Posted by TSSN on Saturday, March 28, 2020
Lately, I have been in a rut. I have played my mandolin a lot, but have been on a plateau for 2-3 years.
In 2012, I had the good fortune to play in a regional bluegrass band, but that all came apart in about 2017 when our singer moved to California. 2012-2017 was a great time of practice, and learning, and growth. I had to work and stretch to keep up with real gunslingers on guitar, banjo, and fiddle.
With coronavirus keeping us all at home, I have had a bit more time to re-examine my chops and plan a strategy forward. Who knows, maybe the band will re-assemble. But right now, I just want to be a better mando player than the one I am right now (paraphrasing Hemingway).
So the plan? Well, rather than rewind to my earliest study materials, I am returning to a DVD which I started and never finished: Baldassari's Bluegrass Mandolin Workshop. Of all the video instructors, I thought he was one of the best. Anyway, that's my study plan for the next few days, and the month of April. Take it slow.
After that, maybe some in person lessons, or video lessons, all depending on the coronavirus...
Thanks for reading.
-Patrick
2 comments on “Practice out of my plateau”
Yooper Says:
Saturday, March 28, 2020 @2:05:43 PM
Hi Patrick. I have been splurging on Homespun videos. I prefer having a hard copy on DVD, but they have been selling on-line "streaming" versions of lots of stuff for very inexpensive ($10 or $15 for some; I just got a couple double CD lessons for $20 each). I was working on the same Baldassari cd the other day. I think it is aimed at folks who haven't been playing long, but there was a ton of stuff in there that was very useful for me. It's always good to go back and work on fundamentals. I could work on that one cd for a long time to really get everything that is in there.
TSSN Says:
Saturday, March 28, 2020 @5:02:54 PM
Hey Brent. I agree about the level of complexity, but Baldassari was excellent on fundamentals. That's kind of what I want to do. I also happened to hear his "Waltz for Bill Monroe" a few weeks back which I never mastered before, and remembered was on the DVD.
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