Before I learn the guitar, I have took some Violin Lessons.. but not interested after a year or soo....

Then I taught myself harmonica for a while after... its pretty easy to learn but hard to get better.. And I still pick it up and play once a while..

Then its the guitar.. its been almost 10 years now.. and I am still going!! I love it~

Lets here it from you?

Mandolin- 6 years
Upright Bass- 10 years
Electric guitar- off/on 15 years
Electric bass- 2 years

Bryan Kimsey
http://www.bryankimsey.com

Guitar - 39 years

Mandolin - 25 years
Banjo - 24 years
Dobro - 23 years
Bass - 22 years

Still trying to learn them.

DJ

Clarinet -- 4 years (Under protest, 4th-8th grade)

Guitar -- 40 years

Mandolin -- 4 years


That's really depressing seeing this in print. Why am I not a much better guitarist after doing this for 40 years???????

I have been playing guitar for almost 8 years... Is it hard for me to pick up Mandolin as well?

Are they similar instrument?? or completely different??

I've always gravitated toward finger-style guitar. My formative years as a middle class hippie in the late 60s/70s focused on John Prine, Jerry Jeff, Townes, etc. Nowadays, it's referred to as "singer/songwriter" like that's something new. Also had my BG heroes like Doc. I struggled with flatpicking in that setting---don't know if I just didn't work hard enough on it or took the easier path because finger-style came more naturally----probably both of those reasons. But my contribution in a BG jam was pretty much singing and rhythm guitar---something was missing.

About four years ago I became intrigued with the mandolin. I felt pretty stale with my guitar playing. The light came on. Suddenly, it felt like I'd found my musical voice. It was a true epiphany. What helped stoke the fires was all the years of playing guitar. There's a great deal of left and right hand guitar technique that transfers directly to mandolin. My progress on the mando was fairly quick, so I didn't seem to encounter the normal frustrations that occur when you're learning your first instrument. The mando brought all kinds of latent obsessive-compulsive tendencies to the surface. Drove my family crazy with my constant practicing (as much fun as I was having, solo mandolin is probably not that great to innocent bystanders). But I was a man on a mission with a lot ground to make up.

Here's the deal----I think mandolin is easier to play than guitar---particularly improvisation. The mando is tuned in fifths. The right notes just seem to fall under your fingers. Suddenly, well maybe after a fashion, I could really JAM!

Once you get into it, you'll find the mando has as broad a range as the guitar when it comes to different styles of music. Classical, Blues, Choro, Swing, Jazz---it can fit in just about anywhere.

Mandolin has definitely improved my guitar playing. Actually, getting a new Collings helped even more (There is a rule on the Forum about MCC, isn't there?). Musical cross-training. I'm still a fairly mediocre flatpicker, but it's getting better.

Here's the bad news----I think MAS is worse than GAS. The story gets even uglier---in the last year we've seen an unbelieveable escalation in the prices of quality mandolins. Partly due to supply and demand, the top luthiers are building against multi-year backlogs with delivery prices sometimes half of what they are currently selling for on the used market. Two years ago, Steve Gilchrist would lock in a price of $8,500 for an F-5. The last four used Gilchrists to come up for sale have gone for $15,000 and were snapped up in minutes.

But I'll end this windy post with some positive thoughts----there has never,ever been so many good mandolins available as there are now. Aside from those Holy Grail Loars, today's luthiers are simply building better playing and better sounding mandolins. Folks may look back on this period and one day consider it the golden age.

Every guitar player needs a mando.