The first song you learned

[paulspafford]

Okay, as a teenager, I was a punk rocker. The guy who played bass with me had forgotten his bass, so I gave him my guitar, and I tuned up an ancient mandolin my dad owned. My first song was by a Canadian punk band called The Forgotten Rebels: Bones in the Hallway.

[Cheryl Watson]

Red-haired Boy with Chris Thile's DVD. I had already played guitar for many years when I took up the mandolin, so I was able to apply my guitar picking skills and musical knowledge to the mandolin. The challenge was to not play the mandolin like you play guitar.

[Barry Wilson]

first was boat on a river by styx. that song was what a mandolin should be to me when I started.

[Spencer]

Lonesome Indian in D which evolved in to He's Coming to Us Dead.

[Richard Eskite]

Red Haired Boy for me, too. Brad Laird video instruction.

[Gerry Hastie]

Red Haired Boy was the first tune I got good at and convinced me that mandolin was the way forward.

[Richard Eskite]

Soon after Red Haired Boy, though, my 83 year old Mom and I worked out Skye Boat Song together. She told me when I had it right.

[Londy]

For mando it was Golden Slippers

[jimbob]

soldiers's joy

[farmerjones]

i downloaded the two finger chords from here at the Caf'e, so it could have been any number of I-IV-V tunes. But it also may have been Wikki Before Breakfast, because it stays so close to the scale. That was m' first tune on a tin whistle for sure.

[dawgmike94]

It was wierd, i had been learning violin/fiddle since I was 9, and I was about 13 at the time. I was just barely ok on the violin, but i wouldn't hardly ever practice much. I was playing in a school-sponsored bluegrass band, and they had a little old starter mandolin in the band room which I picked up, tuned, and then proceeded to play Precious Memories by Bill Monroe. I don't know why I played that, I guess it was just the first mandolin song that came to mind. Anyway, the sparks were struck, the fire was lit, and I think I have been consumed. (By the way, I have since went back and become proficient on the violin, though I am definitely not on the level that I am to with my mandolin)

[Raider rider]

have worked two days about 20 minutes each on Old Joe Clark. Almost have it down. Next I am going to start on a version I downloaded that is more ornate of Amazing Grace. Going to video tape that and send it to my Mom and sister to see.

[Mandophyte]

I got a tutor with my first mandolin, but didn't know any of the tunes. Then I had this brainwave, I'd already got a collection of tunes deeply embedded in my head. So a ordered a book of nursery rhymes.

First tune Ba Ba Black Sheep! Second tune Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!

Onward and upward!

[Mandoak]

One big thank you to eveybody from page two to here (and future).
These are greats songs to learn.

[narrick]

i think it was the road to lisdoonvarna, or maybe the red haired boy

[papabear075]

First tune was Ripple. I really should start learning more songs. I mostly just strum out chords and see what sounds good together. I need people to play with.

[Bertram Henze]

Can any of you remember how you learned to walk as a child? Probably not.
Similar to that, my first steps with the mandolin (early 80s) have completely vanished from my memory. I think the Kesh Jig, Morrison's and King of the Fairies must have been among my first tunes, but that is just guessing.

[AlanN]

Arkansas Traveller and 8th of January, from tabs written out (still got em) by the guy I took a first lesson from (who played both right- and left-handed). Remember it like it was yesterday, and this was in 1977.

[Jim Yates]

In the early sixties I bought a Martin bowl back for $20 at a "We Buy Sell Anything" joint. I was into the Kweskin Jug Band and I believe the first (or one of the first)song I learned was My Gal. It's a tune that I still play today.

[Bertram Henze]

Arkansas Traveller and 8th of January, from tabs written out (still got em) by the guy I took a first lesson from (who played both right- and left-handed). Remember it like it was yesterday, and this was in 1977.

Now that is interesting. Memories connected with other people seem to last longer; that goes with the fact that most Irish musicians can't remember the name of a tune but they remember exactly whom they learned it from.

My acquaintance with the mandolin, OTOH, was a one-man adventure. But I wouldn't change a thing.

[Dennis Peacock]

Flop Eared Mule and then Boil 'em Cabbage Down.
I'm still learning....I'm finding it hard to learn at age 53 but I am making progress.

[Toycona]

Red Haired Boy and St. Anne's Reel

[Grub]

Winter Winds by Mumford & Sons

[rickjames]

That would be "Wayfaring Stranger" In A minor...
I think it a cool song.
rick

[tatermanic]

cripple creek in G