View Full Version : Mandolin Nightmares -- do you have them?
In the light of day, this is rather amusing to me. No kidding -- I had this nightmare last night. I wondered if anyone else had them, and thought it might be fun to share them, or talk about them...or maybe not. :sleepy:
Anyway, I was performing "Sailor's Hornpipe" for Prof. Wilden-Hüsgen (a Germany Mandolin instructor). Right away you'd know this is a nightmare, because I can't imagine Prof. Wilden-Hüsgen thinking that Sailor's Hornpipe was an appropriate selection for a classical mandolin competition.
Half-way through she stopped me, because my timing was wrong. There I was standing on stage, horrified that my timing was wrong...and frantically started to look through my case for my metronome, and it wasn't there, of course. I had no idea what the correct timing was, but it was wrong. That's when I woke up, so I don't know if I ever got Sailor's Hornpipe right.
There isn't a chance in the world that I'd ever enter the European Mandolin Competition, and I've never met Prof. Wilden-Hüsgen. But, there you have it. Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind...I guess I should work more on my timing. :disbelief:
Mike Bromley
Apr-18-2009, 2:12pm
In keeping with the nightmare, I'd have been really freaked if, while looking for the metronome under Frau Professor's imperious gaze, I then discovered I was playing a mandolin banjo....or worse...
Yeah, but was Frau Professor hot?
Just kidding...shouldn't have gone there...
Dreams come from a weird, weird place in our brains, I'm convinced...I've had some real winners lately, but none with mando content (or any other reasonable content, but just bizarre)...
man dough nollij
Apr-18-2009, 9:23pm
I had a dream the other night that I could actually play...
It was awesome-- I could think of any lick in my head, and it came right out of my fingers.
Maybe someday that one will come true...:confused:
Yes...I had one the other night where I was carrying my beloved mandolin through a bad neighborhood, in its case. I was confronted by some young thugs, and they were asking about it in a threatening way. When I got to where I was going, I opened the case and they'd somehow taken mine and put in one made of 2x4s and plywood! And of course I couldn't play it.
I suppose that it's no surprise that I was having a lot of trouble with the song I was working on that day, and was concerned about going to my lesson the next day and playing badly.
Ivan Kelsall
Apr-18-2009, 11:37pm
I don't, but folk listening have a real bad time of it !!. As for Lee's experience,obviously a premonition of 'things to come' - he's gonna be another Chris Thile, ;)
Saska~:>
Bertram Henze
Apr-19-2009, 10:38am
I had a dream the other night that I could actually play...
It was awesome-- I could think of any lick in my head, and it came right out of my fingers.
Maybe someday that one will come true...:confused:
There is actually a scientific word for that. Google for "lucid dream". You can do everything you want in a lucid dream. On very rare occasions, I have those myself.
Bertram
Bertram Henze
Apr-19-2009, 10:48am
My recurring nightmare is I have to step in for some band member for an important gig. I might know one or two of the band, but never played any of the songs they do and never played with the band before. They have lots of stringed instruments, but none of them is tuned in fifths, my own instrument is missing. I cannot play but cannot quit either. The audience is waiting...
Bertram
journeybear
Apr-19-2009, 1:16pm
I had a dream the other night that I could actually play...
It was awesome-- I could think of any lick in my head, and it came right out of my fingers.
Maybe someday that one will come true...:confused:
There is actually a scientific word for that. Google for "lucid dream". You can do everything you want in a lucid dream.
There is also an unscientific word for that: JOKE!!! :)) :)) :))
I had a dream a long time ago in which I was playing mandolin while taking a bath and somehow slipped under the water with it and ... and ......... I am so glad I woke up!
I've been in a few weird situations in real life that were so strange, nearly surreal, that they felt like nightmares - that helpless feeling you get in a bad dream sometimes, where you can see awful occurrences unfolding but you are unable to stop or alter them - and were actually worse than nightmares, because not only were they stranger than any dream with a mandolin in it, they actually happened. Sometimes you really do have to pinch yourself to make sure you're awake. Oh no, now I'm replying these in my mind ... :disbelief:
Hmm, taking a bath with your mandolin seems very Freudian. Does your mandolin have a name?
journeybear
Apr-20-2009, 9:16pm
Hmm, taking a bath with your mandolin seems very Freudian. Does your mandolin have a name?
Um, well, the one I had back then was named Amanda Lynn, Mandy Lynn for short. :grin:
We had a good relationship. She was always there when I needed her, always put a smile on my face, was always true to me, and she would still be wih me today if someone hadn't stolen her away from me. :crying:
man dough nollij
Apr-21-2009, 2:03am
As a matter of fact, I had a mandolin nightmare last night. I was in some sort of swimming pool room, with astroturf all around the outside. Some woman was spraying down the astroturf and fake plants around the pool. I was walking around playing some kind of pancake mandolin (Mid-Mo?). The woman totally drenched me with icy water, which soaked the top of my pancake. The top immediately split, and curled up like a potato chip. I was screaming at her in outrage when I accidentally fell into the deep end of the pool, with the peeling mando.
I grabbed a chunk of the top that had popped off, and struggled to the surface. I remember being so mad at her that she had hosed me down with ice...
Hmm. And I only have six more months to go down here...
Eddie Sheehy
Apr-21-2009, 2:05am
Nope!
But I do dream of owning ANOTHER mandolin....
Hey Lee! Lay off the deep-fried Penguin before bedtime...
man dough nollij
Apr-21-2009, 4:05am
Nope!
But I do dream of owning ANOTHER mandolin....
Hey Lee! Lay off the deep-fried Penguin before bedtime...
Totally! The penguin pepperoni must not have been agreeing with me...:confused:
Some years ago I had a dream where I played my mandolin using a ball-point pen as a pick!
But, in fact, this does not belong to this thread... it was NOT a nightmare! You see, in my dream I was playing the smoothest, softest, most beautiful tremolo ever with that pick. The bad part was waking up, playing my mandolin, and noticing that NOTHING had changed. :crying:
Marty Henrickson
Apr-21-2009, 8:50am
Some years ago I had a dream where I played my mandolin using a ball-point pen as a pick!
But, in fact, this does not belong to this thread... it was NOT a nightmare! You see, in my dream I was playing the smoothest, softest, most beautiful tremolo ever with that pick. The bad part was waking up, playing my mandolin, and noticing that NOTHING had changed. :crying:
Of course not, you probably weren't using the Bic pick!:grin:
Of course not, you probably weren't using the Bic pick!:grin:
That cracked me up! :)) Maybe you could start a new boutique pick company...Bic picks. That could be a nightmare.
Seriously though, many players in Europe use quills -- real quills from turkeys and at least one I've heard of prefers American Turkeys -- as a plectrum. Won't even go there.
Eddie Sheehy
Apr-21-2009, 11:42am
I've seen some turkeys using picks....
journeybear
Apr-21-2009, 1:07pm
I've seen some turkeys using picks....
Chickens too. ~:> Some of them, that's all they do all day long - scratch and pick, scratch and pick, scratch and pick ... oh, I guess that's "peck."
My bad ... :grin: