Hi all,
Just registered, been meaning to do it for ages as I've been relying on your posts for a long time now researching stuff - thanks for that!
First picked up a mandolin in my teens (well, "borrowed" it from my stepdad) when I was trying and failing at guitar (everyone wants to be a rockstar in their teens right?) and for some daft reason went back to continue to beat my head on the brick wall that was learning guitar for decades with no progress whatsoever.
Now in my 40s and thanks to a local folk-club starting (which involved another year of head-to-wall contact on guitar...) I "borrowed" that mandolin again - made more progress in three weeks than the previous 3 decades - turns out my brain is tuned in fifths...
Now a year and a bit on I'm the proud owner of a Vintage (brand, not age) mandolin, an Ashbury Style-E Octave Mandola (which I had fitted with a Headway under-saddle pickup), a 1980's Gibson-era Epiphone tenor banjo, my trusty old Italian built Eko Ranger from the 70s which I've re-tuned in NST (almost all fifths, just about works for me!), and a now largely redundant Crafter electro-acoustic guitar. Oh and I restrung my daughter's bright pink Mahalo Uke in GDAe tune which is hilarious in a trad-folk session...
I'm playing mostly Irish, Scots and English traditional folk and dance tunes and don't see that changing much anytime soon. I'm certainly no virtuoso, it still takes a good while to get a new tune down, I'm only just starting to read music (my 8 yo daughter's way ahead of me there...) and I still can't play by ear - I'll get there one day I'm sure. Current project is to learn a whole Morris Dance tradition as it's a very big thing in the town where I live - just the playing, the dancing looks too much like hard work!
Like all string players I suffer badly from Gear Acquisition Syndrome, I've got my eye on adding to the arsenal with an electric tenor guitar or/and a 'zouk at the moment...
Anyway, thanks for letting me in!
C
Bookmarks