What else do you play?

[eeaaddgg]

A little mandolin demographic survey, just for fun. What are your secondary (or maybe primary) musical instruments? Is the mandolin the first instrument you played seriously? And how does your approach to your other instrument affect (or is affected by) your mandolin playing? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

[gnelson651]

My primary instrument is the mandolin. But I started about 30 years ago playing the banjo. I haven't played the banjo since the three years I've been playing the mandolin.

But lately, I've been thinking about going back to the banjo to learn how to frail. Prior to that, I did the standard three finger (Scraggs-style) picking. Now that I'm into Old Time, frailing would make more sense on the banjo.

[mingusb1]

Upright bass
Mandolin
Singing
Fender bass

Z

[mandopete]

Cowbell.

[Peter Hackman]

1) Guitar, since 1958
2) tried the chromonica in 58-59 but never learned to breathe right
(i.e., not breathe at all)
3) tried a bit of the fivestring in 1964, luckily gave it up
4) mando on and off, with long periods of silence, since
1966. Last period started in 2004, the next to last was form 96 to 97.


Given my age, the next instrument I'll learn will be a harp.

[allenhopkins]

Besides the mandolin family -- mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello -- I attempt, with varying degrees of expertise, most stringed instruments that don't have bows or hammers: guitar (six and twelve string), National slide guitar, Dobro, five-string and tenor banjo, ukulele, tiple, Weissenborn-style Hawaiian guitar, Autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer, bass fiddle. In the "reeds" classification, ten-hole diatonic harmonica and English system concertina, treble and baritone types. And some oddities: bowed psaltery, kalimba, Jew's harp, and a scattering of hand percussion instruments.

My music is based on a general "folk" background. Don't play much bluegrass nowadays, other than participating in jams, but have a group that does Celtic instrumental music, another that does Jewish music, plus working with musicians who do 19th-century popular vocal and instrumental music at the Genesee Country Village restoration. I have around 75 instruments in my arsenal right now, and have adopted a fairly strict "get one, lose one" policy to try to stem the tide of acquisition.

Mandolin, and other members of the mandolin family, have influenced much of my playing on melody instruments (not so much the chordal accompanying instruments). I now am sensitive to harmony and counter-melody possibilities, and to the advantages of being able to alternate melody and rhythm roles in an ensemble. I'll never be fast enough or clean enough to play real first-class bluegrass, but I love working the mandolin into different types of music, playing behind singers, and holding up my end in an ensemble of accomplished musicians.

[first string]

Didn't we just do this? Ah well, it's always a fun thread. I played guitar for years, and was terrible at it. I think because I wanted to play finger style, but wasn't so hot at it. Plus the tuning made no earthly sense. I always wanted to take up mandolin, and when I finally did I knew for sure that it would always be my primary instrument from then on out. I have added the tenor guitar to my repertoire (yeah, I tune it GDAE so it's pretty much the same thing, only a bigger stretch and I use a thinner pick). Since I got my tenor I haven't touched my six string. The tenor is really the ideal guitar for flattpicking in my opinion. I can't for the life of me understand why it isn't more popular. I guess because it doesn't do as well for big boomy strumming.

[first string]

Oops, double posted that.

[Scotti Adams]

..guitar...plus I can play the radio, cd player etc. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[JimRichter]

5 String banjo:

Here are a couple of samplings:

Brown County Breakdown (http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/bho-player.asp?isjukebox=no&musicID=2306)

Temperance Reel (http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/bho-player.asp?isjukebox=no&musicID=1725)

Electric Guitar:

Couple more samplings:

Politician (http://richterdigitalarts.net/Audio/Politician.mp3)

Chicken Shack Boogie (http://richterdigitalarts.net/Audio/Chicken%20Shack%20Boogie.mp3)

Jim

[mandopete]

BTW Jim - I really dug the blues mandolin stuff on utoob!

[Dave Schimming]

Mando, acoustic guitar, banjo, cheap purple uke, Strat, P-bass.

[Eric F.]

The tenor is really the ideal guitar for flattpicking in my opinion. I can't for the life of me understand why it isn't more popular. I guess because it doesn't do as well for big boomy strumming.

That's interesting. My tenor guitar sounds rich and full when I'm strumming chords but thin and weak when flatpicking a melody. Go figure.

[Ken Sager]

Well, my tenor booms all day long. I love it. I agree that it works great for flatpicking, and complements a 6-string pretty well. Everything I learned (technique-wise) on guitar has been easily transferred to mandolin. Not so the other way.

So, when not playing mandolin I play guitar, tenor guitar, tenor banjo, dobro, upright bass, mountain dulcimer, fiddle (under duress). I've played something (mostly guitar) for 33 of my 40 years. Here's to 33 of 40 more!

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

Love to all,
Ken

[rmcintos]

Jazz triangle.

[James P]

Mostly playing the mando these days, but I still love my guitars. #Between practicing, two trio rehersals and an almost every weekly jam, I log about 14 hours of playing a week. #(Damn, I should be better!) #At least three of those hours are on one guitar or another. #

I boogie-woogie on my Wurlitzer 200A at least once a week. #The Korg and softsynths probably see more action. #Last time I broke out the trombone I just about split my lip!

Style-wise I'm all over the map. #I could be alot better if I focused, but music is just one of my hobbies. #I find that varying styles and changing between intruments keeps it fun.

[sgarrity]

Just mandolin and guitar right now. But my next purchase is gonna be an Irish Tenor Banjo. Picked on one a few weeks ago and had a great time with it.

[first string]

Well, my tenor booms all day long. I love it. I agree that it works great for flatpicking, and complements a 6-string pretty well.
Maybe I just need a heavier guage for the G course...I went pretty conservative (being that my Martin doesn't have a truss rod), and it is a little floppy. The other strings you can be fairly agressive with, but not so the G...which of course means I can't strum very hard. That said, it has tremendous volume considering the light attack I use.

[Seafood]

Guitar
Spoons
Jews Harp, (sue me)
Banjar
the wife

[fwoompf]

Clawhammer Banjo
Flatpick/Fingerpick'd Guitar

And thinking about getting into electric bass and maybe some kind of dulcimer.

[John Flynn]

I played guitar for 20 years before mando, but mando became my primary within a year of starting to play it. I think taking up the mando gave me the confidence to take up other instruments later: harmonica, bodhran and mountain dulcimer. They all feed off each other. The double-stops, cross-picking and tremolo possibilities on the mando have definitely creeped into my guitar playing. Bass runs and bluesy licks from the guitar show up in my mando playing. Rhythm transfers both to and from the bodhran with the other instruments. Harmonica gives me ideas about what can be done with sustain. There is probably a lot more cross-over, but that is what comes to mind.

[Santiago]

Guitar, Violin, (and cowbell on request).

[thechiseler]

Started with the Guitar and failed dismally.
Picked up the banjo and succeeded relatively with both 3 finger and frailing.
Picked up the mandolin 6 months ago and am learning fast.
I am finding the mandolin is helping me with both the guitar and the banjo.
Mandolin is always the first choice to play at this point.

[Kero]

5 String banjo:

Here are a couple of samplings:

Brown County Breakdown (http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/bho-player.asp?isjukebox=no&musicID=2306)

Temperance Reel (http://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/media-player/bho-player.asp?isjukebox=no&musicID=1725)

Electric Guitar:

Couple more samplings:

Politician (http://richterdigitalarts.net/Audio/Politician.mp3)

Chicken Shack Boogie (http://richterdigitalarts.net/Audio/Chicken%20Shack%20Boogie.mp3)

Jim
Your gibson sings, real nice tone :-)

[pjlama]

Bass Guitar
Double bass
Guitar
Drums
I've played bass for 25 years, started gigging in bars at 15 so my performance experience is long and strong. Most recently before switching to mando I played double bass in straight ahead jazz pick-up or on call gigs. Pretty much the last several years were spent as a for hire as long as the money was good and the distance driveable. I was very lucky to play many different styles with lots of really good players but I had some kids and opened a business a few years ago and had to stop playing five nights a week.Playing bass alone is not so fun so hence the mando purchase/addiction. All this experience has made playing mando really fun. I can call upon my knowledge of theory plus my hand strength and dexterity from playing bass is a big help. So I guess I play mando like a bass player but I want to start gigging on mando, I'm working on my wife to let me back out there. But playing bass was very helpful as a set-up for mando.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Getting back into rock n' roll! My wife just ordered a new Fender Eric Johnson signature model Strat as a birthday present! It has been decades since I had a decent electric guitar, and I'm looking forward to rocking out a bit. (My wife is also looking forward to having rock n' roll back in the house.

What else I play:
6 string dreadnought
6 string 000-12
12 string dreadnought
flat top mandola
electric solid-body mandola (converted Mandobird)
octave mandolin (when one is handy)

And playing mandolin has improved my guitar playing a great deal.

Daniel

[jasona]

A little mandolin demographic survey, just for fun. What are your secondary (or maybe primary) musical instruments? Is the mandolin the first instrument you played seriously? And how does your approach to your other instrument affect (or is affected by) your mandolin playing? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif
Mandolin. I learned a little trumpet in elementary school, but mandolin is it for me.

Yes.

Not applicable.

[Keith Erickson]

Well I started on the guitar, but for the most part, my 6 string resonator and 12 string guild are pretty much collecting dust since taking up the mandolin 3 years ago.

However now that I play the mandolin as my main axe...
...when the mandolin is cooling down, I play the mountain dulcimer for fun.

[Bill Van Liere]

I started out singing in choir, then began guitar, then mandolin, fiddle for a while until I met my friend Bob Saddler, then octave mandolin. Today I mostly play mandolin, but usually perform with octave mandolin and guitar. Good thing I never sold my guitar, or any of my mandolins for that matter.

Man, I almost forgot that I played snare drum in junior high. Then played my friends drum sets because I did not have one.

[bradeinhorn]

good question - especially today with my sullivan in the shop, my snakehead on loan and my trip out of town cancelled due to this nor'easter. i could pick up one of the martins but i think i'd rather just kill some time here...

[devilstone_the_bard]

Bass Guitar (electric, acoustic and fretless)

Ukulele

WoW and DDO

[MandoSquirrel]

Started with guitar at 13&1/2, 39 years ago, but didn't progress much, tyook up diatonic harmonica sometime before age 16, did much better with that, around 21 got serious with flatpick guitar & took up mandolin, which became my favorite. Took first year piano twice as a kid, at least I learned to read notation slowly, & pick things out one finger at a time. Joined church choir in my latter 30's, really sharpened my singing & sightreading. Oh yeah, I tried trumpet in elementary school, but the instructor told my folks I wasn't cut out for music.

I think all help each other in some way, & of course some of the guitar & mandolin techniques are interchangeable or at least similar.

[tango_grass]

Electric/acoustic guitar
mando
banjo
electric bass
drums

[JeffD]

Does mandola count as a separate instrument?

My third is the fiddle, for which I have been taking lessons.

[catmandu2]

I play and perform on all of the following and sing concurrently with all as well (except sax--doh!). I'm not particularly fluent on sax anymore, although I once was as it was my first instrument. On the HD I just play jigs, reels and transcribed arrangements of O'Carolan harp tunes. I get all kinds of unusal gigs -- today I'm playng a dance on snare drum and mando. Last week it was bass and concertina.

Guitars (six-, twelve-, resonator, nylon-string)
Banjos (tenor, 5-string, a little plectrum)
Mandolin (mandola, octave mandolin)
Fiddle
Basses (prefer fretless and upright)
Anglo concertina (a little English and a little button and piano accordian)
Ukuleles (trad acoustic, resonator and e-uke)
Drums and various percussion
The ubiquitous harmonica
A bit of piano

Hammered dulcimer
Alto saxophone/flute

[harleymando]

Bottleneck dobro, delta blues! I have a duolian by gibson,and a little lap style dobro, but i love the mando!

[epicentre]

Mandolin: still in the steep learning curve.
Irish tenor banjo: ditto
Guitar and tenor guitar
Fiddle: just started, don't believe it's for me. Can play one hour on the mandolin and learn something. One hour on the fiddle and still sound like a scalded cat.
Mountain dulcimer.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

[Strange1]

Started with Mandolin then guitar (rhythm), then doghouse bass (a little) then elec bass (my main inst for yrs in clubs and on road) then fiddle (only at home) then banjo( who am I kidding? I am still trying to play that doggone thing) and then harmonica (at stop lights and traffic jams).
During those years I also played with the kids, then the grandkids, then the greatgrandkids, hope to make it to the greatgreatgrandkids someday.

Jack

[Mark Walker]

Took guitar lessons when I was like 10; the instructor told my folks my hands were too small (they're still tiny) and I'd never be able to play.
I only played the radio until a freshman in high school, then taught MYSELF the guitar (all by ear) and learned to finger-pick the guitar in the Jim Croce, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot style - all by playing LP vinyl records over and over and over.
Picked up the banjo after high school; the finger-picking I'd done on guitar worked great once I learned the drop-thumb (Scruggs) roll!
Picked up the mandoin 'seriously' after getting my first Silver Angel in 2004, though I'd bought a beater mandolin sometime in the mid-90's and diddled with it on and off.
My dad gave me an 1890's Sears & Roebuck fiddle which Ken Ratcliff's dad (Luke 'Buddy' Ratcliff) re-graduated the top on and also refinished it. I started messing with that a few years ago, and can usually incite howling riots among the canines in the neighborhood when I play that on the back deck. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[cgwilsonjr]

Mostly play guitar and mandolin but I do own and play a couple of killer vintage Martin ukes just for fun. Chuck

cello was my first insturment, wich years later led me to the mandolin
guitar
bass
banjo
oud
and sometimes y.

[Richard Russell]

Harmonica - primary instrument. I've got around 11 years learning harmonica and just over 4 years w/ mandolin. I find the two to be similar in what they can do in many settings. Harmonica and mandolin both are tuned higher than other instruments and can be assigned similar roles for melody and even rhythm duties. The harp "chops" pretty well for bluegrass and with some heavy breathing, can keep up with some other loud instruments effectively. I find playing mandolin much more relaxing, however.

[catmandu2]

John,

Nice treatment of My Favorite Things. And being a Monk fan, I enjoyed Blue Monk.

How much do you work with the oud? I've been wanting to get an oud--I noodle around on the saz presently.

[PCypert]

Started on Saxaphone as a child.

Tried playing electric guitar for chicks in high school.

Played acoustic guitar for chicks in college.

Picked up the mandolin after college.

Now getting into Zouk (still mando related).

Also getting into Weissenborns...so will be playing that when I put down the mandolin these days.

Paul

[RichieK]

Clarence White style B-Bending Tele's.

[Fred_Murtz]

guitar, piano, fiddle, lap steel, charango.

[Jack Roberts]

In order of self-assessed ability, from best to worst: mandolin, mandola, guitar, and fiddle.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Banjo is probably my 'main' instrument still as i've been playing for over 40 years,but the Mandolin is coming up a close second after 18 months of playing.I've also played Guitar for 12 years or so,both acoustic & electric.

[staggarlee]

I started out playing guitar in a garage band. I always had an ear for the banjo in bluegrass music so I took that up about 15 years ago. I got halfway decent on it and discovered that I could actually pick up the mandolin pretty quick about 2 years ago. Now, I can't put the mando down. It's become an addiction!

[Jerry Byers]

I started with a guitar about 30 years ago; it was mostly about chords. Then I played trumpet and flute in school and learned how to read music. I also tinkered with piano - still tinker with the piano if I get bored. I bought a used sax in college and played that for about 4 years. It was a great instrument to learn improvisation. Besides playing the piano sparingly, I didn't play anything for the last 10 years.

I picked up the mandolin in 2005 and haven't put it down since. It has everything that I want. Sometimes, it seems so simply, and then when you think about it, it just blows me away with the complexity of it. I have been toying with the idea of picking up a fiddle as a compliment. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[farmerjones]

i'd prefer to be refered to aza fiddler player.
i play mandolin and banjo if required.
Doesn't everybody play guitar? <tease>

[bgjunkie]

Mandolin, acoustic guitar, mando-banjo (what a fun old-timey sound), learning fiddle, a little bass.

As for what the different instruments have leant to my playing: mandolin has helped my right hand for my guitar playing, mandolin has just opened up a new part of my musical life, fiddle has helped focus on learning the notes I play on mandolin, rather than just fret/string (tab).

I just wish I had more time and money to explore other instruments (octave mando for starts)

[mandolooter]

When without a mandolin Im usually found on one of my tenor guitars or my mandola/octave. I also have a huge collection of percussion instruments that I have been playing and collecting for years. I found a accordion at a garage sale for $5.00 that's fun to play around on too. I can play a barely recognizable version of St Annes Reel on it so far.

[gr_store_feet]

mandolin, harmonica, autoharp, bass.

[Chip Booth]

Acoustic and electric guitar, tenor guitar, OM, mandola (when I can borrow one), 5 string banjo, upright and electric bass, I have a lot of percussion toys and a lot of keyboard gear, though I am really bad on keys. #

But usually I just grab a different mandolin http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Chip

[R_Parent]

Started playing drums at age 12, pedal steel at 14 and the mandolin about 40. The pedal steel is my main instrument followed by mandolin, mandola, and dobro.

Robert