Well, I'm excited, and it was the best Christmas I've had in a long time. Because it was also New Mandolin Day.
I played mandolin for about 3 years back in the early and mid 1990s. I'm not sure why I set it down. I was also playing a lot of 5-string banjo and trying to keep up with my 6-string guitar playing (almost 30 years on that instrument) and I even attempted fiddle for a time. I guess it just got lost in the shuffle.
I finally decided to take the plunge and get back to the mandolin. There's no other instrument that sounds like the mando. I am doing a swap of one of my nicer ukuleles for a nice old vintage banjo mandolin, but I couldn't wait for that so my wonderful wife indulged me with a Rogue to get me by.
I also plan to get a nicer wood mandolin. I want to have more variety than just a banjo-mando and the Rogue.
But you know, for $49.99 (shipping included) the Rogue isn't all that bad. Finished decently, action is playable, has some warmth and resonance. Little difficult to keep in tune at first, and it feels kind of stiff, but I'm having a blast.
Part of what gave rise to my renewed interest in the mandolin was acquiring a tenor banjo and tenor guitar over the last few months (the guitar was on the cheap, the banjo was free from my father)-- I was playing them tuned CGDA but switched to GDAE.
I'm no great mandolin player. I have MUCH, MUCH to learn, but due to my short previous experience with the instrument and my experience with other stringed instruments, I was able to pick it up and play it pretty well right out of the box, impressing my lovely wife and my sweet young daughters as well.
My wife (also a musician) heard me play several bars and said "Wow! Is that some old Irish reel?"
I said "I don't know WHAT that was!" What fun.
Now, the problem is, the love of mandolin has become so overwhelming to me I am seriously considering selling everything else aside from an old acoustic guitar and a ukulele that has great sentimental value to me in order to purchase a really killer mandolin.
I think I understand now. I've always been a believer and endorser of cheaper instruments. I've played dozens of $300 guitars that sound and play as good as guitars costing 4 or 5 times that amount. Same with ukuleles.
But the mandolin is truly special, isn't it? It's the first time I've connected with an instrument and really "gotten" why someone would want to make a big financial investment in one. I was in a local music store the other day and they had a 1940s Gibson F style with an oval soundhole and some nice wear on the finish. I just stood and drooled for a while.
Mandolins are just aesthetically so gorgeous and when you strike that note or strum that chord, what comes out (even out of a lowly Rogue!) is sublime. I imagine it is akin to the sound the soul hears when departing this veil for Paradise.
Okay, I'm given over a bit to hyperbole, I admit it. But it's love, y'all.
I really need some schooling on mandolin-specific picks and picking technique. I'm using guitar picks to decent effect, but want to try other things.
I'm really just here to ramble and share my little rambling tale of rediscovering this remarkable instrument, but if anyone has some advice, suggestions or thoughts for someone who is essentially a newbie, I'm all ears.
Thanks to the mods and everybody here. It's a great bunch of knowledgeable folks. I appreciate it so much.
PS-- I would like to add that I realize the mandolin requires its own approach; its own kind of playing. I don't want to be seen as "the guitar-guy who plays some mandolin."
I want to by-gosh learn to become a mandolinist.
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