Re: How do you answer "what is that thing?", when playing a mando
I always remember the drunk guy at a Christmas party that asked me what it was. I said a mandolin. He said "that's not a mandolin! A mandolin is..." and then started waving his hands like he was playing tremolo. (I had been playing Bach cello suites that evening, and I don't use tremolo in those.)
Part of the problem is a lot of people "know" what a mandolin is: a tater-bug playing Godfather music in tremolo. So if they see something different (I was playing a 2 point Gibson A-5 "Jethro") they really don't know what it is. There is no point in adding to their confusion.
I insisted it was, indeed, a mandolin, directed the gentlemen back to the punch bowl and went on with my Allemande.
Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
--William Shakespeare
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