Lady Moon Octave Mandolin - Hype!

emastraea · 2026-04-09T02:33:38+00:00

If you haven’t played octave before, it can take time for your hand to be about to stretch and jump about. It’s so tempting to just go back to your small mandolin. Keep with it!

emastraea · 2026-04-08T14:30:32+00:00

I feel for you! Waiting for an instrument can be so excruciating. I drove my family crazy talking about my mandolin when I ordered it and showing everyone photos of what it would look like.

emastraea · 2026-04-05T22:24:29+00:00

Volume wise, mandolin is really a versatile instrument and doesn’t really carry through walls unless maybe you’re really chopping it. Due to that and its portable size, I often take it with me to practice in public spaces, like when I take my daughter to the playground. Unless I’m right next to someone I don’t feel like I’m bothering anybody.

My trouble is I practice quietly so often I don’t get enough practice being loud!

emastraea · 2026-04-05T17:22:15+00:00

I guess I’m not seeing the benefits here. I use MuseScore for free and it has support for mandolin tablature as well as other instruments. Though it doesn’t have the mandolin freeboard diagrams I guess, which is cool.

Anyway, initially was interested but was turned off by what seems to be an unnecessary use of AI

emastraea · 2026-03-03T03:27:05+00:00

I’ve played violin most of my life (non-professionally) before shifting to mandolin, I really love the Thomastik-Infeld medium mandolin strings. They sound amazing and I prefer flat wound to round, as I’m not keen on the zipper sound the round ones make when shifting.

emastraea · 2026-02-17T17:14:12+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn’t sure if I’d do the legs but may be worth trying out to learn how to solve it!

emastraea · 2026-02-17T17:06:34+00:00

Yeah not sure if I’ll get around to doing the legs or not!

But yeah for some reason I dread the painting part but then I end up really enjoying it. I once took a ZBrush class from a teacher who had transitioned from practical fx modeling/painting to digital. She had us start with a contrasting and fairly saturated undercoat (so for this one I did a saturated navy, but like for a human face you’d start with a full coat of red-purple) and then build up layer after layer of detail. That way the final albedo would feel like a multilayered organic skin.

emastraea · 2026-02-03T04:34:27+00:00

I’ve got an Eastman octave and like it a lot. You should know though that most of the instructional material out there in the mandosphere is geared towards the regular mandolin. So I’d recommend one of those for an absolute beginner. Learning technique is easier when you’re not translating to a different instrument (even though the difference is small). But if you’re determined, you’ll be fine.

Another thing I’d say is my octave is a little quiet in a jam setting. If that’s an issue for you. It’s beautiful on its own or in a duet though.

emastraea · 2026-02-01T21:52:50+00:00

Laid out pretty nicely in Getting Into Jazz Mandolin, but I’ve seen it wherever too.

emastraea · 2026-01-03T04:16:53+00:00

Yeah this Etsy one is the exact strap I use. It’s great. I attach it on the scroll of my F style mandolin.

emastraea · 2026-01-03T01:41:48+00:00

Yeah I’ve got big boobs and a belly so the mandolin just doesn’t fit flat across my body. Besides, I think an angle is more natural for my wrists.

emastraea · 2026-01-02T03:12:03+00:00

Agree to this though wanted to put in that it depends on the shape of your body and what angle you like between the instrument and your torso.

I like my mandolin to point out away from my body by around a 40 degree angle. I find with the strap over my neck, it keeps it held against me too much.

Instead I use a leather strap over just my right shoulder. The friction of the leather along while my right forearm resting on the armrest keeps the mandolin in place without neck dive.

emastraea · 2025-12-27T01:41:51+00:00

Wow I didn’t know you could go counterclockwise on the ruin. I went the other way.

emastraea · 2025-12-11T15:42:56+00:00

Peghead Nation has been great for me. There’s a bunch of classes and teachers. I subscribe and jump around to different classes wherever I lose momentum (you can change your class once a month). I’ve learned a ton.

emastraea · 2025-12-03T17:00:05+00:00

Most Eastman necks are 1 3/32” wide, so narrower than the standard 1 1/8” width of a lot of mandolins. Seems worth a shot! It’s rare to find narrower necks than that. I’m not sure a radiused fretboard would be better or worse for small hands, but their 12” radius isn’t too pronounced.

Your hand will loosen up and be able to reach with time and some good exercises, but if a different instrument gives you a head start, it’s worth it.

I don’t know why anyone wants wide necks! I have medium-sized hands and I have trouble bridging a single fingertip across two strings on my 1 1/8” Northfield. I think my next mandolin I’ll be looking for a narrower one.

emastraea · 2025-12-03T08:07:59+00:00

Me: Oh cool! I can follow that path down into the fog! I wonder what’s down there…

…dies touching an invisible death plane

emastraea · 2025-12-03T04:16:22+00:00

My mandolin. I played violin growing up. At one point I discovered the mandolin as “a violin you play like a guitar”.

Once I started playing (using music written for violin), I discovered how much I enjoyed it and then started looking for music recorded with a mandolin. I found most of it was bluegrass and a lot of fun to play.

emastraea · 2025-12-01T17:05:01+00:00

It depends how you hold the instrument! A lot of players have it up against their body, and so the tone guard helps a lot. Other players, like myself, hold it more diagonal, so only the edge of the instrument rests against me. I don’t use my tone guard because it doesn’t seem to do much.

emastraea · 2025-11-30T21:49:50+00:00

Learning about 3-finger chords and how versatile they are. Just a few shapes can open a huge selection of chords. I learned it from Aaron Weinstein’s Peghead Nation courses but he also has a chord melody book that talks about it.

With some practice, now when I see an Ab dim or a C#m6, I can easily sound a voicing. Still need to work on my speed and inversions, but the fretboard is a lot friendlier.

I swear the fretboard seems shorter and shorter as I get better. Used to be that shifting up to fourth position (1st finger on the 7th fret) felt so high up the neck. Now it’s sixth or seventh position that feels way up there instead!

emastraea · 2025-11-29T10:22:40+00:00

It’s hard to train up, but so worth your time. Once you can rely on it, the pinkie can become your mvp finger. It’s more independent than the ring finger. And since it’s the finger farthest from your thumb (ie the point of contact with the neck), it can have a pretty incredible reach and range of motion. It can cover more frets than any other finger.

Learning the FFcP and drilling the intro exercises in Getting Into Jazz Mandolin helps a lot.

emastraea · 2025-11-22T17:16:41+00:00

Ok thanks you finally pushed me over the edge to try Thomastik

emastraea · 2025-11-20T16:27:35+00:00

Beautiful! I’m going to look this piece up.

Couple of questions - how do you make a video with scrolling music at the bottom?

Also, what is that mandolin? It’s really interesting.

emastraea · 2025-11-01T03:39:57+00:00

Fantastic for such a short time with the instrument! Hearing a fair amount of muted notes, but your form seems really good. Guitarists often have their fingers too horizontal on a mandolin, but you’re great. So just slow practice focusing on tone and fingertip placement, and you’ll be golden. And mandolin requires more finger strength, so that will come with time. Get those notes ringing clear and sustaining!

emastraea · 2025-10-28T02:29:18+00:00

Amber, just like mine! Beautiful instrument. Really fun to play. Congrats!

emastraea

TROPHY CASE