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Anyone else started learning to play music as an adult? Any tips?
Blogging about homesteading, photography and living in a small Utah town | Growing mostly cider apples at Stray Arrow Ranch
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“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein
lessons are great..
I think finding a group to "Jam" with is equally inspirational ..
I don't have one close by and my playing suffers for it.
I just happened to sign up here today, i thought you may find it useful.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/mp3/
I found an interview .. that recommended to acquire all the music that is free to download... in order to train the ear to listen for notes , chords and rhythms.
here is a thread on different way's to practice
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-16165.html
the best practice advice i ever got was from Steve Kauffman -
set a finite amount of time for your daily practice.
Keep songs in a Jam book (so others can play with you)
get an egg timer or the like.. that will ding .. loudly.. the key is .. when the ding goes off you must stop...
Start off with review Of songs in your jam book .. to improve timing and or speed (practice with metronome )
take the first half of practice in review of material you already know
like old songs , scales , strumming patterns . ( Ding !!!) . take the pick away from the instrument )
part II of practice is on new material.. scales, songs, play until the ding goes off.. then take the pick away from the instrument and put it away in the case.
I started with 2 practice sessions 30min in the am (15/15) and 30 min pm(15/15) to save my fingers when i first started steel string guitar.
This leaves me wanting more..
You've reminded me to .. get back to the basics.. thanks for that.
Practice at least an hour a night, an hour in the morning doesn't hurt.
Get a good teacher/mentor
Get a good quality instrument, learning on cheap stuff is counter productive.
"If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn" dizzy






Debra-What is this jam book you speak of?
Blogging about homesteading, photography and living in a small Utah town | Growing mostly cider apples at Stray Arrow Ranch
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The Jam book is one you make your self.. several ways.. or options
1-Composition Book - ( I like this better than a) -2 spiral notebook -3 ring binder
Fill the notebook with Tablature or sheet music of songs. you are playing now..
you have every thing you know or are working on in that book This is what you practice out of every day.. learning the new. polishing the songs you know
.. and when you go to a Jam. you can easily share the songs / lyrics / chords / tabs/ with others .. so they can play along with you.
This differs with other song books in that .. you are currently learning ( or have learned ) every song in the Jam book..
copy and past or transcribe songs you like from the other books .. in to the Jam book - only when your ready to learn that song
For me its easier to keep focused on 1 book.
My advice:
* Technique really is important. It's usually boring to work on and can even be painful (literally) but getting those muscles to do what you want will pay off big time. It was too boring and painful for me to bother with when younger; that's no longer the case.
* Play almost every single day. 1/2 hour of playing is, as a rule, much better than zero, and an hour+/day is standard. BUT I find that if I don't play for one day every few weeks, that also has positives. It makes me miss playing and I then feel more energized about practice. That energy has helped me break past plateaus more than once.
* Find songs you like to play and play them. I don't mean completely avoid other tunes, of course. But having a couple of songs (simple, hard, whatever) that you really like to play can help when practice gets tiresome or you're tired or whatever. One of the advantages of getting old is your taste improves (*wink*) and you know what you like and what you don't. Bonus of playing songs you like frequently is, when someone asks you to show them what you've been doing, you can whip out your current favorite tune, enjoy playing it, impress your audience, then stop.
* The right teacher is really important. As an adult, I'm learning solely because I want to. I want someone to be exacting and to push me to do the best I'm capable of. I've had teachers in the past who taught more in the "pure encouragement" mode, but I don't need that anymore. I need to get better.
* Aim high. Perhaps - perhaps - you won't become Bill Monroe II, but a person can start later on in life and still get really good.
But also make time to learn some jokey songs, kids' songs, etc. I am amazed at how much more FUN the ukulele is than my experiences learning guitar/piano years ago as a teenager. It is not an intimidating instrument. I think I've learned more in my 2 months of ukulele than I did in many years of guitar practice as a kid. Of course, it has two less strings so it IS simpler, but I also think that because I'm not taking myself seriously at all, I'm feeling freed up to learn lots of songs for sing-alongs, etc. I've played in front of more people already than I think I ever did on the guitar.
I think it is similar to learning a new language, at least for me--don't over-analyze, have a drink or two, and get silly! You may surprise yourself at how much you can learn if you let your guard down.
Never herd about the blues on he mando Thats more a guitar thing I always thought , have you thought about Irish trad ? It's a great friendly scene that covers the whole world and you don't need a PA

David
* ie the Banjo
Living in Anjou , France,
For the many not for the few
http://www.permies.com/t/80/31583/projects/Permie-Pennies-France#330873
I do not read music, in fact I am likely the least musical person around, but I exel at muscle memory and body dynamics....
If I were to choose a stringed instrument I think it would be mandolin.....they have so much joy!
Bluegrass is the great granddaughter of Irish trad, I find that I like both because of this....
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Ann Torrence wrote:This week's assignment is to learn where all the G notes are on the fretboard, then the G#, and so on.
For introductory lessons, this miiiiight work & be fun for a lot of folks. That said, I've always noticed that folks do best when they're having as much fun as possible. And that people like speaking languages before their learn their structures and grammar and spelling and all that.
Music is a language, similar to spoken languages. Little kids don't start by reading and writing, they start by speaking, right?
So - what would be the funnest thing for you to say, musically? What mandolin songs would you love to play? Or, for that matter, non-mandolin songs? The best part about having a teacher is that they can watch you play, see whats easy & what's hard, and help you ... have fun playing

Ann Torrence wrote: I want to play blues someday
So start today! Start by strumming chord shapes! Maybe sing!
Believe you me, I'm a software engineer and I looooove knowing the different between G# and Ab in equal temperament and other temperaments and all that good stuff. But my guess is that your time would be better spent trying to speak music, not learn it's letters.
Youtube and other things online are amazing. When I was a kid and learning guitar around '71, if one wanted to take a rest and learn a Beatles song, one had to make a long trip downtown, then spend 2 month's money on a songbook. Today you can probably watch Paul McCartney run down the details, then take any number of lessons on it, while downloading the TAB for free. So one may as well take advantage.
1. Play songs that you love, early and often.
2. Play regularly; nothing beats hands-on practice.
3. Be prepared for the jumps in your abilities after a good night of sleep; your brain will often work things out while you're snoring.
4. There's nothing linear about learning to play an instrument; expect cycles, plateaus, and sudden spikes in your abilities.
5. Listen to music you love from a variety of genres and discover new musicians who inspire you.
6. Definitely look for a teacher who tickles you, intrigues you, inspires you, and supports you.
7. It's better to practice a little bit every day (for even five minutes) than it is to ignore your music all week and then binge for four hours on Saturday--that's a recipe for burn-out.
8. Figure out which parts of mandolin playing really light you up. Do you like strumming? Finger picking? Classical guitar-like things? Gnarly jazz solos? Pay special attention to what you love to do and do more of that. (Once you're there--I realize that you're just starting.)
9. If you like permaculture, you might love the structures in music theory. Once you get beyond key signatures, sharps and flats, and note names, you can learn wonderful forms and patterns in music that are wonderfully synergistic and puzzle-y.
10. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to be perfect. Be light in your being and try not to stress out over missed notes or rhythms.
11. You can have the most fun when you're playing music when you're playing it with other people, and to that end, being able to play the right chord at the right time is a golden skill. If you learn how to play along with recordings and keep up, neither drifting too slowly or rushing too quickly, you become an asset to a group. To this end, YouTube can be very useful. It can also be useful to start playing with other (supportive, kind) people as soon as you can in duos or trios. Just friendly living-room musical puttering.
12. If it hurts you physically, first rest --- and then adjust your ergonomics, your posture, or your hand position until it doesn't hurt.
13. Consistently showing up to play the mandolin, year in and year out, will yield more consistent success than having talent without follow-through. Show up and try, show up and try, show up and try, show up and try, show up and try, show up and try...
14. Get familiar with the basic routine of caring for your instrument and know how to tune it and restring it as necessary.
I'm pretty excited that you're starting this musical journey. Keep us posted about how it's going for you, if you'd like!
**edited to be talking about the correct instrument. =P
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My advice is
Divide your music into 3 piles.
There's the A pile - these are the tunes you can play - the feel good I know how to do this pile. Play these regularly. They make you feel good. I can play my instrument. This pile will get bigger and bigger. It's your repertoire. Things you could play with friends. The tunes can be really simple but it's important to see that this pile are things you can play.
The B pile - these are the ones you are working on improving. Your aim is to convert these to A tunes. Try not to have loads of tunes in this pile so you don't get bogged down.
The C pile - ones you'd like to play - aspirational tunes. You can have really difficult stuff in here but it is worth having some realistic goals in here too so that you can see the tune going from C aspirational to B in progress and then to A I can play it!!
By dividing up your tunes you make the actual progress easy to see and keep the feel good vibe going.
Try to play for fifteen minutes every day. It's not much to ask. Not much of a commitment so you can succeed and meet that goal really easily. Stop if you're not enjoying it and try again tomorrow. Chances are that what will happen is that you'll still be playing 40 minutes later.
Enjoy 😀
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