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lenora_rose- So far, I'm convinced this was a good idea. I may not be happy with all the details, but the gist is going the right way. Sort of the way I feel about a first draft, actually...
- I seem too often to have sacrificed sleep to mandolin practice instead of more sensible things like computer time. Some of this was the added complication of my mother-in-law being here (The room she stays in during winter visits is directly connected to my study, so I "had to"* wait until she was in bed and the kitchen was clear. But it's not just that, I just put it off to too late at night too often.
- I got my calluses back in record time (Now, if only I could not *lose them* in record time should I take another extended pause... I still have my pottery pin-tool bump on another finger, which is older, so I shouldn't lose callusses that fast, but I do.)
- Both hands occasionally threaten to cramp on fast songs. And once in a while have. Which means WARM UP BEFOREHAND, STRETCH WHEN DONE, and DRINK SOMETHING (Which I should be doing for the voice). This is EXERCISE, albeit for fine hand muscles and a handful of gross arm muscles, nt the way you think of a workout. Some of those muscles are growing back. Setting them back by not stretching is as bad as for all other exercise.
- I was also dealing with unexpected elbow pains for a few days, and not just muscle ache pains. That seems to have faded.
- I feel like I'm doing worse on some of the trickier songs now than i was when I restarted. Probably this is more of the effect of getting my ear for how it should sound back quicker than I am the finger-training. I hope.
- Some of the easier songs feel noticeably better, though.
- Switching between the instruments seems to do me no favours. But there are genuinely songs which are MUCH better on one than the other, and not the same one.
- My mandolin is a much better quality instrument than my octave mandolin. (Neither is Bad, mind you, but the Silly Goose is much quirkier than the Angry Chicken). I like the idea and sound of working with an octave mandolin better. But I am not getting another instrument THIS soon.
- I would do much better, not on the individual songs, but on arrangement and figuring out chords I haven't already played / have written down, if my music theory knowledge had not rusted in the back of my head during much of the intervening 19 years.
- It's a LOT easier to practice when you have a voice. It's not just figuring out how to strum/pick/finger-pick, it's also getting the voice to meld, producing both at the necessary power and feel, and not losing the mandolin parts the moment you open your mouth and ahve to do two things simultaneously. Getting a cold that strongly affected my ability to sing for over a week made practice a lot harder than it had to be. (Throat doesn't seem to be wholly clear even yet, but I can sing)
- The 2 new songs I'm trying to arrange are both 3/4 time. There's not a large variety of strumming patterns for 3 beats, so making them sound decent with my current skill set is... daunting.
- I HAVE TO replace the deeper of the two octave mandolin's strings-that-hit-the-note-above-F# (I tried to post about a problem with these on Facebook and had at least two people misread which Kind of G-string until they got to the bit about the mandolin). Really, the whole set, but I can only conclude that the string the guy who repaired it used that he thought was a good match.... wasn't. Tune it right (Which is a tough process even with the right string) and by two frets down it's sounding noticeably flat. It also feels a bit less taut than the other strings. I think it's adding to the buzz of its up-an-octave neighbour on the course, too.
* In quotes for good reason. There's no purely logical reason I couldn't practice at other better times or other places, including ones she probably wouldn't hear much. But I have a bit of a thing about knowing people are in hearing, or could walk in, while I'm practicing. Because if they are in hearing I'd rather practice only the bits that already sound good.... and when you're rusty, nothing sounds good. I can do more practice less privately if the someone is Colin.
- I seem too often to have sacrificed sleep to mandolin practice instead of more sensible things like computer time. Some of this was the added complication of my mother-in-law being here (The room she stays in during winter visits is directly connected to my study, so I "had to"* wait until she was in bed and the kitchen was clear. But it's not just that, I just put it off to too late at night too often.
- I got my calluses back in record time (Now, if only I could not *lose them* in record time should I take another extended pause... I still have my pottery pin-tool bump on another finger, which is older, so I shouldn't lose callusses that fast, but I do.)
- Both hands occasionally threaten to cramp on fast songs. And once in a while have. Which means WARM UP BEFOREHAND, STRETCH WHEN DONE, and DRINK SOMETHING (Which I should be doing for the voice). This is EXERCISE, albeit for fine hand muscles and a handful of gross arm muscles, nt the way you think of a workout. Some of those muscles are growing back. Setting them back by not stretching is as bad as for all other exercise.
- I was also dealing with unexpected elbow pains for a few days, and not just muscle ache pains. That seems to have faded.
- I feel like I'm doing worse on some of the trickier songs now than i was when I restarted. Probably this is more of the effect of getting my ear for how it should sound back quicker than I am the finger-training. I hope.
- Some of the easier songs feel noticeably better, though.
- Switching between the instruments seems to do me no favours. But there are genuinely songs which are MUCH better on one than the other, and not the same one.
- My mandolin is a much better quality instrument than my octave mandolin. (Neither is Bad, mind you, but the Silly Goose is much quirkier than the Angry Chicken). I like the idea and sound of working with an octave mandolin better. But I am not getting another instrument THIS soon.
- I would do much better, not on the individual songs, but on arrangement and figuring out chords I haven't already played / have written down, if my music theory knowledge had not rusted in the back of my head during much of the intervening 19 years.
- It's a LOT easier to practice when you have a voice. It's not just figuring out how to strum/pick/finger-pick, it's also getting the voice to meld, producing both at the necessary power and feel, and not losing the mandolin parts the moment you open your mouth and ahve to do two things simultaneously. Getting a cold that strongly affected my ability to sing for over a week made practice a lot harder than it had to be. (Throat doesn't seem to be wholly clear even yet, but I can sing)
- The 2 new songs I'm trying to arrange are both 3/4 time. There's not a large variety of strumming patterns for 3 beats, so making them sound decent with my current skill set is... daunting.
- I HAVE TO replace the deeper of the two octave mandolin's strings-that-hit-the-note-above-F# (I tried to post about a problem with these on Facebook and had at least two people misread which Kind of G-string until they got to the bit about the mandolin). Really, the whole set, but I can only conclude that the string the guy who repaired it used that he thought was a good match.... wasn't. Tune it right (Which is a tough process even with the right string) and by two frets down it's sounding noticeably flat. It also feels a bit less taut than the other strings. I think it's adding to the buzz of its up-an-octave neighbour on the course, too.
* In quotes for good reason. There's no purely logical reason I couldn't practice at other better times or other places, including ones she probably wouldn't hear much. But I have a bit of a thing about knowing people are in hearing, or could walk in, while I'm practicing. Because if they are in hearing I'd rather practice only the bits that already sound good.... and when you're rusty, nothing sounds good. I can do more practice less privately if the someone is Colin.
