Mandolin Cool
Cool! What was that sound? It's not a guitar, it's not a fiddle, it's a mandolin!
Mandolin. It's the anchor instrument in the Bill Monroe sound. It's the classical music instrument choice of Vivaldi. You'll hear it singing the blues and now, rocking out too. Mandolins are back, and back strong. The interest in all things mandolin is greater now than in the early 1900's when mandolin orchestras we in vogue. How did we get here?
The new mandolin rage corresponds with the rennaisance of acoustic music in general. It was the folk music movement of the 60's that laid the acoustic foundation. People liked this natural sound. It was real, and hey, I think I could play and sing that music, also. Millions did and along the way, discovered all things folk and acoustic, including the mandolin. The folk movement led people to discover Bill Monroe and his follower groups including Flatt and Scruggs. By the mid 70's and early 80's a fan could not only hear Bluegrass music played live, but could join in with other fans at jams during Bluegrass festivals. Sam Bush and members of Newgrass Revival, among others, showed us that the mandolin could rock, too. Today, phenoms like Dave Grisman and Chris Thile, continue to show that the mandolin is not just grandpa's instrument.
I'm late to the mandolin scene. Like most others, I picked up a guitar first. The guitar is still the most popular instrument in the world, but it's a hop, skip and a small jump to the mandolin from there. I'm not sure what is was that possessed me to buy my first $100 mandolin. I guess I just picked up one in a music store, heard the cool high tones on that cheap thing, but was intrigued just the same. I liked the size and the look of the instrument. I remember the looks of the tater bug, bowl backed mandolin that a friend of mine played. His was small enough to take on band trips and we had great sing-a-longs accompanied by his mandolin. That could have been in the back of my brain, too.
It was rehearing music by Sam Bush and Dave Grisman that pushed my interest after I took that first mandolin home. I picked up a little book with fiddle tunes and my interest grew stronger after I found that I could play some of these old tunes also. Then one day, I was flipping the channels on my TV and saw this punk looking kid wearing a stupid cap playing a mandolin and singing a song about "The Fox". Chris Thile and Nickel Creek had arrived on the scene and the mandolin would never be looked at in the way it had been seen in past days.
A mandolin is tuned exactly like a violin, except you don't have to fiddle with it.---Jerry Bradley
Visit a great elementary music site that uses the Orff approach to teaching.
