I've never felt this way before...

[tangleweeds]

I started learning to play music about 10 years ago, as part of a most fruitful midlife crisis. I began with tin whistle, then resumed piano (I'd had a year of awful lessons as a kid), and also discovered that I really enjoyed studying music theory (once upon a time I was a math-y geek, and theory scratches the same itch).

Along the way, back in 2010 I had joined this forum and picked up a pair of mandolins, a Trinity College octave and a Kentucky KM-172, but once I found a good teacher my music lessons curse struck again (starting lessons always kills my enjoyment of whatever instrument I've been studying, turning it into work not play). So the mandolins ended up under my bed, serving as ramparts of last resort for cats fighting off medications or the carrier/vet, and I ruefully sighed over the money spent.

Flash forward to Jan 2014. A friend was suffering momentary aphasia, and the totally incorrect word that kept springing to her mind was "mandolin." Somehow that spurred me to pull the mandolins out from under the bed later that evening, and tune them up. I vaguely remembered FFCP and movable scales 2010, so I spent some enjoyable evenings re-inventing the wheel.

The strange thing is that everything seemed to come to me so naturally, almost as though I had musical talent. This was not an experience I'd ever had before; not having had much musical exposure as a kid, I had always felt like an awkward imposter whenever I was learning a new musical instrument.

I think that part of the magic was those few months of playing four years ago. Though my conscious mind had forgotten just about everything, and it felt like I was starting from zero, the things I was learning coalesced way more swiftly and comfortably than I'd ever experienced before in my musical explorations.

I think the other half of the magic was I had accumulated enough musical knowledge from studying keyboard harmony, that I had a pre-existing framework of understanding onto which I could overlay the mandolin fretboard interface.

Whatever the causes, it's been like falling in love. "Look, I've met this wonderful instrument! We had instant rapport, and understand each other in a way I've never felt before..." :mandosmiley:

[F-2 Dave]

Awesome. But the really important thing is that you found the right size case for your cat.

[Cue Zephyr]

Glad to hear you've got the itch back! :)

I've had some similar things happen - I bought a mandolin at the end of 2010, but never learned to play it the right way. I did have a pre-existing understanding of music and it's accompanying theory through learning guitar and being thoroughly interested in theory in the first place. Because of this, I'm quite comfortable with picking up new instruments because it's still in the same world (music) despite the techniques involved with playing a specific instrument being different.

By the end of last year I decided I wanted to pick up the banjo. I then remembered how I bought a mandolin 3 years earlier but never got off the ground with it. So I told myself I was going to take up the mandolin first, learn to play it the way it was 'intended' and if that proved succesful, I'd pick up the banjo.

I haven't stopped playing the mandolin since, and my guitar lost a lot of play time to it.

I chose the fretted instruments so I would have one worry less - the fretting hand.

That's gonna get real tough once I decide it's time to take up the dobro. :grin:

[Randy Smith]

Hope you're having the time of your life.

[tangleweeds]

I did have a pre-existing understanding of music and it's accompanying theory through learning guitar and being thoroughly interested in theory in the first place. Because of this, I'm quite comfortable with picking up new instruments because it's still in the same world (music) despite the techniques involved with playing a specific instrument being different.
Maybe what I'm enjoying so much is experiencing this for the first time. Tin whistle was not much of a preparation for learning to play the piano (augh, reading two staves for two hands with independent patterns, augh), but knowing a little keyboard harmony was great prep for exploring the mandolin fretboard.

[Mike Steadfast-Ward]

Keep on keeping on. I have tin whistles also it helped me in learning to read especially as the early stuff was aimed at children, easier.
Enjoy learning and playing Mandolin. Its a nice instrument to set your own pace on.

[tangleweeds]

But the really important thing is that you found the right size case for your cat.
That's the octave mandolin case and my roommate's cat. She's one Big Fat Cat. Now she's on a diet, she's almost down to 12 lbs.

When I go to friends' houses with ordinary sized cats, my response is always "Ooooh, look at that! It's a mini-cat!"

[Cue Zephyr]

Maybe what I'm enjoying so much is experiencing this for the first time. Tin whistle was not much of a preparation for learning to play the piano (augh, reading two staves for two hands with independent patterns, augh), but knowing a little keyboard harmony was great prep for exploring the mandolin fretboard.
I think regardless of what you're playing, keyboard harmony is a great thing to be familiar with. Nothing like a keyboard for understanding certain concepts. I found a lot of those concepts easier to grasp when I walked over to my keyboard and just looking at it (without switching it on). Agreed, some things are easier to see on fretted instruments, like scales and arpeggios.

[Bertram Henze]

I can relate. People with a math angle can't stand being told what to do without understanding why. Experimenting and reinventing wheels is just another way of approach to making this your own. And a teacher can't realistically be expected to give you that.

[JeffD]

It is a lot like falling in love. All over again.



Without the arbitrary and capricious cooperation of a loved one. :mandosmiley: