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Thread: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

  1. #51
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    You are smart to start early in life ! I didn't begin until I was almost 64 ( 71 now). I play in a band at nursing homes each week so my audience isn't too picky with our playing !

  2. #52
    Registered User Joey Anchors's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I was a bassist for 22 years.. stopped playing music altogether. Being away from music for almost 8 years, I wanted to get back into but not as a bassist. Heard Chris Thile, and Sam Bush and Mike Marshall.. I knew then that mandolin would be it. That was three years ago..

    I still am horrible and need tons of practice
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    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by yankees1 View Post
    You are smart to start early in life ! I didn't begin until I was almost 64 ( 71 now). I play in a band at nursing homes each week so my audience isn't too picky with our playing !
    It can depend on what your expectations are. If you want to play for enjoyment, any time is a great time to start. If, on the other hand, you have as your goal some relatively high level of expertise, then the earlier you start the better. Not to say that an older person can't acheive a high level of ability; far from it. But different people play for different reasons. I'll never play for an audience, or perhaps ever for another living person. I therefore have the luxury of knowing that whatever level I attain is just part of the fun of playing at all.
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  4. #54

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    That's a "cute" story -- sorry for the word "cute" but I can't think of a better word to describe your droll humor! I wish you the very, very best at playing both the guitar and mandolin!

  5. #55

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    As a young child, my piano teacher forbade me from doing what came naturally -- namely playing by ear, figuring out chord shapes on the keyboard, and improvising. Fast forward to age 30 something -- I was moving overseas and could not take a piano (!) and had fallen in love with a friend's mandolin. I loved the sound, even though she didn't know how to play hers. So I bought a cheap round back in 1970 for $25 and a self-teaching classical mandolin book, which was all that was available at the music store. I taught myself (poorly) to play some classical mandolin. I had to read everything, and if I wanted to learn something else, I would write it in notation, then read it. Strange, but true, and I know other classical players who do this on various instruments. Then I was invited to an Old Time Fiddlers Jam, and a guy played Redwing on the fiddle -- I instantly played it by ear! It was an epiphany! We started various jam sessions around town, and the first one was with folks like myself who had never jammed before. We played weekly, and when we finally got through one tune from beginning to end without breaking down, we cheered! I became very active in the Old Time community there in the mid-70s. Then I moved to an area of the USA where there were no jams, and had to revert to piano for 20 years or so because I was teaching that instrument and could not find anyone who wanted to make a band with the mandolin or jam. Later I moved again, and started over on the mandolin about 10 years ago. I know maybe 100 tunes, and am learning more regularly. Oh, I must add that it took me 10 years after the Redwing event to learn to play by ear and improvise on the piano! But I was glad to get my talent back as an adult, that had been taken from me as a child.

  6. #56

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I learned how to play the easy guitar chords when I was about 12 but never had a guitar until much later.

    I started playing mandolin after hearing David Grisman and seeing his band play many times in the late 1970s through the 80s. I went to UC Davis so one time I visited Tiny Moore's shop in Sacramento but didn't buy a mandolin until a year or two later. First one was a relatively cheap Kentucky A-model. Sold that about ten years later to a guy whose expertise is sound synthesis and bought a slightly better Kentucky A-model which I still own.

    By this time (college) I was learning bass, guitar, and mandolin all at the same time so I never really got confused by the differences. I did get a little confused later when I started playing ukulele as its scale length is similar to mandolin but tuned like top 4 strings of guitar.

    I learned some bluegrass and Celtic and Grisman tunes and used it as a rhythm instrument when playing folky rock stuff with others. Then I heard David Swarbrick and finally Fairport Convention whence I became a bit of a fanatic. I haven't played much mandolin lately, gravitating towards the guitar, but now I'm starting to record some original tunes again and thought mandolin might find its way into some of those.

    I have learned more tunes out of this book than any other.

    https://www.amazon.com/English-Welsh.../dp/0825601657
    Last edited by Digital Larry; Jul-04-2018 at 12:14pm.

  7. #57

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    As a teenager I had a classical guitar and began listening to recordings of famous guitarists. When I came across an album of the Romeros playing Vivaldi concertos I was intrigued with the pieces that were originally written for MANDOLIN. I found a mandolin version of those concertos and became fascinated with mandolin. I got a cheap one and became frustrated with it since I had no teacher nor teaching materials available. It was years later before I seriously took up mandolin. Many years were spent playing guitar which I wish had been spent on mandolin. I really enjoy playing mandolin and I find it easier than guitar.

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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I started working out the details of mandolin when I decided 'a little mandolin' would be a nice addition to my guitar/vocal home recordings. I think the idea came from watching one of Mandolin Orange's early videos on YT.

    It took 3 years to self learn and begin recording with the guitar so I figured it would require same or less for mandolin. Figured wrong - haven't played my guitar or recorded a new track in 5 years.

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  10. #59
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Seeing this guy jamming in the bars in Saratoga Springs, NY in the mid 70's.
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  11. #60
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    As a singer/guitarist/songwriter right out of high school in '73, my wife's grandfather passed down a Gibson A to us in 1982. That was the instrument that got the mandolin bug started in me. I am always primarily a guitarist and entertainer, but the mandolin has been my focus in my personal time in the last five years.
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    This performance is why I started playing the mandolin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n3wHljJQ4M

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  14. #62

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I got my first mando, the ubiquitous Rogue, figuring it might be a decent segueway into violin, since I'd already played guitar for 15 or so years (off and on) by that time. Plunked around a little, but wasn't ready to put time into learning a new instrument at that time. A few years later, I started going to a local jam that's mostly guitars, so I figured I'd take another stab at the mandolin, and this time it stuck.

  15. #63
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Over a decade ago I was at an auction trying to buy a guitar but was being out bid at every turn. I saw an old handmade mandolin on a table of junk and ended up getting it for $7.00. When I got it home I found a tag on it that read, "Made by cousin Chas G Harber 1185 Lorain St, Cleveland, 0H in 1895". It was unplayable but it was from there I began taking notice of mandolins. Questions I had about mandolins led me here. When I finally purchased a mandolin a year and a half ago based on recommendations I got here, I discovered it was the same mandolin I was advised to get twelve years ago today (July 5, 2006) when I asked the first time.

  16. #64
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I do woodworking as a hobby. I was tired of making furniture. I wanted to make something challenging but small. I thought I would make a bowl back mandolin because my uncle had one when I was a kid. I started researching and realized that bowl backs are really not very common in the US. So I bought some books from Roger Siminoff and Graham McDonald. Was getting ready to begin and I thought "I should know how a mandolin sounds before I build one". So I found a Morris in the classifieds here and took some lessons. It's been 4 years and I still haven't started on that build. Life and fun get in the way.

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  18. #65

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Actually, besides the upright piano in the dining room, and violin lessons at school, mandolin was my first instrument. I found it in the attic when I was about 13 (that would be 1965), and asked my mother if I could use it. She said, "Oh, that's that old mandolin. A friend of your grandmother (who died the year I was born) left it with her and never came back to get it." It's a Vega cylinder back, ca. 1924. I still have it and play it. It lead me not only to Italian and "Golden Era" music, but also to guitar, lute, shamisen, etc. I'm glad my father decided not to trade it in for a better guitar, as the music store dealer offered when he bought me a Yamaha classical guitar for my 18th birthday (still have and play that, too). Maybe it was the way the dealer played "Lady of Spain" for him, and how good it sounded. Thanks for asking!

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  20. #66
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Went weekly to a local community center in Vero Beach to hear a local BG band. Had listened to BG cd's for years. These guys were having so much fun, it made me want to learn to play something. I asked the leader which instrument was the easiest to play since I was 57 years old and somewhat fearful of picking up an instrument that was hard to learn. Leader recommended a mandolin. Went on ebay and bought a cheapo and a Bert Casey beginning mandolin book and taught myself to play.

    Played with a guitar picker for several years which helped a lot. The $200 cheapo lasted about a year, then a JBovier and now a Nashville flatiron festival F. I practice a lot in winter; not so much in summer. Now 69 years old, and love to play. I know about 50 tunes, and the last one I learned was Liberty which is a lot of fun to play.

    The quality of this picker is not up to the quality of the flatiron, so I cannot blame my mistakes any longer on the instrument.
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  21. #67
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I trained on clarinet young but it didn't take. (I wanted a sax!) I started abusing strings on mountain dulcimer at age 15 and guitar a year later. That was a bit over a half-century ago. I lead a rambling, dissolute life for over a decade. US Army put some structure in my life and my aunt decided four decades back that I was mature enough for my legacy: Grandpa's 1918 Gretsch banjo-mandolin. About a decade later I hit a yard sale, bought a pro-quality Ibanez Performance guitar for US$100 and a cheap 1960s Kay mandolin for $25.

    Those two have been my primary mandos for many decades now. But playing in 5th all started with Grandpa's legacy. It play anywhere from soft to raucous. It probably ruined me for anything serious. As if I care.

  22. #68

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Elton John has had Davey Johnstone playing lead guitar for 40 years or so. Story goes that Elton saved his life after a family tragedy.
    Davey is also a brilliant tenor banjo and mandolin player and when I saw him playing with the Fife Rievers in 1970, his mandolin playing blew me away. Looked effortless. I had to have a mandolin so it's his fault that I've spent a huge amount of money over all these years.
    I was also influenced by Hamish Bayne of The McCalmans folk trio. Hamish had a wonderful way with the mandolin. I then bought a Dave Appollon vinyl which I had sent from USA to Scotland. That knocked me out.

    Seriously, it was a great decision to join the mandolin fraternity or should i say 'freternity'.

    JimmyP
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  23. #69

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by AndyV View Post
    Why/how did you start playing mandolin?
    I'm in the "already was playing fiddle" category, so when I found out that mandolins are tuned exactly the same as fiddles, that was reason enough to finally try to play something on mandolin.

    There was already a mandolin in the house, as my dad played but he did only tremolo waltzes and stuff (the only thing he played fiddle tunes on was oldtime banjo), and while his tremolo mandolin style sounded good when he played it, I just didn't see myself wanting to play a bunch of tremolo stuff at the time.

    But fiddle tunes, that was different - I already knew a bunch of tunes and the notes were in the exact same locations on the neck - and with frets! how convenient!

    Just had to learn how to stop the pick falling on the floor *all* the time. I was about to give up in disgust, but my dad told me the secret to making picks behave: "Hold that pick so lightly that if you turn your hand sideways, the pick almost falls out of your hand." That worked!

    Then, the next problem, I quickly realized that my existing callouses (fiddle, banjo etc) were insufficient for mandolin, but that just took some patience to build up better callouses.

    Quote Originally Posted by AndyV View Post
    Did the universe dictate this, or is it just telling me I have no free will?
    Lol that's a good question. Especially when opportunities to learn something, or reminders to get back into something that you already used to do but had forgotten about, keep appearing seemingly out of the blue... I've had that happen a few times with various things (including, in later years, mandolin). Makes a person wonder sometimes.

  24. #70
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I was already a tenor banjo player but was finding it difficult to get any decent play time in living in a tiny apartment surrounded by neighbors (as compared to my farmhouse back in Ireland where I could play til all hours of the night with nary a complaint!). I saw an old Harmony mandolin in a local music shop in Berkeley and bought it a birthday gift for a friend - their birthday was a fortnight away so that meant I had two solid weeks of being able to mess around on it meself and I was hooked! After I gave it to my pal I had to get a mandolin for meself as it was a much more apartment friendly instrument than the tenor banjo. That first year of playing mandolin I cycled through an eBay purchased '60's Gibson A50, a Flatiron pancake, a Redline Traveller, a Weber Aspen II, a Pomeroy A4, and then finally found the Weber Custom Gallatin F that stuck around for a few years before it too moved along!
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  25. #71
    Registered User Drew Streip's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    Played guitar and saxophone since I was about 11. Then I heard Nickel Creek, and Sam Bush playing with Bela Fleck on "Stomping Grounds."

    Within a few hours of owning my first mandolin (a gift from my parents and grandparents) I had learned NC's "This Side." But I took several years off before starting my current group and beginning an intense obsession with the mandolin and acoustic instruments in general.

    Now I've probably seen Chris Thile ten times in different iterations, I'm trying to get my group booked at festivals, and I'm building an F5 and a dreadnought.

    It's a slippery slope!

  26. #72

    Default Re: Why/how did you start playing mandolin?

    I don't remember really well. I started (on strings--I got piano lessons as a kid, and played trombone through college) on guitar, and took a few lessons on fingerstyle. Something interested me in mandolin, I forget what, so I asked my guitar teacher, who worked at Bowlby Music (now defunct) in downtown Rock Island, Illinois to see if he could find me a mando. He found an old bowlback which I played until it fell apart. I then bought a used Kentucky A style from the same guy.

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