Today While Mandolinin

[Jim Hudson]

TWM - got the band back together for a gig in our "home" neighborhood bar, first time in over two months. Was worried we'd be loose but felt like putting on your favorite old slippers, comfortable and tight in all the right places. Even did some totally impromptu solo phrase swapping with the fiddle. Playing music has such a profoundly joyous effect sometimes, would hate to live without it!

[Mateus]

TWM...I've continued developping a mando side project that I hope will work out. Keep your eyes on this thread for more details in the near-ish future!

[JeffD]

Last night while mandolinning... rehearsing with my Charlie Poole tribute band, and we got to laughing so hard my ribs hurt.

After last night, there is nothing more I need to accomplish in music.

[Traceyleezle]

Today while mandolinin I got lost in a song and what I mean by that is I actually played it with feeling. I put some emotion into each chord, each movement of my hands and really let how I was feeling flow into my playing. It was an epiphany of sorts and a wonderful way to spend the evening.

[soliver]

Today while mandolinin I got lost in a song and what I mean by that is I actually played it with feeling. I put some emotion into each chord, each movement of my hands and really let how I was feeling flow into my playing. It was an epiphany of sorts and a wonderful way to spend the evening.

Very cool!... any luck in the teacher hunt yet?

[Al Trujillo]

TWM, ...Was the first time the neighbors didn't toss rocks at me while I sat and played on the back porch. Growth is measured in any way I can take it. ��

[lenf12]

You live in tough neighborhood Al. Glad they're finally cutting you some slack...

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[JeffD]

I know a fellow who was shot at, while sitting on his porch playing the banjo.

While the events are true and a matter of record, I don't personally know the whole story, or the motivation, or even, how good a banjo player he was or wasn't.

[Emmett Marshall]

I almost didn't practice today until I ran across a book in my book case that I had read 20+ years ago. It's called, "Discipline: The Gateway to Freedom." In that book, the very distinguished author mentions how a sculptor isn't free to create until he has mastered the use of all his tools and the medium he intends to work with. I finished dusting the book shelf and settled down with my octave mandolin - getting back to work on that 78 bar song I've been trying to get down for ages now. I don't know how long it's going to take me to master that song and make it my own, but I'm renewing my commitment to it now.

[Traceyleezle]

Very cool!... any luck in the teacher hunt yet?

I have two names...but no one is calling me back. :/

[Drew Egerton]

TWM, I played the fire out of my brand new mandolin! Thursday night I purchased a 2016 Skip Kelley 'vintage' F5 from mandomutt.com

This mandolin is killer! Very Loar-like tone from what I can tell, though I've never actually played a Loar first hand...
I still love my Flatbush, but this thing just has amazing tone. I'll post more details on it later, have to get back to playing!

[Emmett Marshall]

`Congrats on your new mandolin Drew. I've heard great things about those Skip Kellys, but never heard one "live" myself. I hope it brings you many years of musical joy!

[soliver]

YWM I took the time to read through the first lesson on FFcP on the Jazzmando site... When wifey asked what I was reading, I shared and showed her the concepts and she seemed genuinely interested... Very cool. Later in the evening I practiced but found my hand cramping a little in position 2... It was a bit of a stretch. Very cool stuff that I hope I can keep myself disciplined to practice (I fail agregiously at practicing scales, especially because playing tunes is way more fun)... Also getting very adept at "Shove that pig's foot a little closer the fire"... Very fun tune with the ease with which you can add double stops and drones.

[Mark Gunter]

YWM I played a bit on the deck at a local coffee shop and garnered a few admirers - or very nice people who offered kind words about my attempts at playing. Chick Magnet. Wannabe mandolinist. Caffeine, music and fun.

[red7flag]

Today While Mandolinin... I took a post from Mark Wilson and tried playing Solder's Joy, in the second position (I think) starting with the A on the 3rd string 7th fret and going up. Thanks Mark.

[BJ O'Day]

TWM, I went to a local session and played at speeds I have not attained before. Not quite real session speed but closer and closer.
BJ

[michaelcj]

Spent most of the day playing my, new to me, Ratliff RA5. Happy camper…. Topped it off by playing along with most of Season 3 of the Transatlantic Sessions [DVD]…. Cool thing is no one shoots me the stink-eye when I screw up.

Also installed a Brekke bridge on my 97 year old A2 to counter a bit of aged sinkage [some of us can relate to that]

[Mike001]

Ordered my first mando yesterday. An Eastman MD505 from Robert at Folkmusician. He was great to deal with and I can't wait to get it! I had also been researching picks all day and decided I wanted to try a Dawg pick and here's where the story gets weird. I work as a stage tech on the Grand Ole Opry so my job is to get the performers on stage and hooked up. Last night we had Tommy Emmanuel on and he was awesome. When he finished his performance he was walking off and I noticed he had dropped his capo. I scooped it up and figured I would get it back to him as soon as I finished setting the next act. So a few minutes later I walked back to his dressing room and gave it to him. He was so nice and was very glad to see that capo.

Now I collect guitar picks and most of them I get are the ones I find laying on the stage after people drop them. I wanted one of Tommy's picks real bad but I knew he used a thumbpick so I figured it would never happen. Anyway I thought what the hell I'm going to ask him and see what happens. To my surprise he stands up, reaches in his pocket and pulls out a large brown colored triangle shaped pick. I didn't really get a good look at it and stuck it in my pocket, thanked him about 5 times and walked out. Like a dog with a bone I quickly found a secluded corner and pulled it out to take a closer look. When I saw it I was shocked to see that it was a big thick Dawg pick exactly like the one I was going to order. Stranger than strange.

[Randi Gormley]

YWM I was at our usual Sunday session when the bodhran player brings down this old mandolin her mother had picked up at a tag sale for 25 cents. Looked like a Kay derivative with a huge clunky bridge and the possibility of a bit of a bow in the neck. The rest looked pretty solid but it had what appeared to be the (uck) original strings on it from the 1940s or whenever, mostly snapped off, and a layer of matted dirt. Pretty cool. She's ordered strings for it and plans to clean it up. If it's unusable, she can hang it on the wall, but for 25 cents, it was definitely worth the money! Her mom picked up a fiddle (minus sound post, bridge, tailpiece and strings) for 50 cents that might actually be worth more than she paid for it. That's on the wall right now, lending atmosphere to the bar.

Outside of that, some great tunes were had.

[Mateus]

Ordered my first mando yesterday. An Eastman MD505 from Robert at Folkmusician. He was great to deal with and I can't wait to get it! I had also been researching picks all day and decided I wanted to try a Dawg pick and here's where the story gets weird. I work as a stage tech on the Grand Ole Opry so my job is to get the performers on stage and hooked up. Last night we had Tommy Emmanuel on and he was awesome. When he finished his performance he was walking off and I noticed he had dropped his capo. I scooped it up and figured I would get it back to him as soon as I finished setting the next act. So a few minutes later I walked back to his dressing room and gave it to him. He was so nice and was very glad to see that capo.

Now I collect guitar picks and most of them I get are the ones I find laying on the stage after people drop them. I wanted one of Tommy's picks real bad but I knew he used a thumbpick so I figured it would never happen. Anyway I thought what the hell I'm going to ask him and see what happens. To my surprise he stands up, reaches in his pocket and pulls out a large brown colored triangle shaped pick. I didn't really get a good look at it and stuck it in my pocket, thanked him about 5 times and walked out. Like a dog with a bone I quickly found a secluded corner and pulled it out to take a closer look. When I saw it I was shocked to see that it was a big thick Dawg pick exactly like the one I was going to order. Stranger than strange.

That's simply awesome!

[Emmett Marshall]

I treasure moments just like this one. A cool midnight air. A gentle, rhythmic breeze that reaches and caresses through an open window. A melody softly piercing the evening silence - reaching back - sharing all that a soul has to offer in return. Sometimes it's more than enough just to be alive.

[Jeff Mando]

YWM I was at our usual Sunday session when the bodhran player brings down this old mandolin her mother had picked up at a tag sale for 25 cents. If it's unusable, she can hang it on the wall, but for 25 cents, it was definitely worth the money! Her mom picked up a fiddle (minus sound post, bridge, tailpiece and strings) for 50 cents that might actually be worth more than she paid for it.

I may have you beat....I picked up a Johnny Cash 45 on the Sun label for a penny at a yard sale........I asked the lady, "a penny?" She replied, "I can't take any less..................."

[Emmett Marshall]

Walked into a pawn shop in a little town in Colorado (before the advent of the Internet) and paid $225 for a near mint, 1928 Buescher Alto Sax that was 24K gold plated from top to bottom. The pawn broker was sick and his brother was filling in. He had no clue what it was worth, and I assume whoever pawned it didn't have a clue either. All I had to do was get it repadded and restore the case. It was valued in the thousands and played as sweet as honey. I played it for over 20 years before it got stolen out the back of my Jeep Cherokee after a gig at a hotel in Colorado Springs. It never turned up again. I've never had that kind of luck buying an instrument again either. Now that everyone has the Internet, it's pretty impossible, I think, to get deals like that at pawn shops.

[JeffD]

Last night at our jam the two strongest fiddle players were conspicuously absent. I kept things from devolving into a meet and greet. I keep a few tunes in mind at all times, so that when the energy starts to fail, I can jump in and play a new tune, and get things back on track.

We run a kind of traffic jam type session. No moderator, no taking turns, no calling out tunes and keys, very primitive. You just start a tune "as the spirit moves you", and everyone joins in. And then someone else starts one inspired by the last one and off we go. Seven eight tunes later the music pauses briefly, and then picks up in a different direction.

It works for us. Just a bunch of folks who get together once a week and play music with each other. For over 30 years. One of these days we'll get it right.

[Mark Wilson]

TWM I sat on the picnic table on the far end of the parking lot at work and played for the remaining half of my lunch.

A coworker wondered out. Normally I would stop and talk - not particularly wanting to play while being observed. Instead, I picked my best round of Arkansas Traveler. He listened and said 'man I wish I had took up playing'. small steps