Hello and welcome to my third mandolin in-depth post!
Learning Updates:
In the last two weeks, I have been focusing on learning note positioning. The first way I am doing this is by learning some major scales. I have learned the C major scale and have been improving the clarity and speed on that scale. I am also starting to look at the D major scale. The reason I have decided on the D major scale is that I am learning a tune in the same scale.
‘Caledonian Laddy’ is a fiddle tune that I found in the beginner section of a Mandolin Weekly magazine. I tried it out and thought it would be a great first tune to learn because it is relatively simple, but still allows me to start playing songs. I spoke with my mentor about it and he gave me some tips on how to play it. He also told me that the first-ever song I chose just happened to be from the first-ever copy of the magazine that he received which I thought was an interesting coincidence. I have also been listening to lots of mandolin music that my mentor recommended to me. I ended up really enjoying two of the artists he mentioned. One of them was AJ Lee & Blue Summit and the other was Sierra Hull. In the next two weeks, I have two main skills I want to work on. The first is to continue learning new scales and working on the fiddle tune. I am also planning on learning some chords from a chord chart that my mentor is making for me. To continue learning about mandolin music my mentor mentioned some other women who play mandolin that I could try and I plan on listening to them.
Mentorship:
- What went particularly well during your mentoring sessions?
I think the flow of the meeting worked well in this week’s meeting. We were able to easily switch between topics and there was never a point where I didn’t know what we should talk about next. I think this was because my mentor and I prepared well for the meeting. Before the meeting I listened to all the music my mentor subjected, wrote down notes about the music, prepared a song to learn and recorded any questions I had about what I was working on. Another reason that I think the meeting had a good flow to it was that there were three stages to it. The first stage was discussing what had happened in the past two weeks where we talked about the music and what music I enjoyed. Then, I was able to ask my mentor any questions that had come up over the weeks. Lastly, we talked about the steps for the next two weeks and he gave me tips about that learning. This layout helped me to know when I should talk about certain parts of the project and kept the conversation productive.
- What learning challenges emerged? / What did you do to hold yourselves accountable for the learning?
One challenge that came up was that we don’t know each other very well yet. More specifically, because we don’t know each other that well my mentor doesn’t know how much music knowledge or technique I have. This can be a challenge because my mentor doesn’t know what he should explain more or what I already know so he doesn’t talk about. This can mean that sometimes I can get confused when he is talking about topics I don’t understand. To be sure that I am working to get over that I like to ask a lot of questions and clarify anything I am not completely sure of. In our most recent meeting, I was having trouble with where I should hold my hands. I asked him about it and he told me about the specific rules about which fingers are used for each fret. This knowledge was super useful for me. My mentor said that he wouldn’t have thought of saying that because it just comes to him naturally. By asking the question I was able to learn important skills that I might not have learned if I didn’t reach out and ask the question.
- What three strategies could improve the quality of your mentoring interactions? / What is the action plan for implementing each of the three strategies?
One way I could improve the meetings is by sending my mentor an idea of what specific topics/ideas I need help with during the meeting. In our last meeting I had written down notes about topics to discuss for myself but when I would ask him, he would answer from the knowledge he had right then. This change would allow my mentor to prepare anything he wanted or just get an idea of what we were doing beforehand. I could do this by simply including a couple of notes that I made for myself in the email confirming our meeting date and time I usually send. Another way I could improve the meeting quality is by asking more questions. I have questions that I write ahead of time, but I could work on coming up with more questions from what my mentor says. I could do this by listening carefully and thinking through what I am still wondering about after my mentor answers. One last way I could improve the meeting quality is by writing down the actions I have to take after the meeting immediately after it ends. For the last meeting, I had something immediately after my meeting, so I didn’t write anything down about it right after. I think this could impede the notes I have because they could be better if the ideas and tasks discussed in the meeting were fresh in my mind. I could make this a habit by having all the supplies to write down the tasks I need to accomplish as well as by creating a clear idea of what I need to write down.
Thanks for reading!