| No Mandolin Lesson Today |
[Dec. 15th, 2004|10:32 am] |
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My mandolin instructor just called and cancelled today's lesson. His mother-in-law passed away and he's understandably busy with other matters. |
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| Christmas Music |
[Nov. 18th, 2004|09:58 am] |
I'm learning some Christmas music on my mandolin now. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) ccohoon and yarbiedoll and I are planning on getting the band back together for a special Gasoline Mousetrap Christmas event. To aid in that effort, I got Jeff to work out a version of Hark The Herald in G that I could learn. The hymnal had it in F and I would have been able to do a melody line from that, but I wanted to get something a little fancier, with some double-stops, and ccohoon's banjo music has it in G. That's more standard, anyway. For some reason, I keep finding the only instrument I really want to play on out of the hymnal is piano. The arrangements just tend to be in unnatural keys for guitar, mandolin, etc.
In addition to the Gasoline Mousetrap (we really need a website, I should work on that) reunion, yarbiedoll and I will be playing music at my Sunday School class Christmas party. We're looking at combinations of organ, flute, tin whistle, guitar, and mandolin. We've already gone through the hymnals and some secular music and picked out a bunch of pieces to work on. We've been practicing the past two nights and worked through a few songs pretty well. We've still got lots of practice to do, but we've agreed to devote at least an hour a day to practicing, so I think we'll be in great shape by December 4. I'm also hoping to be able to sit down this weekend and figure out the chords for the music we're playing. As it is, I'm sight-reading melody lines from the hymnal and trying to guess at chord progressions (with only moderate success). I think a couple of hours with the hymnal, my brain, and the internet will allow me to get the chords for these songs down, which will go a long way to being able to get more effective practice. |
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| David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas |
[Nov. 15th, 2004|11:12 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | The Christmas Song - David Grisman - David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas | ] |
While in Nashville last weekend, I picked up a copy of David Grisman's Acoustic Christmas, which Jeff recommended to me last week. I'm listening to it right now and am really impressed.
There is much I can learn from the Dawg. |
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| Jam Session In The Den |
[Sep. 11th, 2004|01:18 am] |
After watching a movie tonight, I noticed that my copy of Bluegrass Jamming was the other disc in the DVD player. My player holds two discs, and Bluegrass Jamming has pretty much taken permanent residence in slot one. But I don't watch too many DVDs, so I forget it's in there.
Anyway, I thought that I'd jam on a couple of songs before going to bed, so I cued up Salt Creek and Soldier's Joy, which I have memorized. I did well with Soldier's Joy, but still need some work on Salt Creek.
I absolutely love this DVD -- it lets me practice with other people without having to actually find other people to practice with.
In other news, Will The Circle Be Unbroken is coming along pretty well. I'll probably be ready to play it next time I'm at a jam session and it comes up.
I need to cut my fingernails. |
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| New Music: Will The Circle Be Unbroken |
[Sep. 9th, 2004|09:43 am] |
Yesterday, Jeff showed me how to play Will The Circle Be Unbroken with lots of double stops. I played with it a little bit last night and I'm pretty excited about learning it. That's a song that almost always gets played at the jam sessions and I'm really looking forward to being able to take a break on it when it comes around to me.
Jeff didn't put the chords in, which I think it pretty cool, 'cause I'm going to use it as a learning exercise to see if I can come up with the chords myself. It really won't be too hard, and I've probably got the chords for it somewhere anyway. |
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| Changing My Strings |
[Sep. 9th, 2004|09:43 am] |
I changed my strings on Saturday, September 4. I used the Elixir mediums, and I am loving it. As I noted in drmellow, it took me a long time to change the strings -- the entire length of My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I think It was quicker this time than the last time I changed them, though.
I was away from home when I changed the strings and I forgot to bring an extra leather scrap to put under the strings where they hit the tailpiece. Jeff had suggested that I put something under there to help reduce buzzing when I replaced the strings the first time. I put a strip in, but I think I can stand to put another one in -- there's still some space under the high strings. I imagine I'll be at home, where I have some more scraps, when I change my strings next time, so it won't be a big deal to put the leather in then.
I also forgot to bring wire cutters with me to trim the excess string off the pegs after tuning. Dad reminded me that I had some cutters built into my key chain, which worked very well for the job.
All in all, it was great to get Loretta restrung and she sounds much better than she did last week. I think three months on a set of strings is about right for how I'm currently playing. |
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| Misc: Lesson, Jam, Practice, Etc. |
[Sep. 1st, 2004|11:24 pm] |
I had my lesson today. Jeff was impressed with my progress on Devil's Gate. Honestly, I was impressed, too -- I played it faster in my lesson today than I have been practicing and I pretty much pulled it off. I still need to work on the chords.
Jeff also recommended that I get a copy of Bluegrass Mandolin Extravaganza, which is apparently a great, great mandolin-related CD set. It came up 'cause today's song was Dusty Miller (I think -- I'll have to go up and double-check, but I'm too tired to do that right now). Anyway, the CD looks great. It's definitely going on my wishlist.
I also went to the bluegrass jam session tonight. I missed the first half, 'cause I was at a church meeting, but had fun. I was real tired, so I mostly hung back and played chords, passing whenever the selection came to me. Ed did convince me to give it a run on Red Haired Boy, which I did, passably. He kicked it off a litter faster than I would have, but I mostly kept up. Again, I need to work on getting the chords for that one. The jam session was in a weird grove tonight -- folks were playing Chuck Berry, Jim Croche, The Beatles, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, along with the more traditional stuff.
I've been OK with my practice lately. Not as faithful as I need to be, but better than I have been. I've been poking around on mandozine.com a bit lately, picking up some practice techniques and the like from there. It seems that the Carlo Aonzo Family Scales are a popular thing to practice to get improvements. I haven't tried them yet, but I hope to incorporate them into my practice time soon.
I'll be taking Loretta to my family reunion this weekend. Unfortunately (for me, not for him), ccohoon isn't going to be there with his banjo. Apparently, his real band got a gig this weekend. Oh, well, I guess that Gasoline Mousetrap will have their reunion at Christmas time. |
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| New Strings, Lost Pick |
[Aug. 25th, 2004|11:29 pm] |
After today's lesson, I picked up a set of new strings: Elixir medium gauge. They were $16. I also talked with Jeff about the longevity of strings since I was considering taking advantage of the Elixir offer at juststrings.com (which would make the strings cost $13.50 per set and give me a tuner). Getting ten sets of strings, however, would take care of my string needs for over two years. Especially after the comments tldz made about strings going bad, I wanted to get Jeff's opinion.
Jeff said that it might be more of a problem with nylon strings than with the steel strings I put on Loretta. He really shrugged off the concern, especially the Elixirs are coated. Apparently string technology has advanced in recent years and the strings would be fine. He said that if I were really concerned, I could do something like wrap the unused boxes in plastic, or put them in a Ziploc bag until I needed them. He also said that he's still got some strings that he bought in bulk about two years ago when learned that the manufacturer was going to discontinue that particular line, and they still play great.
So maybe I'll take advantage of that string offer. It's still a bit painful to drop over a hundred dollars on strings at one time, though. Maybe I'll see if I can find some other people who would like to go in on a string purchase with me. I can also pick up some guitar strings as part of the deal, and I need new guitar strings, too.
In other news, I lost my favorite mandolin pick today. After tuning Loretta before my lesson, I ended up dropping the pick. I think it's somewhere in my truck, but I searched for it a lot both before and after my lesson and couldn't find it. Hopefully, it didn't fall out the door when I got out and I'll be able to eventually find the pick. It blends in well with the interior fabric of the truck, so it might be a bit before I find it, if I ever do find it.
Since I lost that pick before my lesson, I rummaged through the picks at the store hoping to find another one like it to take to my lesson. No luck -- Jeff had told me that those particular picks are hard to come by, so I wasn't surprised. I picked up a heavy Gibson pick that had a similar shape and it seemed to do well. I think I'll pick up a few others like it, 'cause it's nice to have extras. I also might start playing with my Dawg picks again, but they're much thicker than most picks I've used, so it takes a little getting used to them. I'd rather concentrate on my technique with a pick that I'm familiar with than throw another variable in the mix.
Mostly, I hope I find my favorite pick again soon. |
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| Recent practicing, today's lesson |
[Aug. 25th, 2004|11:01 pm] |
Already I'm behind in keeping this journal updated.
Sunday afternoon, I went to the High Lonesome Strings monthly meeting. After the meeting, there was a jam session which I participated in for about two hours. I took breaks on "Soldier's Joy" and "Cripple Creek," using the music to remind me of the chords. I felt more comfortable than I did last Wednesday at the jam session. After the jam session broke up, I talked with Thomas, who I've seen before at meetings, and promised him that I'd learn a break for "Banks Of The Ohio," since he always likes to sing that one at jams.
I didn't practice again until this afternoon, 20 minutes before my lesson. I'm doing OK with "Devil's Dream," but still having some difficulty with the chord progressions: A - Bm - E. With the Bm thrown in there, I end up using a different chord form for the E.
In my lesson today, Jeff and I chatted a bit about general mandolin things. I told him that I'd be restringing Loretta again soon, and asked his recommendation on light gauge vs. medium gauge for my instrument. I forgot what he recommended when I changed my strings three months ago, and I had thrown the box away. He looked at Loretta again, played it some, and decided that we put mediums on it last time. Every time Jeff's played Loretta, he's made a remark about how nice she sounds. I've got to agree, especially for a starter instrument, my mandolin sounds amazing. (Thanks again, ccohoon for getting me such a nice instrument!)
I also told Jeff about my recent jamming experiences and he encouraged me to keep it up. Since I'm still working on "Devil's Gate" and the two recent Irish songs he showed me, I told Jeff that I didn't want to take on another song this week. Instead, we jammed a bit on some of the songs I'm working to memorize. We went through "Soldier's Joy" and "Cripple Creek" and I didn't use the music. I'm pretty comfortable with both the leads and the chords for those songs. We also went through "Read Haired Boy," for which I've got the lead memorized, but still need to work on the chords. We did "Old Joe Clark," which I needed the music for both the lead and the chords. Once I get comfortable with "Red Haired Boy," "Old Joe Clark" is my next memorization project.
It was another good lesson. |
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| Practice: a little bit of memorized pieces |
[Aug. 22nd, 2004|12:43 am] |
I didn't practice much today -- it was a pretty busy day. By request, I did pull Loretta out a little bit after deathsled's birthday celebration. I played the breaks for about half the songs I've learned, but I played them all from memory. That was a pretty cool test and gave me more confidence that I actually have already memorized more than I think I have. I just really need to work on the chords.
I'm going to practice a little more -- run through Devil's Dream at least a few times -- before going to bed. |
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| No Practice Today |
[Aug. 21st, 2004|12:09 am] |
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I didn't practice my mandolin today -- woke up too late to practice before work, got busy with other things during my lunch break, and I went out of town immediately after work. |
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| Need New Strings |
[Aug. 19th, 2004|11:40 pm] |
I think Loretta needs some new strings. I really like the Elixir strings I put on her last time. They had a good coating on them and they lasted a really long time.
I'll try to remember to pick up a couple of sets at next week's lesson, depending on the price. If they're close in price to the online price, I'd rather support my local music shop than buying from the Internet. But if I can convince myself to buy 10 sets, I can get a real good deal. I wouldn't mind picking up a set or two of Elixirs for my guitar, too, and I can mix-and-match for the deal....
Something to think about, anyway. |
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| Practice: Devil's Dream, The Girl I Left Behind, Liberty, Soldier's Joy |
[Aug. 19th, 2004|11:24 pm] |
I practiced on Loretta for about thirty minutes this evening, despite being exhausted. Yesterday, Jeff taught me Devil's Dream and I spent most of my practice time going through the breaks for it, slowly at first, then picking it up to a moderate speed. There are a few semi-difficult aspects to this piece which are going to make it pretty interesting and fun to learn.
I also spent some time working on the first few songs I learned: The Girl I Left Behind, Liberty, and Soldier's Joy (the easy version). I'm trying to really cement the songs in my memory so that I'll be able play without the music. That makes me more comfortable in jamming situations and helps with my improvisational skills. I'm pretty good on the breaks to most of the songs I've learned, but I really need to work on memorizing the chord progressions.
I didn't practice as much as I would have liked to have practiced because my fingers are still pretty sore from my three hours of playing last night. That'll go away if I can slide back into a routine of regular (i.e., daily) practice. |
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