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Thread: Why play Mandolin?

  1. #1
    They seem to call me Cohl AndSoItBegandolin's Avatar
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    Default Why play Mandolin?

    So first off, Id like to say hello, I am a new member just joined tonight after reading through the forums for the past few weeks leading up to my first Mando purchase. I can honestly say I went against a lot of opinions and bought a Savannah F-100 on the principle that I consider it more of an investment in my interest. Its cheap and sounds nothing like the others that were hanging with it but it'll get me started.

    As I said I've been reading the forums for a few weeks now and the mandolin has really come to life in my mind. I'm excited to learn a new instrument (after 7 yrs of guitar/bass) and I would like to hear some input on your reasons for playing mandolin. Whats your story, how did you start, why did you start? How long have you played?

    As for me, after playing guitar and bass for so long my musical interest dipped into bluegrass and I became interested in the mandolin. My brother in law picked up a banjo from ebay about a year ago and I knew I had someone I could jam with. Since then I started tracing the old bluegrass songs back to their roots in old folk music. I now have a strong desire to play some of the more folksy style music on my mando as opposed to purely bluegrass.

    So lets hear it, why the mandolin??

  2. #2

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    The woman.
    Gunga......Gunga.....Gu-Lunga

  3. #3
    Registered User Jesse Harmon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Coming from classical guitar I just enjoyed playing simple melody for a change. There is just something about the sound that hooks you like a drug.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Hey welcome to cafe and congrats on embarking on your journey ASIB- I took my step into old-timey via banjos about 10 years ago myself...after 40 years of classical/flamenco guitar. Folk music healed me from the neuroticisms of the classical idioms.

    I don't play much mandolin these days--but mando got me back into fiddle playing, which is my desert-island stringed axe. Oh, and it got me nto tenor banjo playing--yeah, the mandolin I'd say is what got me into TB, for sure.

    These days, it's fiddle, melodeon, hammered dulcimer, for Irish and old-time, and woodwinds and some tenor banjo, for jazz

    Doesn't matter the instrument--whatever takes you on a journey through music

  5. #5
    They seem to call me Cohl AndSoItBegandolin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I actually made the tough decision between fiddle and mando. I decided to go with the mando after learning that it was tuned identically to the mando and with my guitar background I figured it would be more comfortable for me to make the transition to fiddle later. Now that I have the mandolin, that transition seems farther than it ever was because I have serious trouble setting the mando down once I get rockin back and forth with it

  6. #6
    Slow your roll. greg_tsam's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I always felt I had some ind of inner need to express myself musically. I've even woken from dreams where I was composing a violin concerto for two violins and the music played in my head for 5minutes after being awake. But I had no training, couldn't play anything and certainly couldn't write it down. I tried the guitar and played/struggled with it off and on for 5-7 years and was so frustrated that I was convinced I had no musical talent. Luckily, a friend told me if I bought an instrument he would teach me music. I've always loved the fiddle, banjo, greek bouzuki and the mandolin but the mandolin was on sale and it was close and I started.

    That was 8 years ago and I haven't put it down since.
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  7. #7

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I started playing mandolin because:
    A) it fit in the overhead bin of an airplane - no questions asked and
    B) with so many guitar players around why not?

    I started playing guitar 36 yrs ago. bass 27 years ago, mandolin 21 years ago.
    I still play all three (both acoustic and electric - even upright bass) often, and love them all - but feel most confident on mandolin.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Greg-

    I like hearing stories of inspirations and epiphanies. Music was always the thing that did it for me--ever since age 8 when I first fell in love wth sax, and at age 11 when I got an electric guitar and amp under the chrstmas tree. Powerful moments I relive all the time..

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    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Welcome to the mandolin cafe and the world of mandolin music! I've posted before, but it is true, I started playing mandolin mostly by accident. A friend had an old beater and asked if I could change the strings and tune it up. All I knew was mandolin was tuned like the violin, which I've played for many years. So I fix up and tune this mando, and just started messing around on it, and...three years later I'm totally hooked on it. I still enjoy guitar, a little, but hardly play it. Like catmandu, mandolin got me back into playing fiddle again. What I like best about mandolin:
    1. The whole family of mando instruments - I took up octave mandolin, mandola and mandocello. Each of these has a unique voice but learning one makes learning the others much simpler.
    2. I am a little better than average guitar player, in a community of many much better guitar players. I am about an average mandolin player, but there aren't many around where I am. I frequently hear comments like "I didn't know you could play rock or blues on a mandolin..." by my audience. It's something a little different; instead of just another guy with a guitar it's "hey look there's a guy playing a what the heck is that?" So I get more playing time, more audience interaction, more interest, much more enjoyable experience when playing a mandolin. I get calls to play a lot of venues with a variety of bands and styles, so I really get to stretch musically. This wouldn't have happened if I just stuck with guitar.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Little hands. Too small for the piano or guitar, so it was the ukulele or mandolin. The mandolin seems to have stuck. Plus, I love playing ITM (Irish Trad Music) ... which doesn't lend itself to the ukulele.
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    Registered User almeriastrings's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Because I couldn't find anyone else to do it

    I had played flat pick guitar for many, many years and needed mandolin overdubs...but... no mandolin player...so...

    Here I am.
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    and why not?
    it's a brilliant and versatile instrument
    you can play all kinds of music on it.

  13. #13
    Registered User Jeff Budz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I fell in love with mandolin after hearing the first three notes of "Every Time You Say Goodbye" by Alison Krauss.

    I studied upright bass in college, always played guitar, but put them down when I picked up a career. Mandolin got me back into music, playing a lead instrument, even singing as opposed to years in the background with bass.

  14. #14
    Registered User Malcolm G.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Rod Stewart's Maggie May.

    50 yrs of guitar and banjo led to the mandolin. Now I can't put the little bu**ers down!
    Malcolm Grundy from Montreal

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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I was a classical guitarist and played bass & keyboards for a Beatles tribute band. After I heard Bluegrass mandolin, specifically Red Rector's work on the Carl Story & His Rambling Mountaineers' album "A Lonesome Wail from the Hills" and Bill Monroe's "My Last Days on Earth", it was all over ...
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  16. #16

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Why do I play mandolin? I think Bill Monroe himself said it best. Its easier to schlep than a guitar.

    Honestly, I have played guitar for over 20 years. In the last five years, I have immersed myself in bluegrass. I have had mandolin envy for a long time now, as I think there is something so beautiful, so delicate, yet so powerful about the mandolin. Its addicting.

  17. #17
    Barn Cat Mandolins Bob Clark's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    My route was slightly different than some that have been described. Inspired by the recordings of the Baltimore Consort, I was looking for a modern era instrument (as opposed to their period instruments) on which I could play the melodies of 16th and 17th century British and French songs. My main criteria were that the instrument had to have a sound that would fit that type of music, and it had to be versatile so I could play music of other genres. Also, I had to actually like the instrument. Mandolin was a perfect fit.

    That was a number of years ago. After some false starts, I finally really took hold a couple of years ago and have been transcribing these types of melodies from period-instrument recordings (several groups) into mandolin tab and standard notation, and playing them ever since. It's been great fun. I also got hooked on the traditional-style music of South America and Spain from Allan Alexander's two books (one songs, the other dances) and have had a great time with those. See how versatile this instrument is?

    One last strong point for the mandolin is that one of my cats loves it. When I play, he wants to sit near me and listen. One can see how much he enjoys it. It's great to have an appreciative audience.

    Good luck on your treck. These little instruments are really addicting, and that's their best feature.
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    Registered User Randi Gormley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    It's hard to remember the why any more ... it looked cool hanging in the shop, I'd always thought it would be neat to play the lute, my birthday was coming up and my parents asked what I wanted ... I was a woodwind person (flute, recorders) with a drummer background involved in the SCA and listening to lots of baroque, medieval and classical music, and I was given this bowlback (much to my surprise) and just sat down with Mel Bay and taught myself melody lines, since that's what I played anyway. I still only know a half-dozen chords, although I'm trying to expand my vocabulary in them. My husband is a guitar player and when we were courting, the only book we had with melody line and guitar chords was a bunch of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish traditional tunes. That's the beginning of the ITM leaning (way back in the late 1970's), then a 25-year gap or so and picking up the mandolin again to play with my husband once he got back to his guitar and then a few years later joining an ITM community band. I don't pay much attention to what I play any more as long as it's music and a way to translate the songs and tunes in my head to my hands ... these days, I'm taking lessons and playing some choro, klezmer, gypsy and classical in addition to the ITM.
    Of course, I could always say it's for the tens of dollars we make gigging out, or the swooning fans, but I'd be kinda lying ...
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    For my wife wont let me play the bag pipes......

  20. #20
    Registered User Elliot Luber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I played violin for years, then guitar for years. I found myself gravitating to 12-strong guitar, and then was told by a friend that mandolin note fingering was (nearly) identical to violin fingering. It all came together and to my surprise: I could play most of what I once knew on violin on mandolin the moment I took it out of the box.

  21. #21
    Plank Spanker outdoors4me's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    The chicks dig mandos.

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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Sitting over Chris Thile's shoulder after a Philadelphia Folk Fest performance and a conversation with a friend who plays guitar about "everyone should play an instrument even as an adult" did it for me. I have a good dental plan through work ( )so that ruled out the open back banjo that I love as well, and playing upright bass alone (I play home alone to relax) didn't make $ense.

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  23. #23

    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Summer 2003, i picked up a mandolin about 2 weeks after my first fiddle, upon the recomendation of my instructor. They compliment each other.

    100 years prior, i diverted college book money to buy a banjar, then a guitar. But the question was, "why play mandolin," not "why is Farmerjones such an idiot?"

  24. #24
    Joe B mandopops's Avatar
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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    I had played Guitar a little since High School. Not much, I could strum a few chords & play a couple Blues licks. I was in my early-20's, and was doing a Clown/Comedy act w/ a couple of partners. We were doing Music in the act,so I thought a different instrument would be a nice touch. I'd heard Mandolin on the 1st Ry Cooder records, I liked, so I thought how hard would it be to get a Mandolin and learn a couple of chords on it. Nothing more than that.
    After I'd bought one, a friend of a friend told me there was this guy in Evanston, named Jethro Burns from the old Homer & Jethro team, who taught Mandolin,& he could play "Jazz" on it. Well, I was a Jazz fan,never listened to Bluegrass,so I thought Why,Not? The fact is I really went to see Jethro becuz he was a comedian, I thought it be neat to meet an "Old-Timer", & if I learned a little bit of Mandolin along the way, fine.

    Well, one lesson changed my life. Why? Dunno. Was it the one on one w/ a master, the logic of perfect 5ths tuning, only dealing w/ 4(tho 8) strings?? All of the above? I'm glad I did.

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    Default Re: Why play Mandolin?

    Quote Originally Posted by Jeff Budz View Post
    I studied upright bass in college, always played guitar, but put them down when I picked up a career. Mandolin got me back into music, playing a lead instrument, even singing as opposed to years in the background with bass.
    Darned close to my story as well. And schleppin' the upright at 58 sure seemed harder than I remember it was in my early 20's. Around these parts there are plenty of guitars and a sea of banjos, so mando was an obvious choice. Only 4 strings like a bass - I figured it would be easy. Hah!

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