Washington Post Mandolin Content

[journeybear]

Eh? Huh! Well, I'll be! Thanks, I guess. I learn so much around here, it's hard to keep up with everything that's trending. I'll be alright, as long as I don't have to start following the ringtone charts ...

[Mike Bunting]

Yes, and that is what the travel section is for. What may feel irksome is that we (collectively) are a territory most people have never imagined before. We are exotic, like Tanganyika, "Is that a lake, or a country or something, yea I heard about it. Wait, it was on Jeopardy wasn't it?"

I share JB's high hopes, but I expect absolutely nothing. "Donald, look at the strange clothing these people wear. In this article here, will you look at that." "Yea, wow. When does the game start?"

Why on earth do you guys want your little mandolin world to be mainstream? It seems very sad to me and at the same time very revealing to me.

[JeffD]

Why on earth do you guys want your little mandolin world to be mainstream? It seems very sad to me and at the same time very revealing to me.

I am not sure I want anything different. At the same time it is natural to feel misunderstood, alone, if not lonely, when what constitutes one of your life's passion does not even register as an activity.


I gave this example the other day to a friend. Supposing there was a free app you could download that was designed to help you in some significant way to pursue your passions. You look it over and the reviews are great. So you download it, only to find it gives you a choice of two passions. Shopping and watching television. That's it. Any other activity was deemed too unpopular to amount to much of an audience for the app. Now, it is a stupid example, but consider, regardless of whether you are proud of your outsider status, or don't care a whit about it, it would be natural to fees something about being so ceremoniously discounted.

[Mike Bunting]

I am not sure I want anything different. At the same time it is natural to feel misunderstood, alone, if not lonely, when what constitutes one of your life's passion does not even register as an activity.

That is not natural at all. Why would anyone be so dependent on others to validate themselves?

[journeybear]

I don't want my "little mandolin world to be mainstream." I just want it to be not so obscure.

As to validation from others, I don't need it. I know when my playing is on the mark and when it's not. It would be nice if people would "get" what is going on with it, but it's not necessary. (It would be even better if women would throw themselves at the mandolinist rather than the singer or the drummer or the guitarist - but that's another matter. ) If they're missing out, that's their loss. Now, that may sound a bit arrogant, but it's not meant to be. Someone who is ignorant isn't necessarily stupid, just not aware of certain bits of information. It's entirely possible they won't care, nor even be affected one way or another by the mandolin experience, nor that any of this matters a hint of a whisper of a suggestion of a notion. But I have devoted the majority of my life to this realm of human endeavor, and it's been very rewarding a good part of the time, and I wouldn't mind too terribly if more people enjoyed it, too.

Besides, I sure would like a break from having to explain to people what it is so often.

[DataNick]

...Besides, I sure would like a break from having to explain to people what it is so often.

Last Tuesday eve after our gig, our guitar player's girlfriend's 90 y/o mother comes up to me and says boy that sounds great, is that a ukulele? I just smiled and said no Ma'am, it's a mandolin..she said "oooh"...priceless! It's all good in my book...

[journeybear]

Being 90 years old, you know what that makes her? Lloyd Loar era.

[Killian King]

I don't enjoy playing mandolin any less because other people don't find it particularly compelling. I wonder if it bothers death metal musicians that I don't care for their genre?

Here I thought people would be interested that mandolin, etc., was getting a little bit of publicity from one of the country's biggest newspapers. Instead, you yell at the paperboy to get off your lawn.

[Bill Snyder]

Kilian, I enjoyed the piece, but I don't feel the need to analyze it. Reminds me of my junior high school English class a few decades ago. We were studying The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I thought it totally inappropriate to delve into the book and look for hidden meanings, motives, etc. given the fact that this is the preface to the book.
"PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance."

[JeffD]

That is not natural at all. Why would anyone be so dependent on others to validate themselves?

Its not black and white, entirely this or entirely that. The Borg or the island. We all seek acceptance and validation to varying degrees. We need both, to know who we are as distinct from the crowd, and to know we belong somewhere within that crowd.

Hey, I have a history of being a contrarian. I chose the mandolin mostly because it was not a guitar.

But I am not going to deny there is some emotional response to being ignored and discounted. Because, try as we might to avoid it , we are social creatures. We have the need to share with each other, to have a common language, to have a common, or at least overlapping culture. We live in groups and communities, we seek each other out at festivals and on line. I don't think its a case of seeking validation (for most of us over 25), but of having a reaction to its being absent.

Seeking to be an outsider, as a choice among alternatives, (as many did and do, myself included), and being an outsider by virtue of being cast out, discounted, ignored, - two very different things.

[Petrus]

Well, there's always the archlute or tamburizta should the mandolin become too mainstream. Not to mention the gusle, gadulka, or even a plain old taropatch or tiple. Plenty of options to stay out of the glare of the spotlight.

[LongBlackVeil]

i think mandolin is in just about the perfect spot as far as popularity of the instrument. Its not so popular that its annoying, but its not so unpopular that its anywhere near the verge of being extinct.

Just look at this forum for example, this is actually a REALLY active forum for a niche activity such as mandolin

[journeybear]

Keep in mind, though, there are just over 36,000 members, over half of whom have never posted even once. And more than 7,000,000,000 people in the world. That's about .00000005 % of the world population. As far as drops in the bucket go, I'm not sure how they can make a drop that small. Just sayin' ...

I think the instrument could handle just a little more popularity. I'd be cool with that. Just enough so that kids would be more inclined to consider it an option for music making, rather than guitar so often. Oh, and to hear it on the radio or see it on the TV more often. I'm just a bit tired of it being seen as a novelty, when it's a great instrument in its own right.

[mandroid]

Washington Post calling it the capital of the world is a bit overblown ,

considering other Countries folk music traditions, apparently dont count ..

but then Washington is considering itself too much of a world capital of self intrest, as it is..



Any how.. J.P. Sousa's Washington Post March.. on Mandolin & Piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB-D6N7uLPE
..

[Tobin]

Washington Post calling it the capital of the world is a bit overblown

The article was quite clear that this town in Arkansas is the "self-proclaimed" Folk Music Capital of the World. It's the town that claims the title, not the newspaper. If you're not aware, this is a popular thing in small towns. They claim to be the capital of the world for something. My own small town is the self-proclaimed "Cowboy Capital of the World", just like Austin (TX) is the self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital of the World". It's just a way of saying that they're proud of something and want to use it for marketing purposes. It's a cheap claim to fame, and they all do it.

[mandroid]

Oldest American Town west of the Rockies , Here.. they never count the natives.