Guitar players too?

[T.D.Nydn]

I can play the mandolin,banjo,guitar and fiddle,,the first three since I was a kid, I'm the strongest and free on the mandolin..

[catmandu2]

Early serious guitar study has provided me a lifetime of fun with abilities to transfer skills among all stringed instruments (all one "big guitar" - the Lindley maxim). But with all the fun stuff to play, no time for guitar anymore My current necked stringed favorites are fiddles of all sizes, and oud.

[MikeZito]

For the first 20 years that I played guitar I was pretty-much strictly a rhythm player; (I could do some simple lead work in the studio, but it took me 45 minutes get down do a 20-second solo) . . . however, when I picked up the mandolin, everything just seemed to fall under my fingers much more naturally. Within 8 months I was laying down mandolin leads without breaking a sweat - no, they were not of Sam Bush quality - but I didn't hear anybody laugh about them either.

Do I think mandolin is 'easier' than guitar? No, I wouldn't say that - but for some weird reason, I just caught on to it MUCH faster than any other stringed instrument I have ever tried.

[stevedenver]

guitar is my main instrument- im actually making a point now to play it more than mando after 8 years committed mando immersion. And im making a conscious effort to not play bluegrass (but for groups and jams which require it) and going back to rock and jazz. Not either or, just a new focus, I am pretty much burned out on no more than 3-4 chords and the key of G.

im fair to good amature, but not pro level, play rock, blues, country fingerstyle piedmont blues and slide, flatpick, and attempt, still after 30+ years, jazz.

mandolin, banjo-newbie but loving it, bass (sorta kinda, but I cant sing and do it) , and, futzing with a keyboard and harmonica.

[John Lloyd]

I play guitar well, which doesn't make me special at all in this crowd. It was the first stringed instrument I approached seriously, and in some situations it's indispensable. I also play violin, electric bass, and kinda-sorta banjo, among other things. However, I find the mandolin more logical, more fun, and for lack of a better word just all-around friendlier.

Also, I usually find it much more welcome at informal jams. When 4 guitars are already flailing away in open G, the most obvious choices for an arriving participant are to either (a) be #5, (b) play a complementary guitar part, or (c) play a different instrument entirely. I like (c) best, which works well because the mandolin has become both my favorite recreational instrument and the one I study most seriously.

[Tim N]

When I was young, guitar was the thing to learn, as that's what enabled you to play the songs you wanted to and to play along with others. And it's cool! Mandolin, bouzouki, tenor guitar all came much later as my music interests developed. It's probably often this way around if you don't have an early "folk music " influence that encourages other instruments. I don't mind too much, as it leaves me something new to learn now
However, all power to young people playing mandolin!

[Charles E.]

I never played guitar at all in my life. I started out on lap dulcimer as a teenager and picked up a mandolin in college. Later I discovered the tenor guitar. I could never get comfortable with the size of a six string let alone six strings.

[MediumMando5722]

Lifelong electric guitarist here. 25 years of Stevie Ray style blues and heavy metal rhythm guitar. I can down pick Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” which is 8th notes at 220 bpm, but strict alternate picking on mandolin is still challenging. Of course, after picking up mandolin last year, I added bluegrass guitar and banjo, and plan on a dobro as well.

[Erok]

Guilty. Rock, blues and prog electric guitar player here. Picked up a Rouge on a whim a couple of months ago, and love the instrument. So much so that I'm going to order a better starter mandolin this week. Leaning toward "The Loar" LM110A Simply because it's the cheapest carved top I can find. I'm retired and broke, it helps pass the time.

[LadysSolo]

I grew up in the 1960s, we all (practically) played guitar in the 1960s. I saw a mandolin hanging in the window of a pawn shop I drove past for my job once a week, I watched it for several years, and it finally sold before I got a chance to go in and look at it. So I decided to get one, found the Café, and have been playing (poorly) for several years. I am adequate on the guitar (put it away for about 40 years to work and raise a family,) and am improving on the mandolin. I find the mandolin easier for me physically (small hands and short fingers) but I know more on the guitar (and have discovered parlor-size guitars.)

[Russ Donahue]

Seems to be a consistent story, here. Started acoustic guitar at 11, added a telecaster at 17, and an Aria mandolin about the same time. Sadly, the mandolin didn’t take and I set it free. Added a bunch more guitars through the years, a banjo at 32, tried mandolin again at 38, but still didn’t stick. Picked up a ukulele at 50, and tried the mandolin AGAIN, because there always seem to be plenty of guitar, banjo and fiddle players, and a dearth of mandolin players. So, I get asked to join in more frequently. Have to say the instrument stuck “bigly” this time around.

I find the mando helps me with my guitar, and vice versa. Take both to jams, like to entertain my friends at their homes and events, and have a guitar playing buddy who goes with me to nursing homes. Probably spend most of my time playing mandolin these days. But nothing beats that full throttle sound of a D28 in the company of a rip-roaring tune!

[Jocaef]

Wow my question really strike a chord here (pardon the pun)
Didn't expect so many answers and so lengthy at that,thanks all !

[T.D.Nydn]

Lifelong electric guitarist here. 25 years of Stevie Ray style blues and heavy metal rhythm guitar. I can down pick Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” which is 8th notes at 220 bpm, but strict alternate picking on mandolin is still challenging. Of course, after picking up mandolin last year, I added bluegrass guitar and banjo, and plan on a dobro as well.

Playing metal guitar can be quite demanding..I would think you should have no problem with tremolo doubLe stops on the mandolin..

[UsuallyPickin]

Well .... I started on guitar as a kid included mandolin when I realized there were too many guitars at jams. I added fiddle when the number of mandolinists at jams reached maximum density. I flirt with a banjo but will not say I play one. I make banjo sounding noise on one. No slur on competent banjo playing or players intended. Al these instruments have things in common and then other qualities that are like night and day. Strings have repeating patterns. That's a given considering the physics of strings. Instruments tuned in fifths mandolins and fiddles being among that group have the advantage of any two adjacently fretted strings forming a 1/5 chord and the beginning point of a closed position scale. Fourths as a guitar when added to a B tone string are inherently slightly more difficult initially to pick up the patterns on but they are there to be used. So yes ... no ... many here are multi instrumentalists .... none are easy all are fun ... and if you decide to take up with a fiddle buy a mute ... your house mates will thank you ... Play on... R/

[Nevin]

I started on bass guitar, picked up guitar, than mandolin and last upright bass. I am a good bass guitarist, a competant guitarist, if you keep it simple I can keep up on mandolin and upright bass. One of the things I love about mandolin is being tuned in fifths it kicks me out of some the ruts that I get in when thinking on bass and guitar which are primerlly tuned in fourths.

[itstooloudMike]

I've been playing guitar for 50 years, and without sounding like I'm boasting, I am pretty good at it. This has actually kept me from playing other instruments that I enjoy more. I got into several bands over the years as either a drummer or a bass player, both of which I really enjoy. But as soon as the other band members heard me play guitar, they always wanted to switch me to lead guitar. I guess I was never lucky enough to find a band with a better guitar player than I was. I really always found playing bass or drums more fun.

For the last 8 or 10 years, I've been enjoying learning the mandolin. I love the sound of the mandolin, and really admire those who can play it well. I am not one of those. But I am afraid that the guitar is still holding me back somewhat. I obviously play guitar a thousand times better than I play mandolin. When I go to the occasional jam with my mandolin, someone is always there to ask me to play some guitar. I have a choice, but it's not easy. I can either be a fairly incompetent mandolin player, or a great guitar player. It's always hard for me to turn my back on guitar. I really wish I could play mandolin half as good as I can play guitar. But at almost 66 years old, I doubt that I have time to improve that much on mandolin. Sometimes I get frustrated with the mandolin learning process. I do know I am getting better. But I always realize that I can play guitar without thinking, and the mandolin is always more challenging. I wish I would have started learning mandolin many years ago. I still love it, but sometimes it's hard to call myself a mandolin player, since I see my guitar playing as the standard for the level I want to achieve. In some ways, it's hard going from being proficient at one instrument to being a novice at another.

[Lowlands Blue]

I've been playing guitar for about 23 years. Played in several bands, mostly electric.
A couple of years ago I didn't have the energy anymore to work Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and then play gigs all weekend.
Quitting my band kind of left me with this big musical hole in my life, and that's when I decided to start taking mandolin more serious. I had taught myself a couple of fiddle tunes but it wasn't till I started taking classes (something I never did for guitar) that my technique started to seriously develop and at a pace that blew my mind. I mostly play mandolin now, with the occasional acoustic guitar session, but I haven't played electric for a while. Playing electric by myself without a band has never really done much for me and so my electric babies have been seriously neglected the last couple of years.

[Mandobart]

I started on violin in grade school, formally/classically taught. I picked up guitar a little later (junior high) mostly self-taught. Also got into bass guitar around the same time. I picked up mandolin over 30 years later. I'm a very adequate guitar picker - I can pick up nearly any song by ear, solid rhythm, decent fingerpicker, very limited lead breaks. Never really bonded with any electric guitar and I had a very nice one for a time. Mandolin really grabbed me back in 2008 and my main instruments are mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin and mandocello. I'm certainly better at these now than I am on guitar, and I enjoy them more. Part of it is the uniqueness - there are far fewer mando players than guitar players. I'm one of 1000's of intermediocre guitarists in my area, but one of only a dozen or so mando players at any level here. I'm nearly the only one that plays out locally as well, which has led to a few opportunities in bands and albums. I'm also more free to play the kind of music I like on mando in a gig. When I show up with my 26" F4 10 string mandocello no one knows what it is and they have no preconceived ideas of what they're going to hear. If I showed up with one of my guitars they would expect to hear Wonderwall I guess.

I find playing by ear on the mandolin (and related mando instruments) to be much more logical and intuitive than on the guitar.

[catmandu2]

You can always emulate the sound on gtr - a la Tommy Tedesco or Barney Kessel or whomever..?

... In some ways, it's hard going from being proficient at one instrument to being a novice at another.

Otoh, there are rewards to starting anew. Like you I was all gtr for several decades - with a side of Scruggs-style bnj, a dash of fdl, etc - until I really got into folk forms. The trad bug then took over and led me into all kinds of styles, idioms, instruments.. That's a beauty of folk music - one doesnt necessarily need superlative chops to make music, enjoy social events, new and interesting sounds, culture, history, etc. I always say a musical instrument is a most effective tool with which to probe the universe

Then of course there's the challenge and fun in learning something new, etc. Many different instruments led me to explore and enjoy many different kinds of music.

[Cornfield]

At the age of 12 I told my father that I wanted a guitar. He bought me a uke and said that after I mastered that I could get a guitar. At that time the best thing you could say about the uke was Arthu Godfrey the worst was Tiny Tim. Fast forward to age 55 I bought a uke with the intention of getting good enough for a guitar..
I then got a guitar. I have also started into keyboards like piano and organ, tenor guitar a d mandolins I play the tenor guitars at sing around a the ukulele in a uke orchestra, 6string guitar, keyboard or Dobro if I’m doing recordings. The mandolin thing is new so I’ll go sit in at a folk jam that I was taking a uke to

[Ivan Kelsall]

From Mark Gunter - "..the key is to start young, I guess, Ivan..". I bought my first guitar back in 1970,age 25,a Yamaha FG140 acoustic & it was terrific !. However,as a non-driver,carrying 2 instruments around by public transport got a bit tedious so i sold the guitar. It was many years before i bought another one.

I love the guitar as an instrument,from classical guitar,all the way through to heavy rock music (as long as it's ''melodic''),but i could never figure out 'which way to go'. If i'd decided to go down the Bluegrass route,i suppose that maybe 'other styles' could have crept in under my fingers,but i also love 'Delta blues' finger style guitar as well = so many styles,so little time !!. At least it's a reasonable excuse,
Ivan