How has the mandolin changed your life?

[Bertram Henze]

I quit watching TV too. Also smoking and drinking. Nightclubbing -- that's out. Women -- forget about it. I've quit eating sweets and make sure to brush and floss 4 times a day. Also make sure to look both ways before crossing the street. Cancelled all my subscriptions to various magazines and other periodicals. And I quit doing the hootchy-coo.

Yes, but are you still exhaling carbon dioxide?

[Pasha Alden]

The mandolin allowed me to rediscover my musicality again. I knew it was there, but always struggled to find the instrument suitable for my hands, my style, etc.
The mandolin added a different dimension to my life: am also participating in choir singing and so I have many different friends.
The mandolin helped me further highlight the abilities of blind and visually impaired people in SA, creating greater awareness and dealing with prejudice around blindness.

There is, for me, also something meditative about playing the mandolin -
it is healing - but perhaps we can say that for music? Anyhow however it is: long live music - long live the mandolin!

[Ellen T]

Just a whoops, sorry.

[lorrainehornig]

After growing bored with my job and with a planned retirement in 5 years, I was examining everything that had great meaning in my life. The mandolin was one of them. 2.5 years ago I bought a new mandolin and fairly quickly got back to my former proficiency. I started taking private lessons and am enrolled in the artistworks program. Playing mandolin gives me great peace of mind and a level of accomplishment I haven't felt at my day job in years. For me, mandolin isn't a hobby...I love it and am dedicated to learning. This will be a passion that will stay with me the remainder go my days.

[lenf12]

I'm the best mandolin player among all of my colleagues at work.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[Beanzy]

I bought a mandolin in 2009 but only began practicing daily in 2011.... now my hair has gone white and is thinning.

[Ben Cooper]

That's one. I listen to music with a different appreciation of skill and expression. Playing mandolin has also changed the music I like, and made visits to music shops a favourite thing to do when visiting new places. It has also intensified relationships with existing friends and family members who like music.

And I'm resisting MAS so far, so it's all been change for the better.

PS: I forgot an important point: The mandolin is my first proper instrument. When I was younger I tried keyboards, saxophone, and some others. The mandolin is the first that I stuck with. So it has changed my life by being "my" instrument and showing me that, yes, I can play music. It has made me a musician - it has given me music as a hobby, not just mandolin.

Yes! Playing mandolin has changed how I listen, even though I have been a singer for most of my life. I also agree that it has changed the music I listen to on a regular basis. I still love my rock and roll and metal and all that (as well as the classical I grew up with), but it has definitely broadened my horizons. I am also more successful with this fine instrument than with any other I have tried over the long years (including guitar, bass, trumpet, piano, harmonica, etc).
It has made me a more well rounded musician. I am still just a learner/padwan, but I feel the mandolin "Force" flowing through me.

[Bertram Henze]

I am still just a learner/padwan, but I feel the mandolin "Force" flowing through me.

Beware of the dark side...

[Pasha Alden]

Beanzie with the white hair? <smile>

[Loretta Callahan]

After attempting the piano, ukulele, guitar and penny whistle, I finally found something I could play. Been about 5 years of being serious about practicing and it's paying off. It's the first instrument I can play with and in front others and feel comfortable. Like Jamie, it's given me an appreciation of other musicians. Playing the mandolin has also given me a love of the banjo and accordion, much to the chagrin of some friends and family.

[Londy]

I started playing music on the piano and B3 Hammond organ. I still enjoy playing but never thought to take up another instrument until a mandolin was given to me as a Christmas gift. I played around with it for a few years before getting serious about learning how to really play. While researching the instrument, a whole new world started to open up. The wonderful versatility, new genres and styles of playing this little Italian instrument started to grow on me. The more I learned the more I was hooked. Then I found the cafe and that provided a forum where like minded people can get together for this niche instrument. What I like most about the mandolin besides playing it is getting to know the people. Whats really cool is famous or not, we are all just people who like the same thing and are very touchable. Unlike the rock stars i used to like. Now my musical interest is endless and the mandolin has added much color and variety to music I never thought existed. To me, this is a huge change. Sundays have been dedicated to family, great food, music & good wine!

Lascia per mangiare, bere, giocare a mandolino e essere allegri! saluto!

[Eddie Sheehy]

I used to have no mandolins and plenty of Ca$H... Now I have plenty of mandolins and no ca$h... and I NEED more mandolins...NOW!

[Ben Cooper]

Beware of the dark side...

Or would the be the "Dork side...."

[journeybear]

That's not the dark side - this is. People who take up an instrument sometimes forget what they are giving up in return. They fool themselves into thinking it will be all fun and games, girls and beer, truth and light. It is not. Not by a long shot.

When I first encountered the mandolin I had many interests and hopes and dreams and plans for the future. In time, one by one, they all fell away, leaving me with just this one: that somehow playing the mandolin would lead me to a place where being good enough at playing this instrument will bring me everything I've always wanted. Meanwhile, I have not traveled, nor visited the great wonders of nature, nor seen the great works of art, nor read the great works of literature, nor met my soul mate, nor raised children, nor enjoyed much of what life has to offer. No, I have devoted myself to perfecting my craft, hoping this will suffice for satisfaction and fulfillment, wishing it will bring me all I have always wanted, and hoping all my efforts will not have been in vain, that my single-minded devotion to it will reap some tangible benefit of substantial worth.

The mandolin is a cruel, selfish mistress, demanding all attention be paid to her constantly, offering nothing in return other than the false hope that the time and effort and devotion paid to her at the exclusion of all others will reap some rewards. It will not. Or it hasn't happened yet. But I keep hoping. I keep hoping that with just a little more time and devotion my efforts will be rewarded. I keep hoping I will live long enough for this to come to pass, while I am still able to enjoy it. This seems less likely to occur with each passing day. But I keep hoping. Some say faith is belief without proof. That's what's happened to me, hoping that playing this instrument will bring me something more
than the mere enjoyment of playing it fairly well, sometimes. I have given my life over to self-delusion. I am the mandolin's fool.

[Bertram Henze]

People who take up an instrument sometimes forget what they are giving up in return...
...
The mandolin is a cruel, selfish mistress, demanding all attention be paid to her constantly, offering nothing in return other than the false hope that the time and effort and devotion paid to her at the exclusion of all others will reap some rewards.

Sounds familiar.

The moonlight shows us for what we really are


But seriously, I have given up nothing worth keeping.

[Ron McMillan]

It hasn't.

[Londy]

"I have given my life over to self-delusion. I am the mandolin's fool."

...that can be a song.

[Pasha Alden]

Londy, that does sound like a song. Such dedication.

[Ellen T]

I think I am glad that I am just a hobbyist. I own my mandolin; it does not own me.

[Michael Bridges]

Very seriously, the mandolin has given me back my music. After 25 or so years drifted away from playing, while the kids grew up, life stuff happened, etc., I'd actually forgotten what a huge piece of my life music had always been up until then. After I discovered this wonderful, fun, exciting, frustrating, maddening little instrument, I feel like some of the best parts of me have woken-up, things I didn't even realize I was missing. It's also introduced me to a lot of interesting folks, both here on the Cafe (Thanks, Kris, Lorainne, Bill, among others), and in person (Marty, David, Tommy, Pete, and more). I'd forgotten that friends-in-music are some of the best people you'll ever find.