Mandolin

Early this year I decided to pick up the Mandolin. I bought one in January. I have some musical background and played a little bit of violin, but my bowing shoulder's been bothering me a little. Plus I wanted something I could play around with while kicked back in the La-Z Boy watching TV. Also I wanted to learn more about chords.

So I got one, a nice Fender FM52E. While this may sound impressive, it's really a pretty low end instrument. But I love it.

Picking up the rudiments of the mandolin was relatively straightforward for me, since the layout of the strings on the fiddle and the mandolin is the same - G, D, A and E. One of the big advantages (for a beginner anyway) the mandolin has over the violin is that it has frets, so it's hard to play out of tune.

The first thing I learned on the mandolin was some fiddle tunes, then picked up a few chords from charts on the internet. I've been working pretty hard at it. I played in front of a couple of dozen people recently, in a strictly informal back porch setting. That was scary but fun.

But now it's time to get a little more serious, so I've arranged to get some lessons from Orrin Star. I'm priviledged to be able to learn from him - he's extremely accomplished, plays in a variety of styles, and seems like a nice guy. Not to mention the fact that he's local.

More on this as I (hopefully) progress.