Great information on the Co-Mando website! Practice tips, chord info, etc.

Focus tunes -

As long as I live
Spanish Grass
Clinch Mt Backstep

Going back - starting today - and learning the scales. I've known G for a while - but I haven't used it except for warmup. This will definitely have an effect when I try to improvise...

Been spending a lot of time taking recordings and separating them out. Hope to use them as 'virtual practice sessions'.

I'm going to start posting 'Advice from others' - - - Points that other folks have shared with me. I hope to elaborate on the main idea with how I've tried to internalize their advice. (Once I figure it out, I'll archive these with permanent links...)

The first one was on how to get a 'Bluegrass' sound on a song. The advice was to get your right hand moving like your foot would be tapping. Using that as your rhythm, I expect, you get a different style of playing. I've been practicing that way a lot this week, but I fall into adding tremolo on the longer notes...

Live music RULES!!!!

Today our group played on The Merry-Go-Round on WPAQ. A lot of fun... Tried to relax and it helped. Through the middle of the second song, though, it hit me that there were people listening. Nerves ran straight through my entire body. Calmed down, though, and enjoyed the playing.

Focus tune(s)

Old Spinning Wheel
Spanish Grass

I've picked up Roland White's book this past week. Excellent book! Highly recommended. One point he makes is to relax... that might explain part of why I can play 100 times better at home than I can out in public.

Focus Tune(s)

Spanish Grass
As long as I live
Rueben's train

Check out the Galax Fiddler's Convention - - - August 5 - 10!

For the first several years that I've been trying to learn the mandolin, I focused on memorizing melodies and practicing chords. Lately, I've been struggling with playing 'by ear'. Mostly, I've been listening to a melody and trying to recreate it on the mandolin. Sometimes, I will put it in tablature and practice it - Other times, I'll just try to play it during the course of a song. This seems like a natural progression from practicing from paper all the time.