Andy Chase

It’s been a hectic second half of the summer and between heat-waves, a bit of travel, and general stress I’ve managed not to play as much music as I did the first half… all it took was missing 2 or 3 sessions in a row at The Black Sheep and I’m treading water again. It’s really remarkable how much more I want to practice and learn new tunes if I feel like I can show it off at the following week’s session - or at least have the self-satisfaction of being able to keep up with the chord changes at speed.

College will be back in session soon, and hopefully that will result in a healthier crowd; there have been a few complete no-show weeks this summer, which is also a downer. I’m sure once I get back in the habit, my clawhammer enthusiasm will rebound.

In the meantime, though, electric guitar and mandolin have been calling out to me. I almost bought a modest practice amp with a bit of birthday money (I sold my old 20 watt Fender amp before we moved east; I hadn’t used it in years and I had bigger fish to fry at the time), but ultimately decided to spend the money on banjo parts instead. The other night I plugged my guitar into GarageBand and spent an hour or so whaling away into my headphones. (I downloaded some Foo Fighters tabs and confirmed what I had long suspected, that it’s just as fun to play along with them as it was to play along with Kiss/Led Zeppelin/Aerosmith in 8th and 9th grade.) My chops are mighty rusty, though, and I put my guitar away freshly reminded that I can devote my energies to being very good at one instrument, or mediocre at several.

That same night I caught the last episode of DIY Network’s Handmade Music series following the construction of a Dudenbostel F5 style mandolin, which served to remind me yet again how much I like that instrument, and how I still want to get a bit better at it than I can on my own armed only with a pile of “Teach Yourself” books. I still have a nagging suspicion that I’m holding one or both of my hands (and perhaps the instrument itself) incorrectly, and those are the sorts of technique things that I need somebody there to show me/correct me. My Kentucky KM-150s is a fine beginner’s instrument, but I will confess that I continue to lust after an F5 style mandolin for purely aesthetic reasons. And of course, watching Lynn Dudenbostel put the finishing touches on one made me long for the skills and equipment to build something like that myself.

In the end, it always comes back to money… supposing I found a Mandolin teacher charging $40 per hour, and supposing I had an extra $40 per week kicking around (which I certainly do not right now), do I spend $160 per month on lessons, or do I squirrel it away towards tools, supplies, and training for lutherie? At the moment it is a purely hypothetical question, so perhaps I should get reacquainted with my banjo.