I pulled a Rick Nielsen!

[Brian Krashpad]

I got to church early today and found the simplest song to figure out on mandolin. (Last weekend was the first time I played mandolin in public ever. I still don't know very many chords and have to figure them out based on guitar chords.) So the band director arrives and says "Mandolin sounds great on the song, but I kinda wanted you to do a guitar solo at the end." (I should mention that apparently I'm our only guitarist who can extemporaneously solo.)

No prob. For the song, I strap on both a guitar and a mando. I play the song on mandolin, we get to the end, I flip the mando out of the way, and play the guitar solo. We were doing a run-through right before church, a few people were already there, and I said "I just want everyone to know this was Joel's (band director) idea." The entire band and a couple people in the pews cracked up. I'd never strapped on 2 instruments at once for as long as I've played.

Have you ever seen this done in church? Like I said, I only did it to fulfill my band director's wishes for the song, but it still seems kind of a "flash" thing for church (even though I tried not to play it up-- I was too intent on switching instruments).

Tell me your thoughts.

[JEStanek]

If you're given talents use them, remember who you are playing for and the situation in which you are playing and the "flash" becomes unimportant.

Jamie

[Jim Broyles]

The One to whom you have to answer knows if you are doing it to call attention to yourself or not. I have never strapped on two instrument at once, but I have switched instruments for the same song and had guitar, bass and mandolin out and ready to go for services. It seems by the tone of your post that you are simply allowing yourself to be used to serve the needs of the congregation and not yourself. Maybe you could work up an effective mandolin solo for the end the next time this song is on your schedule.

[Brian Krashpad]

If you're given talents use them, remember who you are playing for and the situation in which you are playing and the "flash" becomes unimportant.

Jamie

Thanks, that's the way I look at it too, or I would not have done it. I should mention I'm also our only "mandolinist," though I obviously hesitate to apply the term to myself at this point (especially in a mandolin forum).

It was fun and challenging (although at this point most anything on mandolin is challenging). It's fun figuring out new chords every week, hopefully by this process I will learn the mandolin chords to the point where eventually there'll be songs where I already know all the chords for the whole song without any calculations beforehand.

Baby steps, though. ;)

[Brian Krashpad]

The One to whom you have to answer knows if you are doing it to call attention to yourself or not. I have never strapped on two instrument at once, but I have switched instruments for the same song and had guitar, bass and mandolin out and ready to go for services. It seems by the tone of your post that you are simply allowing yourself to be used to serve the needs of the congregation and not yourself. Maybe you could work up an effective mandolin solo for the end the next time this song is on your schedule.

That was another great option, a mandolin solo, but right now I'm still just a strummer. I know the guitar fretboard well enough to do something like "solo in D" (which is what I did), but that'll take awhile on mandolin. I do look forward to being able to do it someday though.

At my last church I went back and forth between bass and electric guitar and occasionally 12-string acoustic, but I never had to switch in the middle of a song.

[Jim]

Bravo, You did it the best you could and that is what you are there for. It's not like you played it behind your head! Congratulatins on taking your new skill out where others can enjoy it!

[Brian Krashpad]

Bravo, You did it the best you could and that is what you are there for. It's not like you played it behind your head! Congratulations on taking your new skill out where others can enjoy it!

Thanks, I am having so much fun! It's a little weird that my mandolin education is coming weekly in front of 200-300 people, haha, but so be it. It's a different sound and I love it.

Afterward, as I and my band director were taking my axes out to the van, this wonderful older lady (silver hair, 60's I guess), came up and said that in the Fall when we go back to 2 services (we're a college town so in summer we only have one service each Sunday in Summer), she wanted to switch to the one we play at (instead of the traditional one at 8:30); she was literally almost hopping up and down. That sort of thing makes any musician in any sitch feel good, but in church, even moreso, because it means someone is getting excited about worship.

[acousticnotes]

Wonderful Brian! Don't worry about the flash. Gods in control anyway and that's who your playing for.

JOE