The metronome...ah. Here are two exercises I learned as a teenaged guitarist who actually paid attention to his lessons. When you first learn them they are definitely dull but they really do teach a specific skill. A few months into practicing them, you do see improvement. When I picked up the mandolin in my late 20s I applied these exericses to the mando to bring me up to speed.
One teaches the notes on the fret board. Start your metronome at 60 beats per minute. Play every G from low to high, low string to high string. IF you miss one with the click, you start over. After playing all the Gs you move through the cycle of fifths to D. Then to A. Then E etc. If you miss one, you start over. At G. After you can go through the whole cycle of fifths, you move the metronome up to 65 bpm and start again. If you miss one you start over. At G. At 60 bpm. You keep doing this and see how quick you can get. But even if you're up at 100 bpm if you miss one you gotta start over at the begining. This exercise really teaches the notes and instead of thinking this finger goes here after this finger goes here," you think, "E comes after C" or whatever it is you're doing. the other is to play an ascending chromatic scale from your lowest open string while fretting that notes octave. You are also to keep your hand in one position. On the guitar this is easier because your 1st finger equals first fret, 2=2. 3=3 and 4=4. On the guitar, you can play chromatic octaves from E up to G# without moving your hand. You do do some octaves with the low note being played by your pinky and the high note by your index finger. On mandolin you gotta spread out to cover 7 frets and there's some sliding of positions. In both cases, use your metronome and increase tempo as you keep playing it successfully. This exercise teaches creative fretting, which isn't necessarily practical, but I think good for your hand to do now and again. Being able to play this scale well does give me at least a sense of satisfaction not dissimilar to playing a tune well. Both of these are pretty dull to do, especially when you can't do them very well and you're thinking "why do I do this." But for myself, at least, the were indispensable to my musicianship. As a guitarist the first exericise busted me out of pattern thinking when I was 14 years old and the second is still a great way to warm up my left hand. As a mandolinist they both taught me the fretboard and sort of jumpstarted my mandolin life. And I know this post is pretty wordy, but I have to add on the subject of speed and playing lots of notes really fast, I definitely got into that trip as a teenaged metal guitarist and I still fall victim to it as a mandolinist, but i was struck by one of my teachers saying to me, "you can play pretty quick, but I bet I can play slower than you." And a quick tune we both could play well together was performed at 40 bpm. I missed most of the notes; my teacher nailed it. I was pretty impressed at that trick. It's hard to play slow, too, and you need to work at it as much. Because it sure sounds cool when a slow song is played well. Anyways, that's enough. I feel like I'm teaching. erik On Nov 8, 8:32 pm, Don Grieser <[email protected]> wrote: > My tech assistant at school coaches basketball. He gave me this quote from > Bobby Knight the other day that could easily be adapted to playing music. > "The will to prepare to win is more important than the will to win." > > I've been spending time with the metronome again lately while working on > some tunes on the octave mandolin. That metronome can't keep time worth a > damn. > > > > On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Terry Bullin <[email protected]> wrote: > > Good luck with the kit. I'm about to retire and have tinkered with the > > notion of trying one of those. Is the kit from Stewmac? Post some pics > > when you get it done, love to see it. > > > --- On *Sun, 11/8/09, [email protected] <[email protected]>*wrote: > > > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: Practicing ect... > > To: [email protected] > > Date: Sunday, November 8, 2009, 7:00 PM > > > Okay, the truth about why I've posted more today than I have all the rest > > of the time I've been on the group. > > I'm building an F-5 from an IV kit for my son for Christmas, it's time for > > binding and it scares the hell out of me. > > I've been practicing (not the mandolin, but binding) I've bound two old > > Army Navy style mandos and an old > > guitar and I'm getting better, but none of these are anything like an F-5 > > and I really want it to look good, it's for my son. > > Creative avoidance, I'm good at that. > > > Clyde Clevenger > > Just My Opinion, But It's Right > > Salem, Oregon > > Old Circle <http://www.myspace.com/oldcircle>- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
