"I really liked your banjo playing"

[chuck3]

OK - gig tonight with my main band - went very well. With this band, out of 30 songs for the night, I do maybe 18 on bass guitar, 8 on upright bass and 4 on mando. (We do a wide range of material.) After the first set, on the break, I'm very happy to see some folks who came to hear us, and the lady in question (whose son is an accomplished jazz pianist) says "I really liked your banjo playing," referring to the two songs in the first set on which I played mando.

I smiled and said "that's actually a mandolin, but our guitarist is going to play banjo on a song in the second set" (which he was and did).

Hope I handled it OK. She's a really nice person and I was actually kind of blown away that she came to hear us, but I feel like you can't just let that go. After, I worried was it a putdown (misperceived, by me to her), but it was certainly not meant that way.

[mrmando]

You didn't tell her you liked her son's drumming?

[chuck3]

You didn't tell her you liked her son's drumming?

lol - that's kind of what I felt like saying - but I've gone to the son's gigs and he's very good, and a good guy. So I didn't think bringing him into this conversation was the right approach.

[Bertram Henze]

Good on you, not to ruin your own accomplishment with words.

In a session the other night, where I sat with my OM right beside the zouk player with his big 10-stringer, I overheard some lady on the far side ask a fellow musician what the difference between our instruments was, and she explained it very nicely to her. Which is just as well because I probably would have answered "his is longer"

[Austin Bob]

We had a choir member's sister come to mass and hear us for the first time last week. Afterwards, she remarked to her brother how well we all sounded and said, "I particularly liked that tiny Hawaiian Guitar."

I took that as a compliment. :-)

[Bertram Henze]

"I particularly liked that tiny Hawaiian Guitar."

Now we all know what kind of shirt you wore.

[Timbofood]

I think you were far and above the moral plane I might have taken, I would have probably given some wisecrack about her mumu or size of her feet or something stupid. Good for you, you did the right thing.

[Steve Zawacki]

Maybe it was a pick-up line?

[journeybear]

I think you handled it very well. You corrected her gently, and offered a bit of helpful information. That's fine. It's important to educate the uninformed or underinformed about mandolins, their nature and capabilities - what I call "furthering mandolin consciousness." Every little bit helps, and if done in a pleasant manner, it's more effective. You did just fine. However, you didn't include the part where you asked for her number so you could go into more depth about these matters.

[bobby bill]

I was always comforted when the audience didn't know what I was playing because that meant they didn't know what it was supposed to sound like. At any rate, no call for snark here - just some friendly education. You handled it well.

[Dazzlebrush]

I took my Mandolin into the office a couple of months ago and a collegue said to me, oh no, not a blooming banjo. My response was, Its not a banjo its a Mandolin, to which he replied well it looks and sounds like a banjo!!!!!

Anyway it turns out he knows what he is talking about because he is a bluegrass fan.
When I asked him if he was into the old stuff Like Flat & Scruggs he said he couldnt say as he hadnt heard anything by them.

I left it at that.
hehee

[Randi Gormley]

I had an elderly gentleman walk into my office last week to talk about something work-related and he spotted my mandolin propped up against the wall (a gig after work) and he asked me whether it was "a mandolin or a banjo" since all he could see was the case. Turns out he had played guitar for years with some local band. so there are people out there who actually know what a mandolin is. I was surprised -- usually mandolin isn't even mentioned as a possibility when someone sees me carrying my case.

[Chunky But Funky]

"I really liked your banjo playing,"

Said no one...ever!

I kid, I kid. I'm actually really enjoying my Enoch Tradesman, even if no one else is!!!

Doug

[catmandu2]

Well if you can't beat em...

Really though, the folk arts, and their tools - especially in the US, I imagine - are a loose concept: I played trad tunes this weekend, while the local "Irish" pub hosted a bluegrass band... One gentlemen asked - referring to my h. dulcimers - "I assume this is Indian?" (referring to his familiarities with the santoor)...we then talked about how the instruments (and likely the Gaels) all derived from continental origins, etc..

[Nevin]

A few months after I moved to our currrent apartmetn I made a ladies day. As she was walking down the street with an instrument in her hands I asked "Is that a viold e gamba". It was. I like living in a place were people walk down the street with viol de gambas.

[bobrem]

A child came up to me at a gig once and said of my mando: "Aren't you a little big for that?"

[Isaac Revard]

This woman could have had some kind of medical history which may explain her confusion, maybe a lack of sleep, or half a dozen other things. Maybe you should mature a bit and appreciate the fact that she enjoyed what you set out to do. You seriously can't let this go, you had to create a feed over it? I wouldn't have given this a second thought. I would have shared laughs with her, but since I wasn't there I'll just have to laugh about how serious people take themselves.

[farmerjones]

I have to ask myself, "What would Ruffus T. Firefly (Groucho Marx) say?"
Girl: "I really liked your banjo playing."
RTF: "I really liked your banjo playing, too"
Girl: "But I wasn't playing a banjo."
RTF: "Well, that makes two of us"

[karlmando]

I would say that most of the people that I know don't know what a mandolin is/looks like, and don't know what bluegrass music is. Most could identify a banjo through, and many a ukelele, but mandolin is just off the radar of mainstream America. Doesn't upset my ego one bit though. Everybody is into different things.

[journeybear]

This woman could have had some kind of medical history which may explain her confusion, maybe a lack of sleep, or half a dozen other things. Maybe you should mature a bit and appreciate the fact that she enjoyed what you set out to do. You seriously can't let this go, you had to create a feed over it? I wouldn't have given this a second thought. I would have shared laughs with her, but since I wasn't there I'll just have to laugh about how serious people take themselves.

What the -? The OP related a funny story, that's about the whole size of it. He handled it well, as almost everyone who has chimed in agrees. Except for you, who feels it necessary to rip him a new one over a pretty benign, innocuous subject. Maybe you should mature a bit, and, if you can find some objectivity and perspective in your character, laugh about how seriously you are taking yourself. Unless, of course, you're not serious. But it looks like you are. Too bad for you.

Look. You're new here, so maybe you haven't figured this out yet. We kid a lot around here, but it's usually some sort of good-natured tweaking. There's no need for unkindness here.

[wannabethile]

While walking and carrying my mandolin in its case with me, I've had folks ask me where I was going to go play tennis...
Good grief.

[Timbofood]

Yeah, I don't follow you either Zeek.
I think OP was a perfect mandolin ambassador!
Nice Groucho reference there Farmerjones!
That may open an entire new can of film references!
"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas,
How he got into my pajamas I may never know"

[journeybear]

Thank you. Thank yo!

[Timbofood]

If I hold you any closer, I'll be behind you!

[Kevin Stueve]

Yeah, I don't follow you either Zeek.
I think OP was a perfect mandolin ambassador!
Nice Groucho reference there Farmerjones!
That may open an entire new can of film references!
"I once shot an elephant in my pajamas,
How he got into my pajamas I may never know"

Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend. Inside the dog it is too dark to read.