Mandolin Progress
 

Had my new mandolin just about a month now. I had played before but about all I could remember was some basic chords and fingering schemes. I did go for a far better instrument than my playing justified but that has turned out well as it is the best sounding and playing mandolin I ever handled.

So far, I have 3 tunes performance ready, an old time breakdown (Liberty), a waltz (Tombigbee Waltz) and an Irish reel ( The Mountain Road). For me, picking up 3 tunes in a month is pretty fast as I can struggle getting even 16 bar tunes memorized and up to speed on guitar.

Also had a pick/tone revelation. Started with my standard guitar pick, a speed beveled 4mm casein in roughly 351 shape. I tried some old Dawg picks I bought years ago and, after a bit of re-beveling, they proved to provide equal volume but much smoother, cleaner tone on mandolin.

Probably start work on a 4th tune this afternoon, leaning towards "Brian Boru's March" as it is not heard that often anymore and it has some space to add some interesting techniques like rolls.

Point of all this being, if you've thought about adding mandolin to your arsenal, it can come to you pretty quickly and it actually adds to your appreciation of guitar and music rather than diluting it.

Another facet of mandolin playing I noted when I took it up in 2008 - my town and most towns are full of mediocre guitar pickers (I count myself in this category) but have very few mandolin players of any skill level. As I pursued mandolin I got many offers to sit in with bands and contribute on a few albums. That never happened or would have happened had I just stayed one of hundreds of intermediocre guitarists. Now I get a few solo mandocello/octave mando gigs each year because I offer something different than everyone else.

Big fan of the Wegan TF 140 mandolin pick!

Enjoy the progress!

f-d