Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

New To Mando

#21

Hey y’all, I’m pretty new to playing the mandolin. Started in October, and only recently found this website, and enjoying it.

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#22

Honored to have you, @coltmiller!

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#23

I’ve been wondering if its better to plant your pinky finger or not when playing. But I haven’t found any videos on that topic. Any advice?

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#24

I have finally landed on the opinion that it differs for different folks, depending on what causes the least amount of tension in your playing. Check out my pick hand foundations course where we talk about it: https://banjobenclark.com/courses/pick-hand-foundations

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#25

Ok thanks, I’ll look into that one.:+1:

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#26

Welcome to the forum Richard :slight_smile:

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#27

Welcome @coltmiller great to see you here now get posting some videos so we can see where you’re at :+1:

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#28

Thanks y’all. I’ve been working on Down to The River and salt creek.
Lots of fun😊

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#29

if you play for about an hour everyday, how often do you think you would need new strings?

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#30

It’s different for everyone.

Depends somewhat on how clean you keep the strings and your hands, how acidic excretions of your hands are, whether (humidity), and salt content in atmosphere, among other things.

When they get corroded, won’t note true, lack normal sustain, etc. it’s time to change them.

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#31

I like mandolin strings more broken in than guitar strings. I change them much less frequently., basically when the intonation starts to suffer. On the other hand, if you like that bright, new string sound, you might want to change them pretty often (like a couple weeks).

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#32

k, thanks. good to know.

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#33

Hey, has anyone ever tried playing with a broken wrist?
I broke mine a couple of weeks ago, and it’s not easy with a cast in the way, but the Doc. said I could try.
I can still play a little bit, but it sure is difficult!

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#34

I haven’t and hope I don’t have to try! Heal up soon!

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#35

Man, that’s dedication! Get well ASAP!

#36

Ok, so I started on banjo about 2 years before I got my Eastman Mandolin (from Jake at Ben’s Store) and have been playing just about a year now.

However, having seen the lessons on Mandolin, I chose to not plant my pinky on the Mandolin - thinking the wrist rotation would be hampered somehow. Plus, I had played some electrical guitar long ago.

For whatever reason, I tried planting my pinky about a week ago.

I was amazed to find it feels natural and a quick analysis made me feel like I could “judge” string location better… Fascinating.

I have not decided one way or another… But the early returns makes me see that this could be viable for me.

Time will tell… But I would really like others to chime in on their experiences - especially those who pick banjo and mando.

#37

I also came to mandolin from banjo, and I’m a pinky planter, although I’ve been trying out other things recently, it’s still the most comfortable for me

#38

Well, I’ve only been playing mandolin for about 10 months, but when I first started, I played with my pinky planted, but then decided to try it without. At first it seemed more difficult, but with practice, I can now easily judge the location of the strings without thinking and I feel like it has helped me increase my speed by a lot.

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#39

Good feedback thanks @coltmiller!

Any other opinions out there on the Mando Pinky topic?

#40

Tough question. First, off, I am a planter. I have tried both ways, but planter was got ingrained in me. I hadn’t been really working on flatpicking for a long time and decided it was a good opportunity to try a radical change. I went at not planting and getting more efficient with my motion (staying flatter to the plane of the strings). I tried playing real fast and free just to see what would happen. End result after about a month is that I could play significantly faster without planting, but I don’t get the tone I want without planting and I end up with some bonus notes (hitting unintentional upstrokes and such). If I kept at it, I suspect my tone, control and accuracy would slowly catch up.

I do think there are enough great players who go either way that I would say if you are more comfortable with either approach, go for it. If you are stuck for a long time… perhaps a change is in order.

With all that said, if I was raising a kid and teaching him/her to flatpick from scratch, I would start them out without planting. I also wouldn’t let them watch me and instead put them to bed with videos of Molly Tuttle’s right hand playing on an overhead monitor each night.

Final thought: whatever Ben says trumps whatever I say :grinning:

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