Rissa

So I brought my mandolin to a jam session Sunday, first one with the Loar. It was a bit of a struggle, since I just learned some basic chords and have had no practice actually playing back-up. I still don't understand the whole "in the key of" thing to help figure out chords, and I sure am having a hard time figuring out learning to play by ear. It's a skill that I will develop (I hope) eventually. So to get through tunes, I watched the other mandolin picker and tried to follow what he ...

I've been playing fiddle for a couple months, but was desperately torn between choosing to play the fiddle or playing the mandolin. One of my friends put the idea in my head as well, and kept saying I could play the mandolin every time I mentioned I was going to go out and buy a fiddle. So after much thought, and in my typical style, I said to myself, "F it...I'm getting a mandolin too." Although what I said to my friends was, "I can't find a man, so I bought me a mandolin." ...