Your first time

[JeffD]

Can you remember the first time you heard or saw a mandolin and thought, "I have got to do that."

Or maybe the first time you actually picked up a mandolin and tried to play it.


I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[SternART]

I was a Deadhead & went to see OAITW. Grisman's playing was a revelation for me.
I became interested in mandolin, but it wasn't any "I have to do that" moment.
A few years later I was hangin' with the DGQ & thought with all this musical info
all around me....maybe I'd give it a try. Todd Phillips handed me a pick and an ol'
Gibson A model....this was back in 1979. I'm still tryin' to play it!

[bgmando]

In 1974 I bought a Ventura banjo from an elderly gentleman who had a little music shop in the front of his house in a small midwestern town.
He also threw in a Conqeror A mandolin and free lessons as part of the deal.
He grew up playing various instruments at square dances in the Ozarks. This was his retirement fun and spening money.

He'd pick out simple melodies on the mandolin. But doing very cleanly with strong musical expression.

I worked a bit on Shortnin Bread and Spinning Wheel.

Migrated to guitar quickly and only played mandolin now and then. But a decade later, hobby band circumstance made me practically a fulltime mando player, and because I'd messed with the cheap A, I knew I could tackle it.

[John Flynn]

I can't describe a moment, but for 20 years of playing guitar, I was always captivated by the mandolin. If I heard one in a rock tune, I played that track over and over and really listened to the mando. If I went in a music store that had a mando, I would always pick it up and try to play it, even though I didn't really know how. The shame of it all was that mandolin was considered "not cool" in the rock circles I hung out in. It was socially on a par with the banjo. By the time I got over that foolish notion, I had lost years that I could have been playing the instrument that really fit me.

[arbarnhart]

It was a little under two years ago. My mom sent some instruments for my kids and one was one of the dirt cheap Rogue A mandos. I unpacked the instruments and tuned them. I had played guitar off and on but never well for years, so I knew how to tune the guitar that was sent, but for the mando I had to look in the book that came with it. Just tuning it up it sounded "right" to me and I had always thought they looked and sounded good, so I turned the page to try strummiong a few chords. The next thing I know I have turned several pages and it is after 1:00 in the morning...

[good_ol_al_61]

Yep, I remember exactly the moment.

I was going through my late father's LP collection and I happened on to a Reno and Smiley cover with a 8-9 year old blonde haired boy holding what looked like a Gibson A-50(Ronnie Reno). Being over 40 and with no kids in the house I decided to give it a whirl. I immediately found this forum and joined. Two years later I have went through an almost terminal case of MAS, finally spending some real bucks on mandos, bought a fifth wheel to tour the BG fesivals and am now contemplating taking on a second job to support my mando habit. All while still married to the same wonderful lady. Boy, I'm happy! Life is good.

[allenhopkins]

Loved bluegrass all through college in the '60's, and would go to local coffeehouses to see Keith & Rooney, Charles River Valley Boys, Osborne Bros. etc. when I could. Learned banjo (mediocre to adequate). Upon graduation, got drafted and sent to Colorado; hung out at the Denver Folklore Center, learned guitar (mediocre to adequate). Returned to Rochester, continued to play folk music, decided I wanted to start a bluegrass band. Brother played guitar, friend Bob Olyslager played banjo. Around this time my great-aunt moved out of her house, and we cleaned out the attic. Back in a corner we found a Gibson A-1, a B&J Victoria bowl-back, and a gut-strung banjo. Apparently these came from my grandfather's second wife, who was a musician. I decided that fate had selected me to be the mandolin player in the nascent Flower City Ramblers. Thirty-five years later, I still consider myself "mediocre to adequate," but I've had a hell of a lot of fun!

[blacksmith]

It was about 2 and a half years ago. After many years of guitar I decided to learn a second instrument. One Friday afternoon on my way up the cabin in Haliburton I decided to stop at a small rural store called The Interesting Music Store. A split second decision, which I still can't account for, saved me from a life of shame and abuse. Yes, folks, I had originally thought about getting a b%$&o but for some reason as soon as went into the store and saw them hanging there I thought "hey, what about a mandolin!" So I picked up an inexpensive Kentucky and a beginners video and salvation was achieved. I spent a cold wintery weekend exploring and been lovin' it ever since. I can't begin to tell you what a joy it's been learning this instrument. I now have an Eastman 615 and a Weber Absaroka and I'd spend that money over again in a heartbeat.

[Jim Garber]

A friend of mine in college decided he wanted to audition for a local TV talent show. So he sent in whatever was needed and said that he had a jug band. He was quite surprised to find out that they invited us to be on the show. Now he had to get a band together.

So, we all picked instruments -- those of us who could play. One guy was a strong guitar player and since I also played guitar, he suggested that I play his Martin style A mandolin. I think I just played the chords to San Francisco Bay Blues on it.

After that, I decided I wanted one. I was visiting some friends in New York City over a break and went down to the House of Musical Traditions in the East Village (later and now to be situated in Tacoma Park, MD), where I found an American Conservatory bowlback for $75. Little did I know that it was the "wrong" type of mandolin for any type of music.

Later on, while I was learning fiddle, it was the perfect transition instrument. Much later, when we formed an old time band with me on guitar and two other fiddlers, we added two other guitarists so I picked up the mandolin again and never really looked back.

Jim

[fwoompf]

It was a combination of my uncle showing me Nickel Creek's self titled album along with the song "Noppet Hill Breakdown" on Ronnie McCoury's album Heartbreak Town

[Joe F]

In the early 1980s, my musical tastes were turning from mainstream to folk and acoustic. #I bought an acoustic guitar and started trying to learn Carter-style playing. #I had heard the mandolin on some songs, but never gave it a lot of thought.

The Ground Round restaurant in Green Bay, WI, 40 miles from where I was living, had live music on weekends. I spent a lot of time and money there. #One evening, there was a young kid named Eddie Biebel performing. #He did a number of solo mandolin pieces, and I was captivated. #However, considering how small it was, and how large my fingers are, I figured it was a hopeless cause. #Still, I bought a $39 Lotus and started teaching myself 2-finger chords.

A couple of years later, I went to see a group called "Frosty Morn" that played locally. #They did a lot of Celtic, old-time and other acoustic tunes. #Jim Sigler, half of the duo, played guitar, mandolin, clawhammer banjo, fiddle and Dobro - and all of them quite well. #He was a large man, with fingers like sausages, so I decided that maybe I had a chance after all. #I traded in my POS for a solid-wood Kentucky KM-200S (which is still my main axe) and began lessons with Jim.

The rest, as they say, is history.

[Doug Edwards]

I had a guy at church show up with a Montana A style. I noodled around with it for about half an hour and was hooked. It wasn't until I played with our bluegrass gospel group for a year that I started actually playing one.

[Jim MacDaniel]

It was a late night in the late 70's, and I was channel surfing after getting home from partying (please remember that in the 70's, channel surfing meant walking up to the TV and clicking through the channels manually ;), and stopped to watch some sort of a live concert show on PBS. It turned out to be the David Grisman Quintet on stage, and I was entranced by the music he coaxed out of that little instrument.

I was playing bass and keyboards in a garage band at the time, so I didn't end up getting an mandolin, but that night set the stage for me to fall in love with the instrument all over again a couple of decades later. (However, I did consider at the time buying a Fender mandocaster to play in the band, and regretably chose not to -- which would have only cost me a few hundred dollars brand new! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif )

[mandopete]

It was The Dawg!

[kww]

I wore the grooves off of "Homer and Jethro Live at the Country Club" when I was about eight years old.

[Jeff A]

About 3 years ago I had a business/golf trip scheduled for Orlando. One of the guys I went with had just bought a cheap Washburn A model and he suggested I bring my Taylor travel guitar to fool with at night. I had never played a mandolin before but that first night I tried to pick some melody on it. I had been a guitar guy for 35 years, never took it to seriously. That night a lightbulb went off. My buddy lost interest quickly and I asked him if I could borrow the Washburn for a while. I was hooked. I started to learn to play and ordered a Weber Yellowstone.

Later that year I went to an Atlanta Mandolin Orchestra concert- Mike Marshall and Edgar Myer were featured. Great concert but even better, Will Kimble had a display set up and I was blown away. I signed up for the first Symposium, met Arthur Stern who brought an incredible Kimble to sell. I bought it and sold my Yellowstone to a fellow at the Symposium the next day. I have been sucked in ever since. I have added #Neil Dean and Stanley F5's and an A9 to the stable and love them all. I have probably had more time playing the mando in the past 3 years then playing the guitar in the past 35 years. #These days its about 98% mando 2% guitar.

The process of learning to play and learning about mandolins has been a very important and fulfilling part of my life these past 3 years. It got me excited about music again!

[Sam price]

The first time I hear a mandolin it was at a mate's house many many years ago...then the band REM became mainstream...

I loved the tone and fourteen years later I decided to take it up.

[JeffD]

Wow, this is great stuff.

My story is kind of different. I did not grow up hearing the mandolin - in fact never to my knowledge heard one until I first plucked a string.

I was back in high school, in the high school band, in the middle 70s. I played clarinet in the marching band and bassoon in the concert band. A friend in the band also played the violin. One time we were at his house after school and he handed me a bowl back mandolin, and told me "its easy, just put your fingers here and here, and do this and that". Well it wasn't easy but it sure was fun.

So I tuned up one of my father's banjos in fifths, got out one of my old beginners clarinet book and started on page one.

A couple of weeks later my Dad bought me a cheapie A style f hole mandolin for
$80 from a tv repair shop that also sold musical instruments.

I loved playing that thing like no other instrument. I learned fiddle tunes and chords and tried to figure out movie show tunes, and various movie theme music off soundtrack albums (LPs remember). I put quarters on the records to slow them down. As it also changed the pitch I had to slow them down a fifth so the fingering would match. I remember this one record I had to put $2.50 in quarters to get it down an octave and learn the tune. It was a greek bouzouki tune as I remember.

It wasn't until a year or so later that I ever heard anyone "fameous" play a mandolin, or ever went to a concert or heard a mandolin on a recording.

In fact for many many years I enjoyed playing it more than hearing mandolin on recordings. I listened mostly to fiddle tunes and old country music, and singer-songwriter guitar and vocals folk music. Its only been the last 10 years or so that I really got "in" to listening to recorded mandolin music.

[Soupy1957]

Funny, but I can't remember the first time I considered the Mandolin as an alternate instrument. I know it was only about 5 months ago, but I'd heard them all along and liked the off-beat chop and lead.
I remember the first time I went into my local guitar shop and intentially asked to see the KM620B hanging on the wall. I remember asking the guy to hold it for me long enough to go see the wife (who was browsing in the nearby Christmas Tree Shop), and find out if there was any possibility that we had enough $$ in the account to purchase it.
I remember the big grin I had on my face when she said I could get it if I wished. I remember the guys in the Guitar Center coming over and being impressed that someone was actually buying something OTHER than a guitar.
I remember asking the salesman if he knew how to play it, so I could hear it sing, and he just fumbled through some basic Lead patterns, seemingly more or less unfamiliar with the instrument and somewhat disinterested.
Now if I could only get myself more disciplined with my practice!!!
-Soupy1957

[garyblanchard]

I'm another Deadhead who came to the mandolin through the Garcia/Grisman CD's. I have played guitar since 1966 and banjo on and off since about 1968. Several years ago, as I was looking for more material for my Old-Time/Good-Time music, I found the "Shady Grove" CD. That prompted me to buy a $50.00 Rogue mandolin to try out. I have no desire to become an accomplished player, but I love adding it to the mix. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Dan Cohen]

It was at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. #Itzhak Perlman was playing violin with a number of different Klezmer bands in show called the "Fiddlers House". #He and Andy Statman did Statman's "Flatbush Waltz". #I was floored. #

I was at Mandolin Brothers within days.

Anyone else at that show? #Far and away the best and most moving concert I have been to. #Well now that I think about it there have been others.

[Jack Roberts]

I've known that there was such a thing as a mandolin for years. Jethro Burns, Bill Monroe, Peter Ostroushko, and Ralph Rinzler were people I had heard of and knew about, and I watched one of the Los Lobos play a little Martin A on a street corner in LA before they got famous, but I never thought anything of it until I quit my job a few years back and wanted to find a way to get over the stress. I walked into a music shop and saw a plywood topped Samick A style mandolin hanging on the wall, and said "I can play that!" I've been proving myself wrong for four years now.

That Samick A is still sitting here, next to my desk at the business I started back then, and it has the TI strings I put on in about a year ago. I was just playing it, and it still sounds great. No stress any more.

Jack

[DryBones]

I really don't remember. I was trying to learn guitar and bought a backpacker and then started listening to some old-time and bluegrass and liked the sound of the mandolin so I started shopping. I just don't remember the first moment when I said I had to have one.

[gnelson651]

About #30 years ago, I had picked up the banjo when I was in the Navy while stationed in Washington DC. I had a roommate who played bluegrass guitar and he got me interested in playing banjo. I took lessons and got OK but not good. After I left the DC area, I lost interest in the banjo and played it only every so often.

Three years ago, the pastor of our church started a string band. My daughter plays violin, so I would take her to practice every week. I would watch them practice and #decided to dust off the banjo and give it try. However, the pastor played banjo too and it soon became evident to me that two banjos were two too many. So I decided to learn to play the mandolin.

Our pastor has since left the church and the string band plays every once in a while. But I'm having so much fun playing this little instrument. I go to a biweekly fiddle jam and also to a bluegrass jam about once a month. My goal is to play in a band someday.

[JeffD]

He and Andy Statman did Statman's "Flatbush Waltz". #I was floored. #

I was playing mandolin for a while before I first heard of Andy Statman. That tune "Flatbush Waltz" is awesome, just one of the most beautiful tunes I have ever heard.

If I had not yet played mandolin I would certainly start after hearing that.

[Rick Schmidlin]

I bought a copy of MULESKINER from David Bromberg in Hondsdale PA in 1972 or 73. I heard the Dawg and Clarence and said I wanted to play guitar and mandolin.

Many years passed and now I do.

[Uncle Choppy]

Another Jethro influence here but of the "Tull" variety!

I was a big Tull/Ian Anderson fan in my younger days and always loved their use of the instrument.

The real "got to have a go at that" moment came with the (relatively late) Martin Allcock line-up. He and Dave Pegg used to play few mid-set tunes including "Drowsy Maggie". That was the moment I vowed to buy a mandolin and learn to play that tune.

Note: Although I can play Drowsy Maggie, I hate doing so! It's something to do with the first E and B notes being on the same fret (2nd) on adjacent strings. It just feels uncomfortable!

[Soupy1957]

Uncle Choppy: back in the day....lol....when in college and listening to Jethro Tull, I recall that Ians' flute was the unique aspect to that band, and didn't know there was a mandolin in the mix. Really? I'll have to check that out!
-Soupy1957
P.S. That's about as unique as finding a short video clip on YouTube just recently, in which Johnny Cash was playing a Mandolin.

[Jefa432]

I was at the IBMA in LOUISVILLE KY, and saw Ricky Skaggs. I had always thought Bluegrass was "OK" but didn't care one way or the other about it. I even grew up in Oakland Ky next door to Curtis Burch when him and Sam Bush and others were starting NGR and still preferred listening to Led Zepplin instead. When Ricky played "Get Up John" it was something I can't describe. Kinda like when Joliet Jake(Blues Brothers)is in church and the light hits him and he starts yelling "I see the light!! I see the light!!" I honestly got cold chills. Told my wife I had to try to play the mandolin. I had played the trumpet and piano about 20 years off and on but hadn't played anything for about the last 10. Rented a mando for 3 months bought an Aria then moved up to a Sumi and have never looked back. This is the most rewarding, frustrating thing I have ever tried(besides marriage)and I have loved every second of it. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[farmerjones]

my first fiddle lesson was in a music shop after hours. My instructor grabbed a manlin off the rack, played a lick and said,"You just as well get a manlin too." I didn't get one that night but it wasn't much later. I got a guitar and manlin for 99 bux at musician's friend for a lender/borrower. i'll call it a "playable" manlin. For the money i didn't expect much. For what the builder probably made on that, it's amazing. Yes, i've stepped up since, but J74s and a good operator, a fifty dollar manlin could make a million. Why not?

[Gotterdamerung]

The first time I saw her, I fell in love. She was gorgeous: dark skinned, curvaceous, with a sexy voice. Having seen her several times in a music store, I tried to get the nerve up to introduce myself. When I finally did, I was tongue-tied, but I managed to take her home. After staring at her for a while, I made a move, putting a favorite tune on, "Ripple," by the Greatful Dead. My hands lost dexterity, and I said, "sorry, but it's my first time."

Now, happily married, I try to stay faithful, but with so many beautiful options, it is difficult not to stray.

[halfamind]

1979, in some long-gone music shop in Virginia Beach. My country/bluegrass upbringing and Zeppelin fandom inspired me to pick it up, and I fell in love. Unfortunately, I was young and broke and the MAS faded back to BAS. Ten years later, my band's guitarist brought one in, and he played it on many of our songs for years, and I really loved that... but he's a lefty and I could do nothing with it... (his vintage lefty bass collection makes me weep... so many beauties that I can't play!)

Two years ago, we reformed, and by this time he'd given up the mando. My heart broken, I eventually started looking for one. Just under a year ago I scored a Rover RM-75 off of ebay... it and my Draleon have been surgically attached ever since, and I've taken his place... great thing having two bassists in the band!

[mandobando]

Saw a show with Sam Bush, Russ Barenburg, Dave Talbott, Byron House, and Rob Ickes at the Station Inn. Sam stold the show. I had to have mandolin after that and went out and bought a cheap Alvarez. Needless to say I couldn't quite get that "hoss" sound out of it....

[Tom C]

Just got into the Dead. My first Dead Album was Shakedown St. I was disappointed. When I went out to buy another I saw Old &In The Way and ended up buying that one. Shortly after, I got a DGQ recording from Great American Music Hall and loved it. It still took me another 20 years to pick up a mando.

[Mandomax]

I played guitar all my life. Then a couple of days before my 28th birthday, I had the most vivid dream that I was watching my hands on the fretboard of a mandolin and I could play more fluently than I had ever been able to on guitar. I had a couple hundred bucks of birthday money, so I went and bought a cheap Kentucky. Best decision I ever made. Music is so much more fun now- no more of the gunslinger guitar stuff. I have played more gigs than I ever did with guitar, met tons of cool people, won a few contests, and bought more mandolins (Gibson and Neil Dean F-5s). Glad I pay attention to my dreams.

[Jason Kessler]

1971? "Maggie May." Black, hand-held Panasonic transistor radio. Summer camp beach.

[SternART]

Dan Cohen writes: << It was at Radio City Music Hall in NYC. Itzhak Perlman was playing violin with a number of different Klezmer bands in show called the "Fiddlers House". He and Andy Statman did Statman's "Flatbush Waltz". I was floored. Anyone else at that show?>>

Hey Dan.....I wasn't at the show but do you know there is an Itzhak Perlman CD recorded in 1995, on Angel Records, titled In The Fiddlers House?
They must have played the gig around that time.....the CD includes Flatbush Waltz with the Andy Statman Klezmer Orchestra. I watch whatever Andy is up to, BTW my artwork appears on the cover of Mandolin Abstractions, the totally improvised Statman/GGrisman CD.

[JEStanek]

40th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2000 standing right behind Chris Thile with Matt Glazer in an after fest late night jam.

Jamie

[Mattg]

The Dawg produced the first mandolin music that I purchased based on a recommendation from a friend. I didn't really think about playing one until I built a flattop at Rocky Grass Academy. I built one cause I build guitars and this seemed like a great vacation. When I got 'er strung up, I asked one of my class mates to teach me 1,4,5 chords. That was 2 years and 4 more mandos later. Never put it down.

[mandomadman]

I played hard rock electric guitar for years in bands on both coasts, never really payed any attention to no mandolin thing. Bout 6 years ago one night in Santa Rosa California my buddy asked me if I wanted to go see a bluegrass band in Petaluma at the Mystic theater. I had nothing going on so I said ok thinking in a very closed minded way that we were going to see a bunch of cowboy hat wearing yahoos. The band was the Yonder Mountain String Band with David Grisman appearing to play a bunch of tunes with them. I had a blast, my jaw was dropped the whole time, I could not believe the musical prowness pooring off the stage, it just blew me away and changed my life and views of music forever. I ran out the next day and bought my first mando and have not looked back since. Just wish there was a warning label on that first mando that said " WARNING may cause MAS"http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Mandodoc]

My Dad passed away May 18th 1996. He had inherited a 1924 Regal Roundback from when my Grandmother had passed away. Since I had played guitar since I was little I got the round back. I figured since I had it I would try to figure it out, I put new strings on it and tuned it up, tried a few chords from a book Dad had also had. I was hooked, loved the sound of it. The round back had kind of a twist and bow to the neck which made it sort of hard to play though. So my lovely bride said I could get a different mandolin if I got rid of something in my stable. So, I took a Martin 000-NY to Artichoke Music in Portland and traded it for a Weber Aspen 2. Now I have many more mandolins, I still have guitars too but as someone else said, I play mandolin probably 98% of the time. What a wonderful addiction. I just wish I had half as much skill as desire.