solarbird | (Reply)

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Oh, is that what you two were on about?
We did some mandolin geeking, yeah. We both play the mandolin the same "wrong" - or more correctly, nontraditional - way, and have the matching fingertip callouses to prove it. We're both doing that to intentional purpose; it produces a different sound - a very different sound - compared to the traditional way, and that different sound is the sound I like so much.

One reason it's atypical is you need kinda thin fingers to make it work. Being self-taught, I didn't know you'd play any other way; I just kind of developed that method on my own, migrating to it as the only way to prevent incidental string contact, and keep all strings "live" at the same time. Alec initially picked it up just from starting with violin, and playing the mandolin with the same sorts of finger touches on both instruments - and also quickly realised this was the only way to keep all strings available at once.

Oh, the traditional method - which is how all those thick-fingered mandolin experts play so very well, and don't get me wrong, it's awesome, it has the advantage of letting you build up a lot of speed more easily, it's just not the sound I want and I'm willing to do the extra work the fingertip-method demands - is to use the flats of your fingers instead of the tips, and do a lot of string muting and partial-plucking to prevent the incidentally-touched strings from sounding. This is apparently how most mandolin players do it, and how people with thicker fingers have to do it.

But I want those strings. I want all of them available to me - you're already looking at an instrument with no more than four tones at any time, and as far as I'm concerned, you don't need to lose any if you can help it. I want that bright, piercing clarity of sound available to me at any time. When I joke about reinventing the mandolin FOR METAL!!1!, that's what I'm actually talking about.