Andy Chase

Apart from being adrift again for much of the summer, my one reliable musical outlet was taken away when the Black Sheep Deli abruptly cancelled the weekly old time session that had been held there every Thursday for a number of years. I wasn’t there on the night in question, but apparently several regulars showed up and were told unceremoniously that they couldn’t play there any more.

The last time I got out and played with other folks was at the John Putnam Fiddler’s Reunion back in September - and even that was a bit of a letdown, as most of the circles didn’t feel particularly open or friendly. (If you want to be in a members-only band with your friends, then form a band and get some gigs - don’t show up at an open jam and then stand in a tight circle, refusing to make eye contact with people who might like to join in. Sheesh.)

The acquisition of a new camera in September hogged my attention for most of that month. My sister’s wedding, the Keene pumpkin festival, and a couple of other things chewed up October.

As the days get short and cold, though, the musical bug is starting to come back as I contemplate long evenings and chilly weekends stuck indoors. I recently made the mistake of asking to try out a used Epiphone MM-50 mandolin at a music store, and wound up putting it on layaway until I can get back there to trade in my Kentucky KM-150s. I will admit to suffering from scroll envy on a purely aesthetic level, but I also found that I really liked the balance of the F5 style’s larger peghead, and the slightly mellower tone the Epiphone has compared to my Kentucky.

This time around, I want to make a more serious go of the mandolin; I had only had my Kentucky for about a month when I won my Goldstar banjo, and I never got any further than dabbling with some “teach yourself” type tab books. This time I want to take some lessons to make sure I don’t develop any bad habits, and learn the things that are uniquely mandolin; movable chord forms/scales, double stops, picking/strumming techniques, etc. I’ve taken to lurking on the Mandolin Cafe message boards, and am gaining a better appreciation for the fact that playing mandolin isn’t exactly like flatpicking a tiny guitar.

Learning a four-string instrument tuned in fifths also makes tremendous sense in terms of the other instruments I want to learn someday, including fiddle (GDAE, same as mandolin) and tenor banjo (CGDA).

As for clawhammer banjo, I feel like I’m in a good place to put it down for a while. Not completely —there’s no reason not to pick it up and knock out a few tunes every week to keep myself from getting rusty— but now that I don’t have a weekly jam to go to I’d rather focus my energy on something new for a while.

As for 3-finger Scruggs/Reno/Melodic style bluegrass banjo, I’ve made peace with the fact that I lack the drive to spend the hundreds of hours of practice I would need to become a proficient bluegrass player, much less a proficient crossover Béla Fleck-type player. I know better than to sell or trade away my wonderful Gold Star GF-85, though - the bluegrass bug is bound to bite me again sooner or later.

There are other factors at work too, but more on those later.