Howdy from Sydney. Love the group and the content, & I think it's a fantastic medium especially for someone like me in a different corner of the world to be exposed to new ideas & music.
Historically I am/was a trumpet player from a very young age & it wasn't until I finished high school at 17 before Uni that I bought myself a guitar & harmonica & taught myself both over a period of time. The usual jamming with buddies & by the fire on camping trips progressed into something more serious & before I knew it I was writing material and recording, then submitting for awards. I always enjoyed learning new things; writing songs & inventing my own stuff was the pinnacle for me. I started meeting these fabulous musicans & I started to crave new things...the "pursuit" of excellence, rather than my standard ok playing - but not quite where I wanted to be. I believe that meeting these people had a direct influence on my new passion. Hence came the mandolin. First I bought a beater just to bash, & that was fun, something new & different. Then I met the next fella that inspired me to new heights so I started taking it seriously & striving for better. Then earlier this year took me to another level & so it goes. I acquired a better instrument, new friends, new learnings. At present I am trying to build the resources in my head, learning to "speak" musically & increase my mando vocabulary. In other words, lots more practice & playing. I love this site & the info in it, but I try not to get too involved. This may seem strange, but more time on the computer means less time behind the instrument for me, & with a two year old & one on the way, I know that this precious resource called Time is going to be hard to hold on to. My exciting news [apart from the baby of course :-) ] is that I'm flying to Perth to spend some time with Mr Paul Duff & selecting the various components for my yet-to-be-built instrument. So....a new instrument from one of the finest, regular weekly webcam lessons from my personal Guru, enough gigs to keep me happy & too many people who want to jam, keep my life full of the music I love. Live to Play, Play to Live.....Steve.V. On Oct 7, 11:32 am, topher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [Hmmm I emailed a reply to this earlier today but it didn't show up > here where I thought it was going to... hope it doesn't show up twice > now...] > > Hi gang, > > I joined this list yesterday because my friend Chris said you discuss > intriguing things. It is so. I like these kinds of questions. > > You all have interesting stories, all different from each other. I > love the story about the broken guitar turning out to be a mandolin. > > My story - music was always part of growing up at my house. My mom > used to play organ and piano and long before I was born she gave up > playing cello. My dad was musical and played a tune or two badly but > with feeling on several instruments. Both loved to sing, and so we > kids sang traveling songs in the car, and hymns in the church, and > funny songs on the playground. We also got piano lessons whether we > wanted them or not (and I didn't). I liked messing around on an > instrument, but not practicing, something that hasn't changed any. > > We also had a couple ukuleles in the house. One was a plastic Arthur > godfery one, the other was a classic old koa one which I still have. > When we weren't playing El Kabong with them, my brother and I tuned > them to a little plastic pitchpipe and strummed them. But they were > better as weapons! > > I gave up on piano after a while and then when I saw the cool guitar- > playing kids in high school had girlfriends I figured to try that out. > And I fell in love with guitar. And also with instrument modification > and making. I got an electric guitar and prepared to impress the > girls. Sadly that part of the plan failed initially. > > At some point I got a ukulele-banjo, (my grandpa saw it said "Haw! > Looky there! A Peanut-banjo!" So I call it that still) I didn't like > ukulele strings on it, so I put 4 mandolin strings on it. I tuned it > to about D rather than G. I still play my peanut banjo tuned this way > and I think it sounds great like that. And I taught myself a family of > chords, wasn't much interested in playing melody. > > Started attending a jam with way too many guitarists, so I borrowed a > mandolin and used my peanut banjo chord family on it, which worked > just fine. found there was a lot more opportunity for mando than > guitar at jams. Joined a band. Joined another band. Went to a music > camp (which was where I met Mike C), went to more music camps, and > now whaddaya know I am teahcing mando at a camp (not the same one). > Learned to play melodies and fancier chords and stuff. Discovered that > Jethro Burns wasn't just funny - he played in a style I really liked. > > Why do I love playing music? It's fun, it's social, I like musicians > (most of them), I enjoy making music and instruments. People tend to > like musicians. If you wank up to someone and say, "Hi there, I'm a > lawyer" (or tax collector, or proctologist, or whatever) they may not > immediately smile and start wanting to know about your job. T'aint so > with music. Durn near everybody likes music and by extension they view > musicians as cool. I enjoy that. > > Why do I love playing mandolin? Well, it's small - that is a huge > advantage. It is logically tuned. It is versatile (though in my hands > at least, not as versatile as a guitar). It is relatively unusual > (haven't we all been asked, "what is that little guitar you're > playing?" nobody askes a piano player that question.) > > What do I most enjoy playing? Hard to say, but I still really love > funny songs. I also like jamming in whatever genre happens to be > happening: swing, blues, rock, bluegrass, folk, whatever. I am very > lucky to have tolerant friends who don't mind if I am not up on the > "traditionallly correct" way to do things because that know what I > like to do. There are people who focus and become amazingly good at a > few things. And there are generalists like me who will never be expert > at anything, but can hold on in many contexts. I love the variety! > > Sorry this is so long. I enjoy this kind of chatter. Happy to be here. > > Topher --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
