Hello! From the uk

[55bar]

Hi everyone, just wanted to share my experiences over the last 8 weeks. I'm totally new to the mandolin but it seems to have taken over a huge part of my life. From discovering Chris Thile's "not all who wonder" album to buying all the mike Marshall DVD's, through to being blown away by Sam Bush's rhythm playing and musicianship. My 8 week journey has lead me so far to learn, Fishers horn pipe, Billy in the low ground, blackberry blossom, ode to a butterfly and hop the fence, I've discovered Blue chip picks and TAMCO in Brighton where I bought my new (used) summit artist. Trevor opened up the shop for me on Monday and let me try out about 10 mandolins.

I was close to buying the Triggs F5 but something about the Summit made me fall in love with it!

Yesterday I watched "how to grow a band" the film about the punch brothers, I was blown away by the last concert in New York, I have just never heard anything so beautiful, everyone in the band had a voice and the music just gripped me start to end.

My only regret is that I didn't take up this beautiful instrument when I was 8 yrs old! Being from the UK I'd love to meet some players who share my new found love of bluegrass music, I'd love to go to some festivals or even meet up to play some tunes, I'm in the Surrey area.

I'd also like to say this is a wonderful resource full of amazing people with great knowledge and enthusiasm, I hope to be able to join in with the discussions!

A little about my background: I have been playing guitar since I was 18, I'm now 38, I have a BA hons degree in jazz studies and I am currently the guitarist on a west end musical in London. I feel very lucky to be able to make a living from guitar, but at the moment I just want to get as good as I can and make some music on the mandolin!

Best wishes

C

[Mike Bunting]

If you are a jazzer, you'll want to check out these fellows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv8cj...E7F1D46015D573

[OldSausage]

One of the advantages of being in the UK is you can easily go and see these guys:

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hello 55bar & welcome aboard - I'm in deep, dark & currently very wet Manchester. Another fellow UK 'Cafe member up in Kirkaldy,Scotland has a nice Summit "F" style that he bought from TAMCO a couple of years back - they are really high quality mandolins. If you're interested in Bluegrass music at all,there are several festivals in the UK each year,the main one being maybe,the Didmarton Bluegrass festival. Another 'Cafe member from the Bristol area helps to organise that one.There's also the North Wales festival,in Conwy each year - unfortunately,there seems to be very little 'jamming' going on at that one. Keep your eye on the British Bluegrass Music Association (BBMA) website for coming events. You might have heard of the 'Sore Fingers' Summer school held April in the UK each year,usually with several top notch instructors from the USA - meanwhile, enjoy your Summit,
Ivan

[Darren Bailey]

Another UK mandolin picker - glad to hear our ranks are swelling. I'm envious of your chance to play so many mandolins when making your purchase - I had to take a gamble on the classifieds - but thankfully with a happy ending. I agree about this site, it's a great place to be inspired.

[ukmando]

If you're in Surrey why not check out the Surrey Bluegrass festival the first weekend in August.

[55bar]

Thanks guys.


Thanks for those thinks Mike and David, great stuff. Good info Ivan, I used to live in Leeds so I know and my guitar tutor used to live in Ramsbottom (great name!) if you ever want to see a great guitar player his name is mike walker he has a website or you can YouTube him.

Yes Darren I was extremely lucky to be able to get to Brighton fairly easily, Trevor at TAMCO is a great guy and I have never seen so many quality instruments in one room!

Think ill get to some bluegrass festivals this year, I'm also thinking of doing the Mike Marshall video course. Any tips for memorising fiddle tunes? I bought a good book galled the "mandolin pickers guide to bluegrass improvisation" it's really good. I think though I'm going to go down the old fashioned route of transcribing some mandolin solos from a cd. Any good recommendations of great solos?

Hope to meet you all at a festival one day.

Craig

[55bar]

Thanks UkMando, I'll be sure to check it out.

[Beanzy]

As well as the Surrey mini-festival from what I hear Didmarton is well wort a trip. I'll be doing it for the first time this year, but loads of friends have been and they really rate it. I'd have to be biased here and recommend the Cornwall Bluegrass Festival even though I'm having to miss it this year.

If you like Old Time Music you could check out the FOATMAD site for listings of their events too.

If you can get up to London easily enough and like more organised groups you may want to look at the London Mandolin Ensemble or look in on the Fretful Federation

Enjoy the journey, it's been a great one so far for me.

If you're after lessons etc, Rex Preston (video above)does them by Skype and I had a few so far which were great, really useful insights.

[55bar]

Thanks Beansy,


Great info, Rex is a fine musician by the sound of him! I'm really wanting to get something together ill have to find some local musicians.

[Tavy]

One of the advantages of being in the UK is you can easily go and see these guys:

Lots of mandolin (and mandocello) content in Myranda's "day job" with Show of Hands too:

[Jai]

Hey 55bar sounds like you're even more obsessed than I am. I'm up in the North West, in between Liverpool and Manchester. It's funny, cause I've played guitar for 25 years and dabbled in mandolin (owning a cheap plywood Antoria, which I appropriated from my brother) on and off since I was 20, but not taking it very seriously, and then over the last few years (I'm about the same age as you) somehow become smitten with the mandolin. And it has since become my main instrument. I don't use that Antoria anymore. My first upgrade was one of those Crafter ovation-like mandolins- which was not bad and helped my playing progress- but as I had got into more Americana and bluegrass styles wasn't anywhere near satisfying tone-wise. I now have a The Loar LM300 fitted with a cumberland acoustic bridge - which makes all the difference. Currently it's the best I can afford- I have kids and I'm a student teacher. But once I'm earning again, hmm, I think a trip down to TAMCO is called for.

I must say - I'm rather jealous of your recent acquisition.

Nevertheless, it is possible to learn well on that LM300 and the tone's pretty good and I have to say- I love it.

And here's the thing - Mandolin Cafe has got a lot to answer for. I barely ever post (I appear to have only posted 8 times since 2010) - but I read it everyday, and without it I would have known nothing about The Loar mandolins or cumberland bridges or the necessity of a decent set up. Also, I have discovered a whole host of wonderful musicians from reading the forums, people like David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Frank Wakefield and the list goes on.

It was discovering Tim O'Brien that got my mandolin obsession started. I went to see him play just down the road at a local Arts Centre- nobody really knew who he was. He was incredible!

So, that's about the end of my rambling post. Just really great to read someone so full of new enthusiasm for this fabulous, little instrument. In the UK too, where sometimes it can feel a little lonely as a mandolin player- and other times quite cool, cause for instance, I'm the best mandolin player I personally know (cause I'm the only one) :-)

Oh, and 'hi' to all you other UK mando fans!

[clobflute]

Wow. When did all these UK mandolinists come out of the woodwork lol.

Fascinating stories everyone - makes me feel completely insignificant as a newbie to the mandolin. I found a mandolin orchestra in London although they're certainly not interested in a beginner level player like me so I guess I've got to carry on. Brighton is a whole new planet away lol.

If anyone here is close to London, do try the wonderful Hathway mandolin range - there is a fantastic range from this little known English luthier here. I was really impressed by his mandolins (although I am easily impressed )

[John Kelly]

Hello, Clobflute, and welcome from Scotland (still a part of the UK at present!). You mention London and not being able to access a mandolin orchestra. Over on the mandolin.org.uk site www.mandolin.org.uk in the forum section there is a regular posting from Tosh Marshall, who also frequents this site as do many others, relating to a mandolin self-help group in London. have a look there.
There is also Nigel Gatherer's excellent site, based in Scotland, at http://www.nigelgatherer.com/.
Hope this of help to you.

[55bar]

Hi Jai,


Great to hear from you, funnily enough I also bought the Crafter mandolin about 6 years ago when I needed it for a show, embarrassingly I tuned the top two strings like a guitar so I could easily read the music in the rehearsal! I think I still have it in my loft somewhere.

The loar mandolins were something I looked into as they where getting a great feedback from this site, I think they sound and look great too. At TAMCO I tried out a Capek, a triggs, 2 Eastman, a lebeda, the summit, a bentrup, and a few others.

Yes I am really lucky to be able to own the summit, and I open the case every day and get such a buzz! I cannot tell you how much I love playing it, today I started on the Bach Partita in E major, it's slow progress but really beautiful to learn and great for cross picking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZ40V0teGM&sns=em

This inspired me so much, I learned presto in G minor on guitar whilst at college, for my grade 8, after a few hours practicing it on mandolin I could really appreciate that Bach REALLY knew how to write for the violin! The nature of my job means I have to play guitar parts which are written by piano players who don't seem to have a clue about voicing and voice leading on guitar.

The Bach stuff on mandolin is a real eye opener for voice leading!

It's great to know there are more Mandolin players in the UK.

Craig

[Ivan Kelsall]

Craig,there are far more mandolin players in the UK than you'd first imagine,but unfortunately,they don't post on here. Simon Mayer is possibly the best known & his recordings are well worth seeking out. I too love the music of Bach,i also love Baroque music in general. Here's a clip of Simon Mayer playing Handel's "The Arrival of The Queen Of Sheba",
Ivan
http://youtu.be/OvZFLGzkTpk

[Martin Jonas]

Craig,there are far more mandolin players in the UK than you'd first imagine,but unfortunately,they don't post on here.

Indeed, there are quite a few of us here in the UK -- some of us even post on the Cafe, if Ivan's and my post counts are anything to go by...

Getting together with others of same interest for practice and playing is a bit more difficult, especially for genres other than folk (Irish/Scottish sessions etc) and bluegrass. There are a number of formal mandolin orchestras and ensembles around, which can be readily located through the BMG web site, but which require a certain amount of dedication and time commitment as well as a willingness to play in a more formal structure, which is not everybody's cup of tea. I am fortunate in that I play with a small and somewhat informal classical/Italian ensemble on the Wirral/Merseyside -- between 4 and 9 members, depending who turns up at our weekly rehearsals -- almost entirely for our own entertainment and with no particular drive or desire to perform in public or build up a slickly-rehearsed concert repertoire. The ensemble has been going through various previous incarnations (including larger and more formal predecessor orchestral) for many years, and in its present informal manner for about a decade, but it's difficult to find new members who are interested in the type of music and who either can read music or are motivated to learn to read -- playing from sheet music in an ensemble is just about the fastest way of getting your reading up to scratch.

Anybody within reach of the Wirral who is interested in regular informal playing, drop me a line!

Martin

[Jai]

Hi Martin, Once I get my PGCE out of the way and sort out my standard notation reading skills (I can read it - but can't sight read as I tend to rely on tablature - though my preference is a combination of the two) I'd be up for a bit of classical/Italian, and I'm not too far away from you. Though I don't have a bowlback and so far have not learnt any classical pieces - but I love all kinds of music and definitely love playing with other musicians.

[Jai]

The nature of my job means I have to play guitar parts which are written by piano players who don't seem to have a clue about voicing and voice leading on guitar.

The Bach stuff on mandolin is a real eye opener for voice leading!



Craig

I think classical composers tended to really know their instruments (playing a number of them) - that was part of their training. I know exactly what you mean about piano players not knowing how to write for guitar. Part of my Bachelors degree is in music and I remember people who relied on keyboards - particularly when using notation software - tried to write for other instruments - poorly. I can remember writing a String Quartet and I don't play any bowed instrument - but to help me I retuned the bottom 4 strings of my guitar like a cello, and used the mandolin to guide my violin parts etc. (obviously glissandos etc had to be imagined...) It seemed to work!

That Crafter you have in the loft - there's your 'beater' mandolin - perfect for taking where you don't want your regular to get lost, damaged or stolen.

[55bar]

Great ideas,


I think I'll go search for the crafter in the loft... Hmmm good name for a tune,

[Martin Jonas]

Hi Martin, Once I get my PGCE out of the way and sort out my standard notation reading skills (I can read it - but can't sight read as I tend to rely on tablature - though my preference is a combination of the two) I'd be up for a bit of classical/Italian, and I'm not too far away from you. Though I don't have a bowlback and so far have not learnt any classical pieces - but I love all kinds of music and definitely love playing with other musicians.

Sounds good! Don't worry about having a bowlback, they're not required for classical music. Don't worry about sight-reading either; playing with others is the best way I know of getting your reading up to speed. I was at the same stage of reading as you when I joined, knowing the principle of standard notation but needing tablature to play at any sort of fluency at all. That all changed within a couple of months of regular playing from notation.

Let me know when you're ready and I'll send you details!

Martin

[Pasha Alden]

Welcome - certainly agree. I am only sorry I did not take hold of this beautiful instrument from the age of three. But it's never too late. Happy playing. You will probably find the advice from the cafe and a site like mandojazz very helpful. My Dad loved jazz and I hope to venture more in that direction as soon as I have a list of survival jazz chords, 7ths, a few I know 5ths 6ths 9ths, etc. Best and happy playing

Vanillamandolin aka Pasha Alden

[mandotim1955]

Hi from yet another UK based player! Welcome to the Cafe, it's a great place.
Tim

[Daniel Nestlerode]

I'm not new to mandolin, but I am (still) new to the UK. I've been here just over a year and love it.

I need to get down to TAMCO, visit Gary Nava in Norfolk, etc.

I'll be playing Orpington Friday Folk at the Orpington Liberal Club on 28 June if you (or anyone else in the area) are free. Rather than provide a CV here, I'll just say hit my website if you're interested in knowing what I do.

It would be wonderful to meet any and all UK mandolin players and enthusiasts!

Daniel

[55bar]

Thanks Pasha, Tim and Daniel, I'll be working on some chris Thile transcriptions if anyone is interested, I've just finished the A section to wolf creek pass. Just need to work out how to post it!

Craig