What would YOU do?

[Ben Cooper]

Question for everyone. If you were going away on a vacation for a week and you absolutely could not take a mandolin with you.... what would you do? Is there an app or a method to help avoid MWS (Mandolin Withdrawal Symptoms). Of course there is always the "Cafe" and reading articles here.... but what else would people suggest?
Thank you so much (in advance) for any and all advice for helping keep my sanity!

[Michael Bridges]

I went through this a few weeks ago when I had to go to Chicago for 5 days. I had my Ipod loaded with my favorite mando CD's, and quite a few downloaded Youtube videos on my Droid phone, both instructional and just favorite performances. Especially of tunes I've been working on, so at least I can keep the music ingrained in my head!

[derbex]

I migh try improving my theory, taking a couple of tunes and picking them apart for chords scales &c. or converting them to solfege? and trying to sing them as in the ear training thread?

You can't even take a backpackes mandolin?

[Dagger Gordon]

Learn the mouth organ!

Otherwise throw yourself wholeheartedly into whatever your vacation is about, bring some good books and take a break from it.

[Ben Cooper]

I migh try improving my theory, taking a couple of tunes and picking them apart for chords scales &c. or converting them to solfege? and trying to sing them as in the ear training thread?

You can't even take a backpackes mandolin?

Wish I had a backpack mandolin! Not to that point yet.

[Ben Cooper]

Michael, Derbex and Dagger, Thank you so much for the replies and ideas!

[Petrus]

Air mandolin FTW.

[derbex]

Air mandolin FTW.

I play so much better on my air mandolin! The family prefers it too

[UsuallyPickin]

With the carry on laws within the U.S. now being instrument friendly. "Why can't you take a Mandolin "? R/

[Bertram Henze]

There are extra-short electric mandolins (overall length just barely above scale length) on the market. With a headphone amp you're good to go. I have survived weeks and weeks in music-unfriendly environments (such as hotel rooms) with several contraptions of this kind. It can even be fun if the amp has a tube gain switch.

[mandocrucian]

I'd also take a vacation .....from the mando !

[JEStanek]

Enjoy your vacation. Be present in it.

Jamie

[belorsch]

Advance research in case of needed fix.
Are there any mando builders in the area that you could happen to find, or hear about while in polite conversation with the locals? Maybe a music store that doesn't mind you trying a few licks? Maybe a mando cafe member in a coffee shop that happens to have a mandolin in their car because they were on the way to a luthier to get an opinion on a technical issue?
The previous scenarios are of course meant to fool people that may be with you that didn't approve of you bringing along the mando in the first place. If there is no need for that then you can make these little side trips part of the vacation experience.

Had I gotten the mando interest I have now before we took our road trip over the holidays I could have probably found all kinds of interesting things to check into while in Tennesse, Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, Oklahoma.

[JeffD]

I have found when I take an extended break from the mandolin that when I get back to it I fall in love all over again. Its a heady feeling.

[Bertram Henze]

I have found when I take an extended break from the mandolin that when I get back to it I fall in love all over again. Its a heady feeling.

The electric substitute is a variation of this - it feels like having an indecent affair (a mandolin in every port, as they say).

[Shanahan]

I'd take another instrument. I had to go a couple weeks without any when my first whistle cracked, and I've made sure not to repeat the experience. If all else fails, I've always got one of these in my pocket.

[Ben Cooper]

With the carry on laws within the U.S. now being instrument friendly. "Why can't you take a Mandolin "? R/

At this point I have my Girouard which I am not comfortable taking on a long trip and my daughter has my Fender so I can't take that one either.

[Ben Cooper]

I will probably stuff at couple of harmonicas in my carry on. That way I can at least have a playing "fix", as it were.

[Bill Baldridge]

I vote with those who say, "Take a vacation from the mandolin and be present with the moment and the other people around you. Then, I would look for some music stores that carry mandolins.

[Ben Cooper]

There are extra-short electric mandolins (overall length just barely above scale length) on the market. With a headphone amp you're good to go. I have survived weeks and weeks in music-unfriendly environments (such as hotel rooms) with several contraptions of this kind. It can even be fun if the amp has a tube gain switch.

Haven't been able to find one of these in my google searches.

[Randy Smith]

If you really can't take your mandolin with you (you don't have a really cheap second mando or your flying, etc.), you no problem. Lots of great examples are here already. Besides, would you really be playing the mando that much anyway?

[Ken Olmstead]

I hate to tell you, but if you not taking your mandolin, it is not considered a "vacation."

Yeah, take a break, listen to lots of tunes critically. Take some music and arrange the pieces for your mandolin when you return. "Tab" them out so to speak!

[Bertram Henze]

Haven't been able to find one of these in my google searches.

Something like this one. You have to restring them like a mandolin, using classical guitar strings of the right gauge. I have one of their traveller guitars modified as an OM (this one with steel strings) which I frequently use.

[Marc Katz]

I have found that a week away from practicing actually can be a good thing bringing fresh enthusiasm and integration of skills. You might have to be patient with yourself the first day or two when you're back, but it's not the worst thing.

Enjoy your vacation !!

[Freddyfingers]

I have not had a vacation in many years that I didn't drive to. So there is always something with me. My wife and I are the band for the most part , so we always have something to work on. If I could not take something along, a few things happen. I look for a music store to try their stuff. Or I play the wife. Wife is not as easy to tune but sounds great when she is.