The reason I'm really doing this blog is to give me an outlet to work on music and recording. I'm hoping that the added pressure of playing while recording will ultimately make me a stronger player.
(truth be told, I really wanted to buy some electronics for recording and this is my excuse)
I'm currently taking several classes. I'm taking an advanced mandolin class at the Folk School of St. Louis and also taking weekly 1/2 hour lessons from Mike Compton. This first song is a song I'm learning from Dave M. in the FS Adv. Mando class. I'll be posting some songs from my lessons with Mike soon too.
So without further adieu, here's my first effort.
The song is Twinkle. It's a swingin' song in the key of G major. The main difficulties in the melody of this song are up the neck sections and the rhythmic aspects. The rhythmic part is especially important to get as it's an approach that's often used in Bill Monroe style playing.
I used GarageBand on my iMac to record the music. I didn't use my better mandolins (Silver Angel F5, Pomeroy F4, Gibson F4), because I wanted to plug in and I only have a pickup on my Michael Kelly. Speaking of which, that MK is actually pretty decent once it got a professional setup. It was my first mandolin and as such will probably be a keeper.
The setup for this recording was:
MK with LR Baggs Radius pickup -> LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI -> M-Audio Firewire 410 Interface -> iMac with GarageBand -> iMovie HD
That last step is because I can't seem to figure out how to post plain music files to Blogger, but movies work just fine! ??
The upright bass is a very old King bass. I use a set of K&K pickups and preamp. More on that later. From the preamp I again go into the M-audio interface.
So here it is: Twinkle.
Documenting my long musical mando journey.
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- MandolinDon
- Intermediate mandolin player in St. Louis, MO.
3 comments:
Hey Don!
Thanks for the compliment. It's definitely a LONG work in progress, but I feel like little pieces of the mandolin puzzle keep falling into place. This week I've made some modifications to the way I hold my pick and I *think* it will make a big difference. We'll see...
I think I know just the house show you're talking about. I've got a couple of clips of it on my ipod at this very moment, if it's the same one that went around last year.I think Steve Glichrist picked a few with them. My son is crazy over "Going to See the King" for some reason.
I'm with you on feeling a little fumble-fingered in comparison to some of Mike's students, but I just have to remind myself periodically that even they had to start somewhere. Hopefully, we'll be there ourselves soon.
My first mandolin was also a MK. It was a pretty decent Legacy solid that couldn't help but sound good after the beating I was giving it.
I hear many good things about both Silver Angels and Pomeroys--looks like you've got a good set there.
Both of the tunes are really good, and I like the Maury River Blues. That's one I'd like to pick up. It will be nice to follow your progress on here, and it's good to know I'm not the only one rolling up my sleeves.
Thanks again,
Steve
Hey Steve,
Thanks for the post.
The house concert you're thinking of was actually 2 years ago. Andy G. has a loft and hosted Mike and David back in 2006 and there was a video. Steve G. was indeed there and and played a couple of tunes.
My concert was a year later in 2007. It was great, but Mr. Gilchrist was back down under by then.
I do have a really nice recording of the house concert though.
Don
Sweet! I'd love to have those guys play here sometime. On my "to-do" list. Looking forward to some more tunes. Let me know if you want to part with a copy of that show. I think there's only three or four in circulation.
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