near the neck. Is this a conscious thing for a certain color you’re after? Again at the Symposium, Andy Statman sat me down and analyzed my playing and he got me to pick back near the bridge. It was a bit awkward at first but I’m really liking the tone I’m getting.
Give it a try and see if you notice a difference.

thanks!

Steve in SC writes:

It’s an excellent tune, as is “Old Mountaineer”. I’ve adapted this same style of picking further up the neck at Mike’s urging, and combining that with the proper way of holding the pick has finally produced the tone I was looking for. I’ve taken that some method and applied it to old tunes and they’ve really turned around. You seem to have the mechanics of the motion just nailed. Your “Cedar Gap” has the rhythmic pulsing that I can’t see to hit consistently. Right now I’m focusing on keeping my fretting hand close to the board–another thing you seemed to have down. Did you have a specific practice regimen or method, or was it trial and error?

dasspunk writes:

Thanks for the kind words gents. Regarding pick location… I play up and back, neck and bridge, according to the tone/feel I want. As the kids say, “it’s all good”.

And Steve, about practice… besides just ALWAYS playing there are a few things I’ve done that helped me. Recording really helps. I can see all my flaws the second I press play. It’ll make you not want to post them but I do anyway. I practice in a mirror quite often and just watch my right hand. Get your hands on the Monroe DVD or anything of Compton’s and see if you can make your right hand look like theirs. Learn fiddle tunes. Fiddle teach you a ton. The more you learn the easier they get but the best is when you find some that give you a really hard time. You know you’re hands are learning new stuff when that happens. Listen! Listen ALL THE TIME. Listen to everyone and everything.

And of course play :) Never put your mando in it’s case for too long. Leave it in your way… on the chair/couch/bed/whatever. Make yourself have to pick it up. Comment - September 23, 2007 @ 1:01 pm