my NEW mandolin!
I was vacuuming when the UPS man knocked on the door (I heard it only because I was vacuuming by the front door!) and handed me this big box. I opened it up and inside was my very own, sunburst-colored, A style, tear drop mandolin. It's been on my wish list and it's from Sarah for my birthday. I must have been a very good boy. I originally had said I wanted to play the banjo. But I think the mandolin has a lot of benefits, and just seems much cooler because it's so much more muscially versatile... stylistically speaking. My birthday isn't until Saturday, but Sarah and I are horrible at the waiting game, and so she said I could go ahead and open it up. But I did kind of want to wait just because the wait is supposed to be worth it and all. Ahh well, I can just see us with our kids and presents. Birthdays, Christmas, everything will be I CAN'T WAIT!!!
Now the pressure's on. I've been musically interested in the guitar (although that really was only for a class in college) and I took piano lessons as a kid. Can I play either of those instruments? No. I did/do sometimes still play my trumpet... the 'ol Bach Strad. Of course I learned that in school. The madolin is going to have to be purely a learn-on-my-own-will basis. I got it tuned up today by tuning a G from my guitar tuner... and learned a great way to do "relative tuning" so I could get the other 4 strings (really there are 8) tuned to the appropriate note. You hold the seventh fret of the string pair you already tuned to get the next string pair tuned. For example, to tune the D strings: After you tune the G (the lowest of all the string pairs) you hold the seventh fret of the G down, and that will make the D note, so you just tune the actual D string pairs according to the sound you're hearing when playing the seventh fret of the G (pressed down). I may have made that a little complicated sounding, but really it's not at all.
I mostly practiced my up and down strokes today because that for me is the hardest. I got through the sections about quarter notes, eighth notes, and beats per measure. I am having a little slower time getting all the notes down -- reading them on the page and corresponding them to what strings I need to pick. I play trumpet... B flat trumpet... and the notes here are different than what I'm used to reading.
The cool thing about the mandolin is that although there are 8 strings total, eacch pair is really considered one string. I didn't know this, though -- each string pair are supposed to be the exact same note. I thought the string pairs were supposed to be harmonized.
So I got through the picking on the right hand... and have gotten the concept of the notes played open (GDAE). Before bowling league tonight, I started the section on the left hand and the notes you play with your fingers of FGA from the E string.
It's now late, laundry is finally finished (just some towels sitting in the drier waiting to be folded) and my e-mail to work is not written. I'd like to write it, but I have nothing to say in it, so I may just call it a night.
I hope to get my calendar back up soon, and I hope to write something in here tomorrow that's more stimulating to the mind. Right now my Bud Light is helping me wind down my last few minutes before sleep kicks in and a new day rushes in.
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