Mandolin Wind

I received the mandolin. It's very nicely made, much nicer than I expected. I was surprised by how small it is; it really is the size of a violin.

The mandolin with a violin for size reference

More size reference: violin, guitar, and mandolin

I didn't get much chance to play with it, but it felt more comfortable to me (and less intimidating) than the guitar. One of my plans for this long weekend is to try to properly tune it, learn a few notes, and decide whether I want to study it formally.

I did find a really cool mandolin teacher. I wanted to find a mandolin teacher whose interest is classical, not bluegrass, which is even tougher than finding a mandolin teacher at all. On an Internet search, I found a teacher who teaches classical guitar, violin, and mandolin--exactly the instruments that interest me. On his website, he had some articles that he wrote about learning music and practicing. One article said something to the effect that learning a musical instrument should be fun, and if you're getting frustrated while learning, look at what you're telling yourself. OUCH. That really hit home. (I've been massively frustrated with guitar. I think that my teacher is worried that I'm going to quit.) He also had some really good practice tips.

He also suggested that you use mandolin as kind of an introduction to violin. Mandolins and violin have the same strings (tuned the same way, although mandolin has double strings), and are the same size. However, mandolins, like guitars, have fret markers that mark where the notes are, while violin does not. (One of the big challenges in learning violin is learning where the notes are. The other is bowing.) So mandolin provides an easier way to learn the left-hand action for violin. To me, that sounds like having my cake and eating it too.

And the kicker--in his bio, he said that he's especially interested in Baroque music. Apparently the he has his beginning violin students play an excerpt from the Pachelbel Canon. He then said that he's especially interested in Bach. (I've gotten heavily into Bach as well as Vivaldi. I flip back-and-forth between them depending on whether I want to be stimulated (Vivaldi) or stunned (Bach). I'm completely in awe of Bach.)

Where do I sign?!?

But--

There has to be a catch--

This guy is in Walnut Creek, an hour's drive away in good traffic (roughly the same as the drive to Berkeley).

So one of the things that I want to do this weekend is to drive to Walnut Creek and see how bad the drive really is.

I haven't given up on guitar though. I've been trying to systematically look at the problems that I've been having with guitar and address them.

One problem is my stiff hands. I worked on non-ergonomically-correct computers at the beginning of my tech writing career, got tendinitis, and have been having problems with my hands ever since. So I've started sleeping in hand braces; I hate doing so, but love how my hands feel (much looser) when I wake up. I also found some hand exercises (intended for computer users, but I think that they would be helpful for anyone who uses their hands a lot) that I've started doing. Both activities seem to be helping.

Another problem is my concentration. My mind drifts appallingly often when I'm playing, and, of course, that's when I screw up. I'm not sure how to address the problem. I bought a couple of books on concentration. I'm also wondering if starting a meditation practice again would help.

I also want to improve my sense of rhythm. Toward that end, I bought a small set of hand drums. (No, I haven't gone off the deep end--really.) A while back, I found myself drumming on tables and such, so I thought about getting some hand drums. However, I couldn't decide what hand drums to get, so I never got any.

Recently, I was reading an interesting music article on the Internet that posited that anyone who is really interested in music should be able to play one instrument from each of the major families of instruments (voice, strings, woodwinds, brass, and he separated keyboards and percussion). I agree with him in principle although not in practicality. That got me thinking what I would learn if I followed that strategy: voice (working on it), strings (got that covered), woodwinds (recorder, possibly oboe), brass (nothing intrigues me), keyboard (electronic keyboard, piano if I had access to one), percussion (hand drums, xylophone). Once I brought myself back to reality, I decided to get some hand drums, figuring that rhythm exercises on the drums would help my guitar playing. One of the reviews of a drumming book that I bought on Amazon.com was from a pianist who felt like he wasn't getting enough rhythm exercises, so he bought a djembe (African hand drum). Apparently someone else has the same brand of insanity -;) And hmm, I just looked at the mandolin teacher's Web site again, and he mentioned using a drum for rhythm studies. I do believe that there can be synergy between learning different types of music. One thought that I had when I went off on this instrumental kick is that it would make me a better singer to understand that the music itself conveys meaning along with the words.

Anyway, messing around with drums (without caring too much how I sound) sounds like a lot of fun. I really should have the same attitude toward guitar (that is, a sense of play).

And finally, I found some ear-training CDs that don't prereq a music theory course, so I'm going to use them in support of sight-reading voice again (which requires pretty damn good pitch). The last time that I studied voice, I was able to sight-read, and I'm not sure how you learn a song if you can't sight-read. By ear? Anyway, we'll see how this works.

Yes, I'm well aware that I'm basically going to school part-time. But it's fun.

This weekend, I want to work on my place (of course). I just got the hooks to hang the mandolin and guitars. Also, Erik is having his traditional 4th of July party, so I'll probably go.

I stayed up way too late tonight. In my defense, I went to the Lab to practice guitar, and I lost some time trying to rescue a baby toad that had strayed into the lobby and was hopping around the reception desk. (Maybe he thought that he had an appointment.) I spent way too much time trying to get him to hop onto or into things (cafeteria tray, wastebasket) until I finally went up to my office and got the right tools (small plastic bucket for vacation watering for my plants, manila folder). Hopefully, he won't hop back in again.