Why did you choose the mandolin over another instrument?

[UsuallyPickin]

Well ... I played guitar in a Newgrass band and went to as many jams as I could find. What I found was too many guitar players so I started up with mandolin. Now I am coming up on forty years later and I truly enjoy the company of my mandolins. R/

[CES]

Heard "Ode to a Butterfly" playing in the background of a morning radio show and thought, "Man, I want a banjo!" Couldn't afford a banjo. Borrowed a guitar from my father in law to play while saving for the banjo. Eventually sold my tenor sax to get a banjo. Still have it, still love it, but turns out my wife can't stand the banjo. Smart lady. (She can tolerate Pickelny and Fleck, but that's about it, and I can't play like those fellas, so it doesn't get a ton of play when she's home). Because of Ode and Mike Compton's work on Oh Brother, I looked deeper into acoustic music, which led to Newgrass/bluegrass, and eventually the mandolin. Picked up bass because our youth praise band needed one, but am now playing more mando and emando with them, too, as one of the ladies has gotten into bass.

I love guitar, which I still feel is a bit more versatile, especially with vocal accompaniment, but like the relative novelty of the mandolin, its percussive aspects, and the fact that my current favorite musician, CT, plays one. The portability is nice, too...

[itstooloudMike]

I've been a guitar player for over 50 years now, and have mostly been an electric lead player. I've always had an acoustic guitar, but honestly never played acoustic guitar much. Playing chords on an acoustic guitar was pretty boring to me, and I couldn't play lead on acoustic as well as on electric. But then one day I heard an acoustic tune with guitar and mandolin. That mandolin sounded heavenly, playing subtle fills and melody-following breaks over the guitar. It suddenly hit me that the mandolin was the "lead guitar" in an acoustic setting (at least in my mind). And I figured, "how hard can it be to play"? It would probably only take a few weeks to learn, right? Well, I've now spent over 10 years trying to just become a competent mandolin player, and I still struggle. But I love the sound of the mandolin, and have enjoyed the challenge. I also now own a really nice Weber and a wonderful Summit, so it's been more expensive that I expected. But these days, I play mandolin 80% of the time, and guitar only occasionally. It's been a big transition, but I'm really happy I found the mandolin. Just wish it would have happened 20 years earlier!

[bobby bill]

I was a harpsichord major at the University of Texas in the '70s. The harpsichord has multiple course strings and, although a keyboard, is plucked rather than hammered like a piano. The sound of a mandolin is probably the closest of any instrument to that of a harpsichord. That, plus a David Grisman album my brother gave me, plus an indefinite loan of a mandolin from a friend, steered me down the path of eternal enlightenment.

[catmandu2]

I was a harpsichord major at the University of Texas in the '70s. The harpsichord has multiple course strings and, although a keyboard, is plucked rather than hammered like a piano. The sound of a mandolin is probably the closest of any instrument to that of a harpsichord. That, plus a David Grisman album my brother gave me, plus an indefinite loan of a mandolin from a friend, steered me down the path of eternal enlightenment.

The wire harp is actually quite similar sounding to harpsichord. https://youtu.be/ifvXVaL-Ab4

[BluesPreacher]

For me, not "over" but "in addition to". There are plenty of things I like about the mandolin, and the mando family, more than guitars. 1.) GDae tuning, like my bro said a bit ago: Leads and melodies are easier. Changing keys is easier. E.g. "Rock Road to Dublin": I first learned it in A, but a YouTube vid of the High Kings that I like to play along with has it in D (modal). Just take the party down one string--voila! 2.) It's easier to carry than a guitar. And one doesn't get the stupid-@$$ questions that you get when you carry a guitar in public when one carries a mandolin. Seriously. 3.) Like someone else said, there are all kinds of guitar players, and lots of fiddlers (I dabble at fiddle too). Not as many mando people. 4.) The mando family has all kinds of interesting different folks in it, and I like variety, like messing about on my bouzouki, tenor banjo, and mandocello as well as on my mando.

[Denny Gies]

I moved to a small town in Florida. My wife grew up there and knew a bunch of guys who played bluegrass. They invited me, to sort of check me out I think, and I found out they all played guitars. We decided to try a band and I took up the mandolin to give the band some diversity.

[bobby bill]

The wire harp is actually quite similar sounding to harpsichord. https://youtu.be/ifvXVaL-Ab4

Wow. Thanks for sharing that. If I'm not watching, I'm definitely hearing harpsichord.

[catmandu2]

Wow. Thanks for sharing that. If I'm not watching, I'm definitely hearing harpsichord.

If you're inclined check out Ann Heymann's Queen of Harps recording particularly - on one track it sounds she's purposely emulating harpsichord, or perhaps coincidentally as staccato on the instrmnt particularly resembles hpschd.

Check out this one after about 6:00" - the massive resonance and sustain of clarsach distinguishes it from the harpsichord, but even without stylistic/compositional approximation the timbrel similarity is evident. https://youtu.be/wVPoMUEAuUs

Re topic: I was ardently into bluegrass and old time for a while so mandolin was logical along w the rest bnj, fdl et al.

[bruce.b]

I was playing English concertina and wanted a stringed instrument. I liked the logical keyboard layout on the English, the note above the note you’re playing is a 5th above, a third is next button diagonally up to the right. I saw a video of a tenor guitar, read up on it and knew right away it was what I was looking for. It turned out to be the perfect choice. I play a lot of the same tunes on both and the logical similarities between the two are striking. Some of the more complicated stuff I did on the English I do on tenor guitar with only slight modifications. The lowest note on English is a G, and the notes move up the columns in 5ths. For me, they both tend to force the same stylistic choices. They are great for playing fast melody with lots of ornaments and harmony notes thrown in, or for playing chords/backup. It’s much more difficult on both to separate chords and melody, like a piano player might.

Anyway, tenor guitar led to mandolin, though tenor is still my main instrument. I sold my concertina a while back and have lately been wishing I hadn’t.

[catmandu2]

I'll bet you do miss EC bruce. Although I go for long periods not playing them, I would never sell my concertinas as they are such fine little free reed instruments.

[Mr5150]

Well, I played the flute for 45 years and the Sax for 20. I retired 2 years ago and taking up the mandolin seemed like a good idea. It was and it opened up a whole new musical world for me. Now I hear the electric bass calling me

[LadysSolo]

I played guitar back in the 1960s (we more or less all did,) enjoyed it but it really wasn't comfortable (I have small hands.) I go past a pawn shop every other week on my way from one location to another for my job, and they had a mandolin hanging in the window for about two years and I kept meaning to go in and look at it. One week it was gone, and so I decided to learn about mandolins, found the Café, one thing led to another, and I bought my first mandolin, then 4 bowlbacks and 3 mid-level A mandolins and an F-style I got in trade for a too-big guitar and here I am. Why? Fits my hands better, can play multiple styles, and more fun to play. I still play guitar, I as an older person discovered parlor-size guitars too. Love the Café and the mandolin-lots of fun!

[David L]

I didn't pick mandolin "over" anything, just "in addition to" piano, percussion, voice, dobro, and guitar. That said, it is one of my primary instruments now.

[Bill Kammerzell]

My girlfriend had a "thing" about Mandolin Players. Now she's my wife.

[catmandu2]

Eminently reasonable!

It's (mndln) is such a fine little stringed instrument, elegant and handy. When I was big into mndln - but it soon got me back into fdl and thus little mndln - I extolled the perfect kit of flute, fdl (w mndln in the dbl case ) and concertina. Little instruments are cool. Sun ra extolled them. I never shook the need to shake.

[NursingDaBlues]

Not over another instrument, but in addition to. My primary instrument continues to be guitar.

Seals and Crofts were fairly popular in 1972—1973. I got a 70 year-old Midland bowlback to try to learn some of their songs.

I’ve still got the Midland. And it continues to bring me great joy.

[Steve Lavelle]

Simple answer is that there are too many guitar players in the world, so I have mostly played other instruments. About 25 years ago I started identifying mostly as a mandolin player, still play banjo on a few tunes at each gig, bass playing is becoming a rare thing. I play the guitar, too, but mostly when I work on my own tunes, not when I play with others.

[Rush Burkhardt]

Well, it's this way...My college friend (a guitar player, and a good singer), his cousin, (a banjo player, and a good tenor singer) and I (an adequate guitar player [whoops; one to many] who could growl baritone) decided to form a bluegrass band (give or take 1964). My choices were upright bass, fiddle, dobro, mandolin. Dobro (what?), fiddle (strangled cats). upright bass (wouldn't fit in, or on, my car), mandolin (oh, yeah... small, guitar-like, no bow! And that, kids, is how grampa became a mandolin player!

[fatt-dad]

• somebody gave me one in 1968.
• What's that instrument on Workingman's Dead!?!
• The New Grass Revival.
• Easier to carry than a guitar.
• Melody is fun to play!

Pick one!

f-d

[dtb]

surely for the women, but same as many here, too many guitars at jams and also first and only band. And over the years I was back and forth with mandolin, and guitar, depending on other members of said band wanting to branch out and try other instruments, but all in all, for the women.

Dan

[allenhopkins]

In 1970 I had been heavily into folk music for ten years, at college and later in the army; first instrument was five-string banjo, then guitar. I was just back from Ft. Carson CO with a Gibson J-50 guitar, Ode/Muse banjo, and Appalachian Autoharp, all bought at the Denver Folklore Center. My grandfather's house in Pike NY was on the market after his death, and in cleaning out his attic, we found three instruments that presumably belonged to his second wife Alice: a 'teens Gibson A-1 mandolin, a Victoria (probably L & H) bowl-back, and a no-name gut-strung banjo.

My late brother John, my friend Bob Olyslager, and I were all living in Rochester, and wanted to play bluegrass. Bob played banjo and guitar, John only guitar, and I had inherited the mandolins; ergo, I was the mandolin player. Got the big top crack ("mended" with adhesive tape!) on the A-1 fixed, started teaching myself to play. We formed the Flower City Ramblers, played for about six years -- I used to joke that we couldn't survive the Bicentennial. I was fairly inept, but energetic; I listen to old recordings FCR we made, and think, "Not bad for someone with six months' experience."

Bands form and break up, styles change; since, I've played blues, old-time, klezmer, Celtic, 19th-century popular and dance music, and a lot of generic "folk." I've abandoned virtuosity for versatility, and play guitar, banjo, Autoharp, Dobro, ukulele, tiple, lap dulcimer, harmonica, English concertina, bass fiddle, and some other oddities (Jew's harp, mouth bow, kalimba, bowed psaltery), as well as mandolin family instruments -- mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello, sopranolin -- professionally, and for my own amusement. I've accumulated about 75 stringed and free-reed instruments, and enjoy owning and playing them.

So, the happenstance of finding some family mandolins, combined with a love of traditional American music, and the opportunity to start a bluegrass band, led to my becoming a mandolinist and a mandolin enthusiast.

And I still have my step-grandmother's Victoria bowl-back.

[Cliff Seruntine]

I loved the tone of the mandolin in Irish and Scots music, loved the history and the fact it's a direct descendant of the lute, and I already knew the essentials for playing it from many years on the fiddle. Love this instrument!

[Cochiti Don]

My butt is sore from daily kicking myself. Here I am at 72 and finding out that the mandolin is the instrument I am SUPPOSED to play instead of guitar. I took to it immediately about 8 months ago. Jeeeeeeez!

[dhergert]

<<Why did you choose the mandolin over another instrument?>>

Like others here, really "in addition to". I'm primarily a banjo player in our band, but lately I'm getting less shy on the mandolin. I also play Dobro, flute and picollo, and I'm now learning bass. At home and at work though, mandolin is my go-to instrument.

Why? Because I like the sound.