Re: The "legitimate classical instrument" thing..
Once upon a time, back in the way long ago before times, when I had just been gifted a mandolin (1968), I had to figure out what it was and what to do with it all on my own. It was new to me, unlike anything I'd encountered before. Growing up in New England - not a hotbed of bluegrass activity - no one else knew what it was either. Fortunately my folks had a copy of The Oxford Companion To Music on the bookshelf. The entry on the mandolin was rather dismissive - in retrospect, not surprising, as at this time this tome was dedicated to classical music almost exclusively; it's as if "music" meant "classical music." If I recall correctly, it led with "a minor instrument of limited usefulness" and mentioned the two Vivaldi concerti and I think also the Beethoven piece. The most useful piece of information gleaned from this minuscule entry - it really was just a paragraph - was that it was tuned like a violin. That was a big help. I got a violin pitch pipe and never looked back.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
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