Hey from Michigan!~

  1. Fayedetoblack
    Fayedetoblack
    Hey everyone! I'm new to this and felt that I would introduce myself. I bought an Eastman MD305 recently and am ready to try to learn this thing. I've played wind instruments in the past and found that the best way to keep myself motivated when learning a new instrument is to surround myself with like-minded people! So that's what brought me here.

    A bit about me, a while back I watched some video on the internet with someone playing their rendition of Ave Maria, which made me curious about mandolin, and I went down a rabbit hole. I started then with a rogue mandolin with no knowledge of how to set it up (or that it needed one) , and it really put me off when the D string kept breaking on it. But fast forward a couple years and I found out more about the importance of a proper set up, etc, and decided to give it another try. I really enjoy celtic, and classical music played on mandolin so I suppose I'll start there, but in my experience I am sure that with the more I learn, I'll branch out to other styles of music as well!

    To start off a bit of discussion, what brought you all to mandolin? What styles do you like? I look forward to meeting everyone!~

    Faye
  2. NDO
    NDO
    Welcome Faye!
    I started down the same rabbit hole last year by buying a Rogue and then at Christmas upgrading to an Eastman MD605. I’ve been playing eight months now and play mostly country and old rock and folk music. This is my first foray into stringed instruments but I’ve been playing harmonica for about twenty years (but just three or four in a gigging band) and just started doing some vocals in the last year or two.
    You’ve definitely come to the right place!
    Don
  3. Fayedetoblack
    Fayedetoblack
    Hey Don, thanks for the reply! What are some of your favorite rock and folk songs to play? I love rock!
    Faye
  4. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    Hey Faye, glad you are here!

    I am a recalcitrant, recidivist, incorrigible Newbie, but nobody is keeping score. Six years ago I decided that it was about time I started playing the banjo I had been hanging onto for the last 45 years thinking, heck you just pick it back up where you left off when you were a kid. Didn't work out. The re-learning process was not fun. So I said heck with that, if I have to start from scratch and be frustrated I would rather start something NEW from scratch and have fun. So I picked up a mandolin-banjo and from there the slope was slippery and fun. Never looked back. Not many folks my age can claim to be a Newbie at anything so I am proud to be here (and still having fun).

    I played various clarinets and saxophones in the school band. I never took it seriously but I was good enough to avoid being asked to leave the band. So I do (still) read music (rather clumsily). Started the banjo when the Kingston Trio hit the pop charts.

    I enjoy learning fiddle tunes, mostly Celtic or old-time North American, some bluegrass, and a bit of just about anything. I usually do the Tune A Month tune, whether I like the tune or not to keep from getting stale.

    I trust you have found Baron Collins-Hill and his website www.mandolessons.com . He is a great free resource for lessons on technique and on individual tunes. Many of us have learned a lot from him. There are plenty more, like Banjo Ben Clark, Bradley Laird, Mike Marshall, and on and on, who have videos for sale with free samples.
  5. Fayedetoblack
    Fayedetoblack
    Hey! Thanks for the link, it's really appreciated. I actually hadn't found that page as of yet, and thanks for the response! I also played clarinet in school band myself! That's where I started learning music.
  6. NDO
    NDO
    Okay, I’m a reformed Bb clarinet and alto sax player too I played through grade school and was first chair but (to my chagrin) quit when I hit high school because I didn’t think it was cool. Wish I’d kept the instruments and the motivation! Although I really do prefer harmonica for wind instruments and now my new love of strings with the mandolin.

    Here’s my current list of memorized tunes and vocals but my band does a lot more Seger, Dylan, America, Credence, Eagles, Petty, Clapton, Lightfoot, Yoakum, Strait, Jackson, Buffett, etc. that I do harmonica and/or harmony or lead vocals with.

    Amarillo by Morning
    Modern Day Romance
    Tequila Sunrise
    An American Dream
    I can’t Help Falling In Love
    Toes
    Remember When
    Dance Little Jean
    Feliz Navidad
    Fallin’ in and out of Love
    Amie
    Ripplin’ Waters
    Wagon Wheel
    The Walk
    Love, Me
    With a Little Help From My Friends
    All of Me
    Country Roads
    Leavin’ On a Jet Plane
    Lyin’ Eyes
    Picture
    Son of a Son of a Sailor
    Blues Man
    A Pirate Looks at 40
    Much Too Young
    He Went to Paris
    Mary Jane’s Last Dance
    Hallelujah
    Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

    Again welcome and enjoy your trip down this rabbit hole!
  7. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Don, that's quite a list! When you say "memorize," do you mean melody, chords or both?
  8. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Howdie Faye,
    Great to "meet" you!
    Lotta former clarinet players here, it seems, me included, but that was a long time ago and many miles away. I hadn't played any music in many years when I picked up a mandolin last year (though I wanted one for a long time). I love it, it's so fun.... but I have a long way to go ... trying to focus on the journey.
    There's so many cool people here, you've come to the right place!

    I started with a '98 Kentucky KM-200S (now loaned to my brother). Now mainly playing my wonderful 40's Strad-O-Lin; but I also have a '20 Morris flat top, a '98 Mid Mo mandola, and a 1920's 4 string banjo mandolin resto mod, all of which are so much fun, even if I don't play them very well!
  9. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Welcome to the Newbies group, Faye. It's a great place to hang out.

    As to how I got started with mandolin, my son took violin lessons years ago. One weekend we took a trip to a nearby RV park that advertised a potluck dinner and jamming afterward. I was hooked immediately, never having experienced such a thing. That was my first exposure to mandolin and it was love at first sight/sound. Bought a Harmony at a pawn shop for $50 and started lessons. Unfortunately, the teaching style didn't work for me. Decided to start again after about 15 years when my son's violin teacher, who had become my best girl friend, said she could teach me mandolin. I still take lessons from her, and about once a month take a lesson from my original teacher.
  10. NDO
    NDO
    Sherry, I consider it memorized when I have the chords and lyrics and any “required” intro or outtro picking (or in the case of a half dozen or so of them, a harp break or two) to the point where I’m comfortable playing/singing it in public without looking at a cheat
    Sheet.
  11. Fayedetoblack
    Fayedetoblack
    Thanks for the warm welcome and responses everyone!
  12. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    Welcome to the Newbies group, Faye!

    My father-in-law played guitar and mandolin. He bought an inexpensive mandolin, and when we visited I would try to pick out a melody on the mandolin and he played chords on the guitar. Picking melodies seemed kind of natural on the mandolin. I have never played any other musical instrument. Several years after my father-in-law passed away, my wife wanted to bring his mandolin to our house to keep it from disappearing. We took it to a local shop to get new strings, etc (I knew nothing at all about stringed instruments). They told us it started coming apart when they put strings on it. My wife encouraged me to buy a mandolin from them, which I did. After trying to learn to play it for a while, the saddle broke. In tring to figure out how to repair it, I ran across this forum and Rob Meldrum's e-book. I got it set up and it sounded nice. Then the saddle broke again. My wife encouraged me to buy a better mandolin, so I bought an Eastman MD505 from The Mandolin Store (on sale--it was a blem). It was a lot easier to play and (to me) sounded great. Since then, I have been (SLOWLY!) learning to read music (I can read it pretty well now and tap out the time signature), but I know I don't practice nearly enough to get past the newbie stage. I don't care -- I'm having fun!

    I prefer Gospel, Celtic and classical. Bluegrass looks fun, but so far I haven't tried it.

    Probably more information about me than you wanted, but hey, you asked! Have fun!
  13. Fayedetoblack
    Fayedetoblack
    SOMorris- Not at all! I love hearing others stories about how they began. I got my start back in middle school, I had a friend who played cello and wound up begging my parents to let me play clarinet (my mom had played and the thing always fascinated me.) Well, I wound up playing a ton of instruments after that. It was like some sort of bug! Nothing really ever satisfied me. Well, over the course of the years I started to be enamored by the sound of the mandolin, and now years later I'm happy! Almost like I was guided here. Thanks for your post!
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