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Very helpful. Thank you.

Hi Brad! Good stuff! Miss "Trout Week"...my best !

Do you prefer bone over rosewood for a bridge?

Is the little gap in the middle of the bridge supposed to have a little gap?

This is awesome. Also, love this song '' greensleeves'' .. looking forward to learning it on mando. Love your content, thank Brad!!

Good video. Have you got a video about fitting a bridge, that is, where to place it?

Good video and thank you. I had a mandolin made for me and decided on a non adjustable bridge. Nice piece of ebony with a bone saddle. I just have an issue with all that tension across the top saddle of an adjustable bridge. My second mandolin (Collings MT) has the adjustable bridge from the factory, and I find tuning pairs of stings difficult and keeping that sound balanced during play. I fitted a piece of bone into the gap between the two pieces filling the gap between posts. Top saddle lowered onto the bone completely and adjusters wound all the way down to the bridge. I hear a difference now and a better balance between the string pairs. Longer sustain, especially on the E & A strings and better tonality past the 15th fret. Please give it a try. Why do classical mandolins especially bowl backs have solid bridges instead of the adjustable - mostly?

In my new harley benton f style mandolin there is a strip of paper like substance under the bridge.do I need to remove that strip?my mandolin is sounding somewhat muffled.

Thanks so much. Great play along video. Very fun song. Thank you.

Thank you!

I think this may be the clearest video explanation of how to affix a new banjo string that I've seen. Thanks!

Thank you for posting this piece of history!

I think the gentleman at czcams.com/video/fRBZfYOdLVM/video.html and after is maybe Jack Williams, the piano player Doc played with in the '50s ?

i wish.... i have mandolin like that

I've looked at all the "Change Banjo Strings" videos, and this is by far the best explanation of how to wrap the string around the tuning post. None of the videos seem to spend much time, if any, on the fifth string installation. The issue there for me is to cut/bend/insert the string in such a way as to avoid "poking" the left hand thumb with the cut end of the fifth string when installed and played. That is not fun.

I love Jonathan Livingston Seagull!

You are an awesome teacher. Thanks.

Thanks...it does help

Thanks for all the help, Bradley! Very informative piece. Dan

I've been searching for "I-285 Blues" for twenty years! Is a recording of it available anywhere?

Sick ! This’ll keep me busy for months

Good story on the black cherry. I have a bunch from my Dad’s property after some tornado damage cleanup. What’s left is almost 20 years aged now and I love working with it. Going to do a mandolin back and sides one of these days.

Excellent. Coming to mandolin from guitar, I’m finding the new voicing on the mandolin really opens up options on both instruments. Great tip!

Thank you. I have always wondered if Doc and John Hartford had met.

This was VERY helpful to me. I have pretty little hands, have been playing three years, and have just not been able to get that four fingered chop. I’m seeing it’s possible I may get there eventually, but I can use this till then. 🙏

first of all, thank you for your great videos! To be honest I thought too that you just play one string! I started playing like 3 weeks ago and I struggled so bad tying to get a good tremolo. Now things seem to be a bit easier haha. Thanks again! But it kinda felt like a compliment to hear that your student could just play one string without touching the other string, because due to this misunderstanding I am able to do that as well now. At least I hope the precision will be some kind of benefit ^^ I hope switching techniques now doesn't take me too long. Not the best thing to falsely start learning an Instrument...

Sounds good enough that I wish That I could play that well.

Sweet! Thanks Brad.

Thank you for your video! I found it very helpful!

that helps ,thanks

Hey Brad, Been playing mandolin for a long time and have been noticing a weakness some of my hand positions. I have always been a chronic overlapping/over-eager left thumb in both picking and strumming/chopping. When I’m picking a tune, especially on the A.and E strings, my thumb will try to anchor itself like yours but always start to slide up n over ( getting close to the G string. Any suggestion there or is this just a product of years of repetitive poor practice technique/posture? Hopefully my awareness of this will help to change, but goodness, old habits die hard! Thanks for the video and keep picking that lovely mando!

I liked when John Hartford came up to Doc.....mutual respect was apparent.

Glad I stumbled across your video. Been working on the runs always wondered how these pickers get these runs out. About like a ole G run on guitar!

I like it!

Pretty nifty!

very clearly explained - you're a natural teacher. thank you!

I agree reference tablature. I personally don't think banjo was ever meant to be learned from tab/notation, more from understanding a tune and picking the notes out from single notes and roll patterns. Thus making it your own. I realise tab is good if anyone wants to learn an arrangement note for note exact, but why? I can't imagine Scruggs ever pouring over books of tablature.

Murphy Henry and her family teach banjo and other instruments by videos, workshops, and formal lessons, all without tab. I started with Pete Seeger's book and tab system, which got me going. Since then (and I got my first banjo in 1962), I seem to learn best by first listening, then trying to play what I hear, and then consulting a tab book when I'm having trouble with a certain lick or passage. Works for me. I did learn bluegrass banjo among other styles, but I have been an old-timey player from the first. Your system and Murphy's may work well, but I have a large number of books containing notes and tab and use them only as reference; and I would miss them if I didn't have them. Still, I appreciate that some folks become slaves to tab as classical violinists are slaves to the printed page. Music is meant to be heard rather than seen on paper, and printed notes/tab are only supposed to be representatives of sound. Best of luck with your program.

Doc Watson was a good man !

ty Brad.I am a beginner at an older age. I was looking to try chop chords,this was one that was giving me issues, great lessons sir 100-100

Still think a pinky finger extension would work. If there were such a thing.

That's awesome! Also, where can I get a hat like that? I love that.

The thing I appreciate most in your video of Cripple Creek is that in the video, you show the viewer or student the neck of the banjo exactly as the student would see it if they were actually playing the banjo. That way the orientation of the neck is correct and much easier to interpret. An excellent video, and your entire set of free lessons of Cripple Creek are just fantastic.

Hmm, very interesting... Thank you for the great information! I have been working on 3 finger chords that can still get pretty crazy on swing stuff to try to get to the right position. I didn't realize the 3,6,2,5,1,4 pattern before (or what ever it was). Nice to have some simple tricks when the fingers just don't move fast enough. Thanks!

It all worked. Great job.

Thanks!

Hello! your tutorial videos (all of them!) are so good! I'm a violinist, and I'm trying new things with the violin and when I discovered the Mandolin I started to play the violin as a Mandolin. I've learn so many chords and pentatonic improvisation that now in I'm also using the violin as a mandolin while I'm singing. All thanks of your tutorial videos! Thanks for shareing it! Salutations from Barcelona! ;)

Hey Brad 🎼. The establishment you were playing in Roswell was called Ragamuffin. My friend Greg Gronholm and his wife Ashley ran it for a few years and I played bass with them in the Ashley Harris band. Unfortunately they did not renew the lease in 2016 and it is no longer a music venue. Look forward to seeing you soon. Love hearing you pick tie mandolin! David S. Cup o' Jo Band

So good to hear you again. Love your improvising. I learned basic Whiskey for Breakfast from your online lessons and use your rhythm tracks to practice. Thanks as always for you output.

Early Flatiron F5 Artist?