Who plays clarinet and mandolin?

[mandolinlee]

I have been noticing a common thread among the threads. So I have to ask the question (s).
How many and who plays both clarinet and mandolin?
Which did you play first?
To get it started - I had piano lessons as a youngster; 7 clarinet lessons the summer between 8th. grade and High School; taught myself to play fiddle, ukelele, tenor saxophone, then got my first mandolin. Still fiddle a little, but all the rest fell by the wayside except the MANDOLIN!

[John Kasley]

John Jorgenson's main gig is playing gypsy jazz guitar, but he also plays bluegrass mandolin and traditional New Orleans style jazz on clarinet. At last concert of his in Ashland, VA he played one of his own compositions on Greek bozoukee

[ab4usa]

I played Clarinet in Elementry School and Middle School. Then nothing for about 30+ years before taking up mandolin.

[PhilGE]

Jeff Midkiff (http://www.jeffmidkiff.com/bio.html) is both.

[Mike Bunting]

The great Andy Statman.

[mandopete]

Okay, I'm staying outta this one.

:)

[Austin Koerner]

I always have dreams about the clarinet. I really would love to start playing but I'm focusing on the mandolin. Sorry for the meaningless post, but I really can't get that instrument out of my head...

[jim simpson]

Greg Dearth from Franklin, Ohio plays clarinet and mandolin (and fiddle, guitar, tenor guitar, and probably more that I don't know of). He is also a fine artist/painter. Greg was a fiddle player with the Hutchison Brothers and also The Hotmud Family. He currently plays with Peach's Little Band.
Greg was also the composer of Empty Pocket Blues from Hot Rize 1st album.

[Bill Snyder]

Okay, I'm staying outta this one.

:)

Aw, come on Pete. Austin needs your guidance. Its your chance for an intervention before any one gets hurt. :)

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=35015&d=1221888871

[catmandu2]

What about that dawg?

...from this angle, I can't see the hiney-legs, and I spose it could be a seal.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Clarinet in 8th grade. Music teacher told me I was too small to handle a sax. I thought he was full of ___. He had a ton of sax players and nobody wanted to play clarinet except a few girls and me. I laid off it from the following year to 5 years ago when I sprung for a Yamaha Custom SE. This thread just motivated me to play a brief rendition of "Someone to Watch Over Me" on it. Thanks.

[Ravenwood]

Started with a recorder in grade 1 (kindergarten), then saxophone at about age 7. My grandfather taught me to play. In grade 5 the clarinet, then guitar at about age 12. I started playing the harmonica while I was in the military. I took an interest in Irish trad about ten years ago so picked up the fiddle and whistle (of which I now have a massive collection). About a year ago my wife bought one of those $50 Rogues for me as a joke. Silly her! :mandosmiley:

I haven't played the clarinet much in recent years, but every so often I pick it up and spend a little time just to stay current.

[mandopete]

My eyes, my eyes- they burn!

[Pete Martin]

Me...

[Spruce]

I thought you quit the mandolin when your scroll fell off??

[mandopete]

The scroll fell off his clarinet?

[Phillip Tigue]

Clarinet has a scroll?

Wait...what now?

[Tom Sanderson]

I played Clarinet in school band from 6th grade to 10th. I wanted to play sax, but my folks couldn't afford one so they convinced me that Clarinet had the same fingerings, so it would be easy to switch later. I took up mandolin in 1975, when I was 22.

[kestrel]

When I was about seven (a really long time ago), I wanted to play in the town band. (Back in those days, every town had a band.). I wanted to play trumpet, because it made a lot of noise, but the only instrument they had left, was an E-flat clarinet. They convinced my parents that it was "just the right size" for someone my age, and they made me start taking lessons. I hated that shrill, squealing, little thing! I think that a seven-year-old, learning to play the E-flat clarinet is where the phrase "poking a pig in the eye with a sharp stick" came from. But, I guess, somehow, it got me started off in the right direction. I finally got my trumpet, when I was a freshman in high school, and - thanks to the "little" clarinet, I went on through regular (B-flat) clarinet, tenor and alto sax, and a plethora of other woodwind and brass instruments, and after a hiatus of nearly fifty-years, I picked up my first mandolin. Wish I still had that little clarinet. It seems that it would be a great companion for my little mandolins.

Funny how roads seem to wind. One little instrument, to another little instrument - in only sixty-years. I guess I'd have to thank my mom and dad - and the fact that the Stewartstown Boys and Girls Band only had an E-flat clarinet - for my love affair with the greatest little instrument in the world.

Oh, yeah, by the way, a few years ago, I had occasion to pick up a clarinet, and I could still play the first solo (Abide With Me) that I had played in Church, some sixty-or-so-years before. I guess finger memory never goes away. Hey. thanks for starting the thread. It became a real blast from the past, for me.

Gene

[mandopete]

Excellent story Gene - it kinda reminds of the story of how Bill Monroe was driven to the mandolin by his brothers as that was the only instrument that was left.

[Philphool]

Piano - age 7, hated it :(
Clarinet - age 12 , pretty much fun :)
Guitar - (Beatles, you know) age 14, Real fun
Banjo - age 32 , a challenge :(
Back to Guitar :cool:

Mandolin - age 56 , BEST THING IN THE WORLD! :mandosmiley:

[JeffD]

My first instrument was the clarinet as well, and then on to the bassoon, and then the mandolin. The result is that I started out very melody-centric (as opposed to chord-centric) in my playing.

I think it makes a huge difference. An extreme melody-centric player envisions a tune as a long string of notes, and often can fail to hear the chords and chord fragments he is playing through.

An extreme chord-centric sees "playing the tune" as throwing any bunch of notes in there that work with the chord being played.

Both extremes are obviously limiting.

I don't think I would want to go back to an instrument that can only play one note at a time.

[Ted Eschliman]

Clarinet for me in 4th & 5th grade, but I forsook reed moistening for slide greasing in Middle School and majored in trombone through college and grad school. I picked up the guitar about the same time, but gave that up for the mandolin 11 years ago.

Haven't looked back since. It took me 40 years to discover the mandolin was my true voice.