So I sell.
Flush with new money I ran to Styles.
"Lou I need a travel guitar and a mandolin."
I have seen a lot of music in the last twelve months. Not as much as last year, but what I have seen has been far and away the best music I have heard in a long, long time.
One of the truths in the "Music Business" is the need to be as versatile as possible. How many instruments can you play, and well?
And in the style of the folky rocker there are a lot of people playing...mandolins?!
These are not Bluegrass or Country and Western players. No...
These are troubadours, balladeers & bards. Traveling musicians that are wise in many arts.
I determine to expand. I already have a violin that I noodle upon. But I never pursued it with any vigor. There was no passion. I haven't been able to bond with the thing tucked underneath my chin.
I bought the lonely Fender mandolin that Lou had...dusty and neglected. I think he ordered it either out of pity for the Fender rep or a mandatory buy to be able to get a price on the Strats and Teles that earn his cash.
I know it is nothing but a student item.
The craftsmanship is non existent. If I were new to fretted instruments, I would have thrown my hands into the air. I set and reset the action. And then read...and read. There's "chop," and two fingers chords. And it's upside down when compared to a guitar.
And small?
A friend asked if it made me feel ham handed, but at the moment of the new purchase it seemed to fit...I have small hands. They kept me from pursuing the bass. But now, yeah - they were starting to feel rather thick.
Sad face.
All the "normal" thoughts raced through my head. If I went and bought something three times as expensive, I'd like it that much more, right?
I hit the brakes. Nah...Jimi could make a cigarbox guitar sound good. The excuse or victory is mine.
A really talented guitarist, Caleb Hawley does a solo arrangement of Bruce Hornsby's, 'That's Just The Way It Is.'
By himself, he makes what is a very layered and lush song sound just that. Layered and very full - by himself. He keeps time on the body of the guitar and plays both the bass line and the piano theme.
Good God, this kid is good.
Anyway...I put the song on and grab the mando (I'm hep to mandolin speak)...And rather than trying to apply a thought process, I aim for notes that fit and then intervals built from that. It comes, the rhythm, the picking...I'm sure the notes will follow, eventually.
Holy Merde...I am flying along the fretboard, playing pedestrian garbage, but I am bonding with this pig of an eight stringed beast.
She shall be Grendel.
Fuck you, Beowulf.
Growth is a good thing. With the rest of life it is usually a painful process. Even when you enjoy the endeavor - college for instance.
In music, I have moments of buyers remorse but no pain. It makes me dance.
I gotta jam with Beppe Gambetta!
<3
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