I have just started learning mandolin and I am working my way through St. Louis Blues. The music that I am using includes the tablature as well as the music.
The tab for one section shows:
-----------------------
---------------1-------
---5--2--5--7-----7--5-
-----------------------
but is soon became obvious to me that this could be played as:
-----------------------
------------0--1--0----
---5--2--5-----------5-
-----------------------
It seems to me that the latter is easier to play. Is there a set of guidelines to choose one over the other?
Since I am new to the instrument, I don't want to start bad habits because I fail to anticipate future problems.
(Note: I am using normal GDAE tuning)