Hi, my name's Paul and I'm a mandolin player .... or I hope to be someday. I've always just played casually, when I didn't feel like playing with my guitars, but I'd like to do more. I can pound out some rough cowboy chords, and pick out a tune, but I have no doubt that my technique sucks.

When I slowly pick the notes of a chord that I'm holding, some of the strings are dead; the only way I can correct this is when I press REALLY hard .... so hard that my wrist hurts .... and I've played guitar for years, so that shouldn't be happening.

Also, when I'm picking a tune, my fingers will quite often damp the string next to the one I'm fretting. Am I supposed to use the absolute tip of my finger, close to the nail? If that's the case, I guess it's time to start building up some new callusses.

Any suggestions on right-hand technique? I can't get anywhere near the speed of the guys who do the "trilling" on one note or chord. I don't know; maybe I'm holding the thing wrong.

HELP!!!

Paul.