Here is how to bridge your skills from the ukelele to the mandolin.
Cut to 1:48 to hear Uke vs. Mando-Ukulele! The mandolin is a dual purpose instrument if you tune it to GCEA. Use your Ukulele fingerings, and presto, you get a new way to express your ukulele…
Simply playing something simple is often fun, so that’s what’s behind this shuffle Blues in G for mandolin. No chords required and just strumming two strings (forget the other two strings) and fret a few notes and you are playing some blues mandolin (quite an oxymoron, it would seem). Quite simple and very fun, in my humble opinion.
One on the most quinessential mexican mandolin tunes.
I’m still having fun playing my mandolin and as mentioned in the video, I was just playing around and accidentally came across this song. There may be other versions out there, so keep in mind that this is my version of La Cucaracha. As usual I’ll update my blog – binarygraphite.blogspot.com – with some info on this song. Also, please subscribe and check me out on Facebook (become a Fan!).
From the Fraser Performance studio at WGBH, Boston, 17-year-old mandolin player Gordon Neidinger from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania joins Classical New England host Cathy Fuller to play the “Csardas” by Vittorio Monti. It’s a special “From The Top” edition of “Drive Time Live,” …a preview of Gordon’s upcoming appearance (show 245) on NPR’s “From the Top.” Airing Saturdays at 5 pm on www.classicalnewengland.org.
Here is something you don’t see often, a twin mandolin.
See the preview for the Manodolin King.
Cruz Quinal, “the mandolin king,” lives near Cumaná, Venezuela in a mountain valley surrounded by sugarcane fields. Perpetuating 16th century Spanish traditions of guitar-making, Cruz fashions such musical instruments as cuatros, marimba, escarpandola, and his own creation, a mandolin with two fretboards. He is an accomplished musician as well. In this moving portrait, Cruz compares himself to a decaying colonial church across the street: revered yet neglected, the village altar stands, paint peeling, under the open sky. a film by John Dickinson distributed by Documentary Educational Resources
If Frank Semola can play at 107 years old - how aobout you?
Frank began playing mandolin in 1912, at age seven. His passion for the mandolin lasted for a century. Frank played with the Munier Mandolin Orchestra for 40 years, and he played for countless social functions, on cruise ships, and in restaurants. This clip is from Munier’s 5/6/12 concert at St. Mark’s Church in Bristol, PA. Frank, who retired from Munier several years ago, attended the concert. When asked to play a few tunes, Frank gladly obliged. This was Frank’s final performance. He passed away on Wednesday, May 9, 2012. Frank had an infectious positive spirit and a zest for life and for music. He will be greatly missed.
Take a listen to this electric mandolin – you can hear the difference between the electric model and a regular acoustic model.
This is a video that’s a two-for. On the one hand, this is a new electric mandolin (an Epiphone Mandobird IV) given to me by my late uncle, Robert Thacker, who played a huge role in my taking up music. On the other hand, it’s a tune that’s been recorded many times before but was requested on mandolin by the user Guitar1201. Hope you don’t mind that’s it’s on an electric, buddy.
Here is Mark O’Connor doing one of his best pieces on the mandpolin.
One of Mark O’Connor’s mandolin signature pieces! “A Bowl of Bula” Mark O’Connor’s mandolin playing in this video from 1991 features the deft dexterity of both hands and powerfully loud strumming. O’Connor wrote this mandolin piece in 1984 while in Figi. To hear a group version of this song, link here to a 1987 video. www.youtube.com O’Connor became the World Mandolin Champion in Kerrville, TX as a teenager in 1982. Mark plays violin exclusively as of 1997, giving way to a bursitis and tendonitis condition in his right arm that would not allow him to play the mandolin or guitar any further at his top form. But the condition allows Mark’s violin bow arm technique to operate free from injury, with no hindrance. www.markoconnor.com http twitter.com www.facebook.com