My First Audience / Mandolin / Banjo

I was tuning my mandolin last night, when my five year old granddaughter, claiming she wasn't tired at 10:00 o'clock p.m. and therefore didn't need to sleep, climbed onto the top of the sofa to watch me and ask what I was doing with the guitar. I tried to explain to her the difference between a guitar, a mandolin and a banjo, since the banjo was sitting right there and she could plainly see that it wasn't the same as a mandolin. She listened politely. I then decided to play a few tunes on the banjo, which I did. I played Gypsy Girl, Wildwood Flower, Cripple Creek, Bile them Cabbage Down, Red River Valley, Skip To My Lou and Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore. She listened politely. So, I have now played the banjo when someone was actually listening to me. She didn't run screaming from the room, or laugh uncontrollably, so maybe I am ready to play for other humans. Not sure yet. It may be that she wanted to do either or both of the above, but was afraid she would be sent to bed.

I was thinking of the name of this blog. I don't like "The Banjo Man" for some reason. I was thinking of changing it to "A Banjoist" or maybe "A Mandobanjoist , but that would imply that I play a banjo mandolin, or as some call it a mandolin banjo. I do have one of those, although I promised it to my 13 year old granddaughter when she was six or seven. The skin head on it is torn and I have a new skin head, but, so far, I lack the courage to replace the head by myself. Since I bought the skin head, I have learned that there are small drum heads that might work well on it. Maybe that will be a back up plan. Anyway, I don't know what to do with the name, not that it makes a whole lot of difference to the people (person) that follow this blog, but it's something to think about.

So, the mandolin is now in tune. It was badly out of tune probably because I haven't played it in a while. But, now it is good to go. There is basically one tuning for the mandolin, not like the banjo which is open tuning. The mandolin is tuned like the violin, in perfect fifths, so it is supposed to be easier to play than the banjo. We'll see about that as I now start to work on that along with the banjo and to master snow shoveling techniques in the coming days.

No Retreat For Me This Year

I won't be going to the Folk Musicians' Retreat this year because of Anthony's and Alex's First Communion in Florida. Some of the musicians that I met there the past two times were really great people and I'm disappointed that I won't be there, but I would much rather be with the boys on their important day. It seems funny that, now that I'm retired and have few things on my calendar, two important events have to conflict. There are all of these other days when I'm not especially busy.

I am still trying to get some playing in every day, but I have to get to the point where I sing while playing. Maybe soon.

The Transition

I haven't published much on this blog, because, frankly, I got tired of thinking of legal related topics to write about. I am now retired and, except for a few wills and estates for family and close friends, I think it would be ducky to retire from the law as well. I know that some colleagues love the law and would continue to practice to their dying day. I like the law, find it fascinating, but also find it getting more and more complicated. So, since I have told my banjo buddies that my musical name should be Barrister Bill, I will use this blog to write primarily about my musical progress, mostly on the banjo, but also on the mandolin or any other acoustic instrument I might try. I am not going to even think about giving instructions. There are others who are much better at that than I. One in particular is Patrick Costello.

So, this will become, in effect, a diary of my progress and, hopefully, spur me on practice righteously. I do know that I must sing as I'm playing. In fact, I should first of all learn to sing the songs. The songs that I can play thus far, not really well, but I can recognize them are:

1.)  Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore
2.)  Skip to My Lou
3.)  Red River Valley
4.)  Bile Them Cabbage Down
5.)  Cripple Creek
6.)  Wildwood Flower
7.)  Gypsy Girl

I am currently working on Rosin the Beau and Spanish Fandango. So, we'll see how all of this goes.