Mandolin Reflection #11

My second mandolin lesson was even better than the first, and I am really confident that taking these lessons will make me improve vastly as a musician. Demitrius had me play scales up the neck, and said that he was impressed with the improvement (which I take as good encouragement). I still have to work on them, but now that I can actually get up the scale I can start focusing on more technical aspects: such as where on the fret I place my fingers, how to get the best sound out of the strings, and where on the strings to pick. Demitrius told me that the best place to pick over was the very top of the neck where the frets run over the body of the mandolin, and I really hear a difference when I play there. I think I am doing well at keeping all of that together. To continue improving my dexterity, Demitrius taught me a scale where you have to switch the positions of two fingers at a time. This is to get you in the habit of moving your fingers independently, and it's quite difficult. However, I've been practicing and I should be able to do it well by next lesson. Demitrius told me that by next lesson I should be able to do that scale without pause between the switching of fingers. I am pretty much able to do that by now, and so I am going to try and improve the sound quality of my playing as I do that. Scales aren;t the most interesting thing, but I don't mind doing them because it is obvious that they are a huge help: I am better able to play my bluegrass songs now, and with better quality. Next class Demitrius is going to teach me a bluegrass song that will put my scale knowledge to work.