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Was it the only one available when you first found you were interested in playing? Did you inherit it? What..?

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I play at playing the piano because of an old jazz saxaphone playing in my father's big band era dance band. He used to come over to the house to do the arrangements for the other instruments out on an old upright piano we had in the garage. As a young girl I would stand in the kitchen doorway leading out to the garage to watch him and listen. One day he said, "Come on down here and I'll teach you some chords." I learned how to create every chord possible from that man and somehow gained an understanding of music, but have never been able to play bass and lead at the same time with both hands. I can improvise melodies playing rhythms with both hands playing different keys of the same chords. I am now playing the guitar because my daughter bought me one for Mother's Day in May 2008. I also have a Native American flute I'm trying to learn how to play, an auto harp that I've loaned to a friend for now, and want to get a mandolin. I hope I'm given enough remaining years on this earth to become somewhat competent with them all. Blessings,

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For many years I had an Aria acoustic guitar. It was the most detailed, open sounding guitar in the shop when I bought it. But over the years, it gradually got more middley, until it sounded almost thin. I bought and sold various other guitars and have now settled on a Martin DX1R. Still has lovely mid range detail, but balanced by a thicker bass end.

Then there's the mandolin. Time is in short supply, and I go through phases of not playing it at all for weeks, but I'm slowly learning the mandolin also. Have a cheap 'Kentucky' that someone bought for me for a birthday a couple of years back. (And an octave mandola sitting patiently, waiting for me to master it's little brother).

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I play the guitar because I just wanted a generic musical noise to shape songs. The piano probably would have been my first choice, but we didn't have one and even if we had (this was before electronic keyboards became so ubiquitous), you couldn't just tuck one under your arm and take it round a mate's house.

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Well well, it's nice to hear why people picked up a musical instrument, the tales of why we do certain things in our lives is always interesting. As for me, I play several different instruments from a cheap Copley acoustic guitar to a high end resophonic (dobro) and everything in between. I do write and compose although I'm not a professional. What got me into playing acoustic instruments? I was raised on the sounds of the older classic country music and Bluegrass. What really got me into it was the banjo.I used to wonder as a kid.....how in the world do them guys do that?!! Well Ifound out at the tender age of 14 when I got my first 5 string banjo exactly how they did it through alot of broken strings and bleeding fingers..lol. Since then I've also learned to play the guitar/ Mandolin/ bass/ dobro/harmonica/ and the pedal steel guitar that we are so fond of in the classic country hits of yesteryear. Ah.....I love music...lol.

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Ah, these bits are so interesting. Sharing a mutual interest/love of music is a good place to meet.

I play at guitar, a little harmonica, and very elementary piano. Very.  It seems I've always had a guitar. Or two or three. My old daddy played constantly...and yodeled too!... whether anybody wanted to listen or not, so I grew up hearing music all the time, something for which I will always be grateful.

There's been too many gaps for me to have gained any particular expertise and I'm sometimes a bit disappointed in myself for that. It's what can happen when you always have more accomplished musicians around and no one else wants to sing. That said, I continue to play anyway, often simplifying the melody to lyrics I may write so that I can accompany myself.

It's the thing I love best, sitting in that basement room in the semi-darkness, just picking out some melody that I might remember long enough to claim as my newest song.

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As a young boy, my Uncle lived next door and played mandolin and fiddle. Mostly old time fiddle music. My parents used to have small parties and local musicians, including my uncle would come to play. That got me interested in music and my uncle started teaching me basic little tunes on mandolin. He had a 1927 Gibson A model mandolin. My grandfather had bought it for my uncle as a gift when my uncle was young. Not the fancy one with the scroll, just the standard teardrop shape but what a sound it had. Over the years, thanks to discovering guys like Neil Young and Dylan I switched to guitar as my primary instrument and my uncle sold that little mandolin to buy the fancy Gibson F model with the scroll. Although it was fancier, it didn't sound as good as the plain Jane one so he tracked it down and bought it back. He must have done this 6 or 7 times with that little mandolin. The last guy he sold it to was Willie P Bennet who used it recording in Nashville. Again after being disappointed by the fancy F models, he bought the plain one back from Willie. Crazy as it sounds, my uncle was going to sell it again several years ago. I realized that eventually, someone would buy that mandolin and refuse to sell it back to him. So I intervened and bought it from him. I paid him his full asking price and I told him then and there that I would never sell it back to him and he agreed. Since I've bought it, my uncle has offered me 3 times the price I paid him for it but I refuse to sell. A couple of years ago he found another one that's exactly the same. I think mine has a better sound but maybe it's all in my head. I don't think so.



If you click the little red X you can see a picture.

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Originally Posted by Steve Ambroise:
So I intervened and bought it from him. I paid him his full asking price and I told him then and there that I would never sell it back to him and he agreed. Since I've bought it, my uncle has offered me 3 times the price I paid him for it but I refuse to sell. A couple of years ago he found another one that's exactly the same. I think mine has a better sound but maybe it's all in my head. I don't think so.



If you click the little red X you can see a picture.

Oh my, Steve. That's a pretty one. Great story. I bet almost every musician has a story about an instrument he or she wishes would never have got away...

Beautiful setting in the background of your photo, too. I can smell a fire burning somewhere nearby... =;-)

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Originally Posted by Fhaedra Songrider:

Originally Posted by Steve Ambroise:
So I intervened and bought it from him. I paid him his full asking price and I told him then and there that I would never sell it back to him and he agreed. Since I've bought it, my uncle has offered me 3 times the price I paid him for it but I refuse to sell. A couple of years ago he found another one that's exactly the same. I think mine has a better sound but maybe it's all in my head. I don't think so.



If you click the little red X you can see a picture.

Oh my, Steve. That's a pretty one. Great story. I bet almost every musician has a story about an instrument he or she wishes would never have got away...

Beautiful setting in the background of your photo, too. I can smell a fire burning somewhere nearby... =;-)

Thanks Fhaedra. I truly love my little mandolin. Over the years I've collected quite a few instruments and I've managed to hold on to most of them through times when I really could have used the cash that I have invested in them. I'm glad to have kept them.

A little more history of this instrument. My Grandfather originally bought this mandolin second hand in a pawn shop in Toronto. I don't know the year but it was long before I was born. The story that came with it is that it used to belong to a man that played it on a Mississippi river boat. It has seen lots of wear and tear through the years. Not only have the frets been replaced but the entire fingerboard due to large pits worn into it from being played. This mandolin has certainly sung a lot of songs and still has an incredible voice.

The pic was taken at a musician friends place about 2 or 3 miles from me. He lives there with his family completely off the grid. Interestingly enough, he wasn't born a country boy. He grew up in Toronto, completed University and even ran for political office at one point. Eventually he got fed up with city life and moved up here to the country and bought the land and built his home with the trees he cut while clearing the land. He is one of the regulars at our local music parties. Sorry, I'm wandering off topic but I thought it was an interesting little bit.