Seeking

Back at the beginning of the year I mentioned something about folk music. So here’s what that’s all about.

In 2023 I was re-listening to the Kingkiller Chronicle books on audiobook, a format that I think really works for that series. I’ve listened to those books about a half dozen times and the thing that always stuck with me is how much Kvothe, the protagonist, constantly drones on and on about how much he needs to play music in order to survive. Now, I grew up playing viola¹ in the school orchestra and learning via (admittedly poorly administered) Suzuki Method and I was starting to crave playing again, but I just couldn’t use that tiny old viola. I figured I’d look around for something more like what Kvothe plays, the lute.

So I messed around with my wife’s mini Taylor a bit, but dude, guitars do not make any sense at all. There’s way too many strings! And they’re in 4ths, except for the B string which is a 3rd which is…why? I just cannot wrap my mind around it. So I looked for something more lute-like and I found the mandolin.

Finding

Around December of 2023, a friend of mine gave me his unused mandolin and I fell in love with it overnight. I had already played around on my viola held sideways and plucked like a tiny…well, I guess a mandola actually. It came quite naturally, and since the mandolin has the same tuning as the violin, it was really easy to just pick it up and figure out where everything was. I read a couple books on music theory and got my head around a couple great double stops, chords, practice methods from Jethro Burns and really got into going to jams weekly with the local folk music society. I don’t think I’ve spent a day in the same building as a mandolin without having played some music since I started again. Brian, I am deeply indebted to you for this.

And then this past June my wife got me a lovely banjo. I fell in love all over again! I messed around with the different tunings and started trying to play some folk punk and Elle Cordova and now I’m trying to learn the clawgrass method from Mark Johnson, who I managed to meet during a trip to visit my in-laws. I love the slight drone, the inherent syncopation in drop-thumbing, the ability to make your tuning easier to play quickly. And of course that gorgeous clucking and singing sound. What a magnificent instrument to sing along to.

Anyway, I encourage you to explore non-guitar instruments too. Understand what this shitty narrator (that’s Kvothe, not me) was talking about, how thoroughly music will speak to your soul and the magic that can pour out of you when you play it with others. Go to a jam. Learn to take a solo. Touch the face of god a little bit, it’s fine.

Maybe I’ll post some music here in a bit, once I get the recording stuff going. I’ll work on making a native embed for the blog and making a music category. I need to post about it more because getting myself out there kinda…I guess I just like expressing myself? Maybe this is just a better way for me to do it than I had been doing in the past. Hooray for self-discovery!