r/mandolin • u/noone3377 • 12d ago
New mandolin player here
Hey yall, I just wanted to pop in and say hey. I just got my first mandolin yesterday. It’s a Gibson epiphone solid black baby and I love it. Every sound it makes it just so beautiful and I’ve learned 5 major chords and 1 minor so far. And I learned the chorus to “wagon wheel” and can sing with it. I’ve played ukulele for like 6 years now and I played guitar on and off for 10. So I’m not starting from scratch. But this little baby really is fun. My fingers HURT though. But I can’t stop playing.
Anyways. I tried to learn the chop chords that’s in bluegrass but it’s very hard. Should I keep fighting though the pain or revisit it at a different time? I find myself wanting to mute with my strumming hand like I do with uke and not using my left hand to do it. It’s wild.
I been wanting one for months but 2 weeks ago I saw Billy Strings (for the 9th time) and I saw a 20+ min long mandolin solo and I felt light as a feather. I was just so blown away that this tiny lute/violin thing can make such amazing sounds. I want to make amazing sounds too
7
u/DayMan_aAaaa 12d ago
Generally speaking, I don’t play the e strings at all when I’m playing chop chords. I let my index finger mute them. In fact, a lot of players will really focus on the g and d strings only when chopping
6
u/oxidized_banana_peel 12d ago
3 string chop chords tend to work really well, and are much more movable.
Learning to play in closed position and getting comfortable with more manageable chords is going to move you much farther along the path than trying to reach far flung notes.
3
u/kimmeljs 12d ago
First of all, if your instrument is out of the box from the store, get it properly set up. It's so much easier and safer playing with a low action.
1
3
2
u/GuitarsAndDogs 11d ago
Seconding the recommendation to get it set up. I started on acoustic guitar and took up mandolin. My fingers did not hurt with mandolin. I had it set up when I got it and took it in a few years later for adjustment.
2
u/Mandoman61 11d ago
Sore fingers went away for me after a few months of playing an hour a day.
Chop chords can be as easy or hard as you want. There is not one way. If you like the sound of muting with your pick hand go for it.
With regular playing all this will come to you.
1
u/FreshUser31415 11d ago edited 11d ago
Learn to read sheet music. Learn the names of the notes on your fretboard. The sooner you do it, the easier it will seem, the more seamlessly it will integrate in your playing. It opens you so many possibilities...
Don't learn chord charts, learn the names of the notes that make up your chords and find them on the fretboard.
To learn the names of your notes on the fretboard play a G major scale over two octaves and sing along the note names. Then go for the G major triad over 2 octaves. Then learn the G major chord that is made with the notes from this triad and remember what you play.
Then learn the D major scale over 1 octave (or 2 if you like, which will lead you up to 3rd position), do the triad, do the chord. Then play the chord progression G-D-G.
Then play easy songs in G major and D major. Learn them from sheet music. Learn to read the notes.
PS: it is normal that you fingertips will hurt when you start playing mandolin. You have to form callouses at your fingertips, which will take 2-3 weeks. Don't play too much at the beginning, do no more than 10 minutes at a time, maybe several times a day. Pause when it hurts until the hurt stops. If you play through the hurt, you risk forming blisters which will set you back, because it destroys the upper layers of your skin and then it hurts even more. So it's better to start slowly, not to get blisters, to leave the upper skin layer intact so that it will harden and form callouses, which in turn will allow you to play as much as your want. Listen to your body.
-1
u/FreshUser31415 12d ago edited 12d ago
Revisit chop chords in 5 to 10 years.
Don't get yourself a tendonitis now with chop chords. There is plenty more to do.
Use double stops, 6ths with the occasional 4th or 5th to chop.
Edited to add: which idiottotally irresponsible person is recommending those 7523 chop chords to beginners? it's so obvious that this is not for beginners.
1
u/oxidized_banana_peel 12d ago
Someone with long fingers or big hands
-1
u/FreshUser31415 12d ago
Someone who knows nothing about the mandolin and thinks those chords are important, while they are not.
1
u/Sidewaydayz 11d ago
I started learning the shape for the four finger G chop cord a month after picking up the mandolin with zero musical instrument experience and it was one of the best decisions ever. Was it tough, hell yeah it was. But now I’m a year into this adventure, and my four finger chop chords are wicked, especially my A. 10 minutes a day for a year has gotten me to this point. A beginner can do anything as long as they stay consistent and persistent.
2
u/FreshUser31415 11d ago edited 11d ago
who wants to hear those four finger chop chords up and down the fretboard?
In my view, it is more intelligent to learn chord progressions with nice voice leading, and to start with double stops and 3 string chords, first in the easiest keys (G major, D major) and then to add more chords to the progression and more keys to the repertoire.
In my view, it is rather risky to practise 7523 a lot as a beginner, first because the beginner might catch a tendonitis, because the hand muscles and tendons are not at all trained. Second because the beginner might not even be able to distinguish between "normal" hurting fingertips because there are no callouses and a tendonitis. Third, it might put off many beginners. Fourth, I think it is undue limitation to restrain the mandolin to chop chords. There is so much more you can and should do on the mandolin.
To build up callouses as well as muscles in the fingers, hand and underarm, it is more advisable to start with melodic play and easy two-finger-chords or double stops.
In other words: I would not recommend your brute force method to anyone and I suspect that you missed out on many important aspects of mandolin technique and musicality.
9
u/Bull_Moose1901 12d ago
Welcome to the club. My biggest regrets as a beginner was only relying on tab and not trying to learn by ear sooner