Besides chop chords, the other major aspect of Bluegrass mandolin playing are the twiddly bits. While I need to improve my chopping, learning to play lead mandolin is now my major challenge, and I'm aiming to make some discernible progress by next May.
The fundamental of playing lead mandolin is Alternate Picking as explained in this YouTube video by Don Julin:
There are two main aspects to this. The first is to hit the onbeat notes on a downstroke and the offbeat notes on an upstroke. So far so good. The second is to keep the right-hand moving in a regular rhythm regardless of what notes are played (or not played).
I've never really played melody on a stringed instrument before and at this early stage I'm finding it extremely difficult. However, I now have a week with more time than I usually have, so I'll see how far I get.
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