playing in public

[stevenmando]

I think Im going to dive right and start playing in public, but first I have got to get me a good mic system. I go into portland every weekend and I come across so maney musicians on the corners just playing and having fun ,what do you think a man that has never played in public should do , it is advisable to find other mandolin player and then dive right in. I one of those mandolinist that go to bed at night thinking about mandolin and get up the next morning thinking about mandolin and can,t wait till I pick it up and start playing . I read one post some time ago that to be a mandolinist takes a life time and that fine with me because it is great fun playing mandolin. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[John Flynn]

I started playing mando at church and did that for about 10 years. That really got me comfortable playing in front of a crowd.

When I decided I wanted to start doing more than just fooling around with non-church music, I started taking lessons and going to jams. After a few months, a guitarist I got to know through the jams was having a party and wanted to throw a group together for it. I helped him recruit and rehearse a group from the jam crowd. This new rag-tag group went on to start playing open mike nights and soon, by word of mouth, we started getting requests to play free gigs for friends' and relatives' events. After a few months of this, we started getting offers to play contra dances and other functions for money. Now we are scheduled to play a major festival. This has all happened over the last year. It is blast! Go for it!

BTW, I wouldn't go looking for another mando player. Two mandos in one group doesn't work all that well, unless it's a really exceptional situation. I would look for a guitarist first and then possibly at fiddler. Then move on to a bass player, if you can find one, and a banjo player if you really want one. As far as mikes, the Shure SM57 seems a safe bet. No doubt there are better mikes for more money and similar mikes for less, but the SM57 is a dependable standard that you can find for sale all over the place.

[Moose]

Ditto to what mandojohnny said. I would suggest looking/finding a decent guitar player - NOT an Eddy Van Halen type - who is sorta-kinda' on the same page(i.e. repetoire, style, songs, etc.) as yourself. Work up and PRACTICE a "decent" number of songs - get to know as many players - who play YOUR type of songs/music - "volunteer" for any and all type gigs(i.e. parties, open-mic, etc..)- you'll probably have to start "for-free".. - Once your "name" gets around..., you're on-your-way. You can/will!? add/pick-up other pickers(fiddle, banjo, a good bass player[keep in mind ..,the bass IS VERY important!!]) as you go & make-the-rounds. Good luck and let us know how-it-goes. Moose. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[ira]

guitarist first absolutely. it will add a bottom and fillout your sound. but heed my friends above- someone who shares ;your interests musically and is fun to play with. i too started out just jammin with a guy a know, - free stuff- now paid stuff, and its building- loads of fun!!!! (and bonus- you will get much better on your instrumnet as you learn to play with others and explore different songs from your and their perspective).
good luck.

[peterbc]

I busked a bit this weekend at a street fair, and one thing I noticed was that people tend to like (and thus give more money) the vocals more than instrumentals, particularly standard fiddle tunes. This might be because we didn't have a fiddle to really drive everything (the mandolin is great but doesn't always have the same push as the fiddle does). Alabama Jubilee and New Camptown Races people liked a lot, since they're a little different. I would avoid just playing lots and lots of fiddle tunes back to back. But of course above all, have fun, I think if you smile a bit you can get away with lots of mistakes (I sure did!)