Little jam out in my North Carolina backyard. Dogs barking along and the sun high in the sky. Not a scorcher however. Gorgeous day. These are the best days in NC.
The times were uncertain. The beginning of 2020’s quarantine is when this was filmed. Perhaps my self haircut is proof of the era. I feel very fortunate to have this beautiful backyard area to jam away. Distanced from society, but close to the heart.
This is the first song I learned on the mandolin – I never get tired of playing it. Maybe my family was getting a little exasperated by it back in 2011. I would pick or hum it 10 hours a day for months.
If asked which songs I could play on my mando, this is the one I would use. Otherwise I didn’t know many.
My m.o. was to make things up; not have a script to follow. This was great for training my ear, but not so much for reading sheet music. But as a musician, ear is most important. Guess I lucked out by choosing that to focus on, not that it was intentional.
I haven’t changed much from that way, but I’m trying to memorize more tunes. It’s not dissimilar to memorizing poems. Another thing I want to improve. It’s nice to have one in your mind, humming along inside the brain. Neither the poem nor the tune that important in ink or pixel. The importance coming from the sentiment. Sitting down, playing it through as prescribed, then going rouge. Or at least somewhere needing big tires. Where the feeling leads.
This is what music is all about. It’s what it’s about to me. My mandolin is a Rorschach blot. The tunes it plays are much more what lurks below my conscious than what is above.
MandoZen 