How Wayne Benson Reinvented His Playing

[@margaretblack8491]

Another inspiring homerun! Thanks!

[@adrianmuirhead9593]

All mandolin players must listen to this interview ..."we're only human after all!"

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

🙏🙏🙏

[@skoffco]

This is the kind of stuff I love about KZbin!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Biggest compliment ever!

[@mburkhart41]

Just an amazing interview. I only discovered Wayne's channel a few months ago and oh man, it meets me where I'm at. Unbelievable how much great content there is today for the mandolin player.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@bossanovista]

Wow! I can’t believe this was 1 year ago. In the last 6 mo. I have been watching both your channels to supplement the online lessons I take every week. I think my teacher is in your neck of the woods too. New to the whole genre but I’m realizing NC is a major hub. Thank you for the inspiring videos!!!

[@saltyfellow]

Wayne is so humbly shearing all is inner journey. That's beautiful

[@donstiernberg2234]

Wayne is the man!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

He sure is! Thanks for watching, Donnie!

[@brianeversole3849]

Great conversation. Glad to be a fly on the wall.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Thanks Brian! I learn so much through these conversations!

[@iknowyouarebutwhatami]

I absolutely love your content

[@gregmaindrummer]

Great interview!!

[@thomp9054]

Great questions and great answers! Thanks fellas

[@joeybrown9218]

Good heavens the best duo

[@mandohat]

Legend

[@iknowyouarebutwhatami]

When Wayne Benson says he needs to continue to study the fretboard... It means we ALL need to study the board more

[@MelTurbyfill]

Lots of great information from two wonderful mandolin players. Thanks to both of you.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@GabrielWsieman]

Killer stuff!!! Thanks David!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Thanks Gabriel!

[@allenronaldson4381]

I’m a little confused gents. I’m a big TR nerd and I by no means have it nailed, but if you watch TR closely he uses a hybrid style of “economy picking” and articulates at the wrist while hooking his bottom two fingers under the bottom two strings while alternating the top of those fingers on the pickguard almost like you if you anchored your fingers out like Adam or DL might do. The closest thing I’ve seen to TR’s right hand on mandolin would probably be Emery Lester. He talks about it on a video somewhere out there because he was a TR guitar nerd as well. I could sit and listen to you guys talk all day. I’d love to see Emery and another very underrated player that you featured on MM one time, Brian Oberlin. Maybe you could get him to talk about his approach to arranging all the tunes he sings. He’s also got a great sense of humor. Great stuff David!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Hey Allen! Thanks so much for checking out this video! I can't speak fully for Wayne, but I would think that he meant Tony influenced his right hand technique--not necessarily that he's trying to emulate Tony's technique exactly. But you're right--Emory has an awesome handle on that TR style--love his playing too! Hope we can get him and Brian to do an interview video like this at some point down the line!

[@mintonmiller]

I never knew professional musicians struggled with this stuff to this extent. I play mandolin, dobro and guitar but nobody is ever going to pay to hear me play or sing. Yet I have a blast playing at jam sessions and trying to figure stuff out on the fly. I have never been able to playing anything exactly the same way twice and to some degree, I am ok with that. After 30 years of playing mostly by ear and by myself, I am now learning some theory. Mandolin taught me about relative minors. Dobro taught me about basic major and minor scales in one mode. Thank you for sharing this. It makes me feel slightly less inferior in my music world.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Sure thing, Minton! We're all in this together I think!

[@tpf1952]

Superb interview! Uplifting and motivating. Thank you for sharing.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@barrymartyn1760]

What a great interview David. Well done!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Appreciate it Barry!

[@talon1623]

Wow, it's like he told my story. Same thing. Realized the limitations a few years before I changed, also around age 50. Another famous mando player who made the same change was Roland White. I talked to him at a jam after a show in Vancouver. He saw me playing & said "I used to play like that". He said all the early Kentucky Colonels stuff was him playing with three fingers. I asked him how he changed & he said he just started holding the pick with the new grip all the time. Whne he was driving , doing the dishes...wherever. Eventually it started to feel natural to him. I did the same thing decades later when I finally changed. I worked.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Awesome! Love Roland!

[@talon1623]

"it" worked, that is.

[@talon1623]

@@DavidBenedictMandolin Yes. I've met him a couple of times. Really nice guy.

[@mandobaron]

Great interview! Love that early NGR clip!

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Thanks a ton! Yeah, those old televised performances from the NGR are so clutch!

[@philiprundall3432]

Great interview. It's so encouraging to hear musicians one admires being open about their own development, discussing the struggles they've had and the issues they are continuing to address. I remember Bryan Sutton saying that basically we're all on the same journey but at different points. The moment we feel we've arrived, then we're in trouble! It would be great if you could sometime interview Emory Lester, whose class I attended at Swannanoa in 2016 when I travelled from the UK. I'm pretty sure I saw you there David, but this was before I became aware of you as the excellent online teacher! All the best.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Thanks for watching Philip! Yeah, very inspiring how open and genuine Wayne is as a player and person. I may have been there that year at Swannanoa! Hope our paths cross again soon!

[@philiprundall3432]

@@DavidBenedictMandolin It would be great if you could come over to the uk at some point and teach at the Sore Fingers summer school (Ron Block's favourite btw!). I've attended John Reischman and Joe K. Walsh's classes there - I think you'd love it.

[@glengray7753]

Awesome

[@mandograssable]

I remember Wayne at the Galax fiddlers convention when he was in a jam with just a banjo player and he was tearin it up. I asked him how he did that and he said I have no idea how I do it. The bottom line is, the brain is wired for music. Some people who are better wired will be at the top and all the others will play all their lives and never reach that level. Dexterity and many other things come into play. I suffer from extreme anxiety when either on stage or in a jam with others. My wrist will just freeze up and not work at all.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Yeah, Wayne is a natural for sure! I think it's so cool to see how deeply he thinks about things, and how he's always striving to get better--pretty inspiring!

[@philippelegault8398]

This was a great conversation. Very helpful. I'm a 30 years old bassist/guitarist who's been playing all kind of extreme metal for the past decade and in October 2021 I heard Sierra Hull and Chris Thile. I then bought a mandolin and I've been hooked up ever since. I live near Montréal and mandolin and bluegrass are not really popular here. Nobody I know plays one so for a guy in my situation your chanel as been really helpful. Your content is very well made. keep up the good work! Thanks & Cheers!

[@lowtone9]

Wow, heavies in the video, AND heavies in the comments! I would love to see traditional and modern f style tones demonstrated.

[@DavidBenedictMandolin]

Yeah! I think Wayne's got a video coming out on his channel soon on that very topic!

[@vercentigorix1]

You should shorten the gab time and show more good technique. I used to train supervisors and managers to use the Show-and Tell method, which is: (1) Tell the person what he/she is going to learn; (2 ) Show the person what to do have the person do it; (3) the person then does it while you show and tell him how to do something; (4) the learner shows you how to do it, then does it himself; (5) the person then does it by hi /her self, while the instructor what he is doing.. This method is much more effective. Used since WWI....

[@Lloyd-mo]

Tony didnt have a clinched fist, his fingers were more open. Thats how ive learned.

[@joeprine1543]

Why don't you guys talk about how people like me that have small hands can do to make up for our deformitys. You guys have long fingers I'd kill for.

[@longtalljay]

Buying a new mandolin is hardly about "what you're in to." It's about what is the best affordable compromise. With a guitar, you can buy a Martin HD28 or D35 that captures all a great bluegrass instrument should, for under 4 grand. With a mandolin, there's only Collings and Pava's entry A models at that price range.

[@evanseymour4172]

I generally agree. 🧠 Try this though! So curious 🧐 what you find. Get 5 to eight mandolins and friends together. From say, Eastman 315, to Weber Yellowstone, a Collings to Duff and “Higher End,” mandolins. Play the same tune for each mandolin. Have friends guess their own mandolin in the line up without looking. I won’t spoil it…but the results might surprise everyone. 🤷‍♂️

[@longtalljay]

@@evanseymour4172 I bought a bunch of mandolins in 11 trips to the Mandolin Store, trying all the top end ones too. The tone + sparkle + playability is hardly comparable b/w any two brands, if an intermediate player is picking (like me). Pros make all sound the same (as proven by Tone Poems--in fact, I tried one of Grisman's mandos from that album.) I can say more about the brands, from my experience, if someone wishes. My favorite was a Sam Bush Gibson, but it was $7,000 +.

[@evanseymour4172]

@@longtalljay Great observations! I hope more folks chime in. This little experiment 🧪 is always fun!

[@evanseymour4172]

@@longtalljay Dude…Like a trip to my dream store! I got my Weber there perhaps 12 years ago. The instrument continues to exceed my abilities 😂.

[@longtalljay]

@@evanseymour4172 I love that store and Dennis Vance. What Weber do you have? I had a Grey Weber Antique Distressed A octave mandolin (Oval hole)--had to eventually sell it to an American in Iceland, without much playing time on it.