Hello and welcome to my first update on the progress of my project! I have been having lots of fun getting to know the mandolin.

Mentorship:

How did your mentor gain their experience/expertise?

My mentor has gained their expertise through a commitment to their skill. He started playing the mandolin 40 years ago because he had an interest in music. He has been learning and improving at the instrument ever since. Now with the internet, it’s very easy to find resources for anything you want to learn but the mandolin wasn’t a very popular instrument outside of bluegrass and folk music when my mentor picked it up. This meant that he had to go looking for resources and has been able to compile tones of music and pieces of writing about the instrument through the years. This has helped him to be an expert because he has learned so much about the instrument and the people in the community. This all gives him the experience to not only teach me how to play the instrument but also teach me about why it’s an interesting and unique instrument to learn.

What were those experiences like for your mentor?

These experiences were important because they helped him find a community of music players. Being around people who are passionate about what you are passionate about is a very exciting and motivational experience. His expertise in mandolin helped him become part of a folk band. When he talked about his band it sounded like he enjoyed meeting new people and having a reason to get out and play music. I found this very interesting because I have talked with other people who were interested in playing music together and would love to ask him more about his experiences.

What wisdom have you gained from your mentor so far?

In my learning so far there have been two things that stood out as important pieces of knowledge to remember. The first piece of wisdom he had was about where I should start my learning on the mandolin. I had originally planned on learning chords first but after meeting he recommended learning some scales before I start with that. I think that this is a great piece of advice after thinking it through. Learning the scales first will help me to recognize the sheet music and notes placements. This knowledge will give me a better understanding of chords and help me to learn them faster when I do them later on in this project. The second piece of wisdom he talked about was how he highly recommends going to a music camp or something similar. I think this is a great piece of advice because being around others when you play can help you grow your confidence and expand your knowledge. Going to a camp isn’t possible right now because they are mainly for the summer, but I do think spending time playing with my friends who play instruments or are also learning instruments right now could be a great way to replicate this kind of experience.

What have you learned so far, in terms of facilitation strategies, that might contribute to your own development as a mentor?

A skill that my mentor has is that he is extremely good at making connections between ideas. I noticed that as I would ask questions or tell him about the project, he was able to make a connection to a story or an experience he had. This helped us to progress the conversation easily. I also found this allowed me to get to know him better considering it was our first meeting. I would like to get better at this so that I can help create a comfortable environment with good communication in my future leadership experiences.

Learning Updates:

My learning so far has been focused on exploring the instrument to gain familiarity. My mentor has lent me some copies of a magazine called ‘Mandolin World News’. I have found these useful for me as I get to know the instrument. This is because they have a special beginner section where they talk about different tips and include simple tunes to learn. This has helped me a lot because they include notes as well as tabs of which fret to play. This has helped me begin to recognize the notes with where they are played on the instrument.

I’ve also learned a bit about the mandolin’s use in music. I learned that not only is the instrument used in folk and classical music but it’s also used frequently in bluegrass. I plan on learning more about this and listening to this style of music during my project. I have a couple of plans for my learning in the next two weeks. The skills I want to work on for the next couple of weeks are scales. For this, I want to memorize one or two common scales. I would also like to improve the clarity of my notes because I have found that I have been struggling with holding down the two strings at once which muffles the sound of the note. In the next weeks, I would also like to listen to more mandolin music. My mentor has made some recommendations so I am planning on listening to those and finding some artists I like to add to the normal mix of music I listen to every day.

Thanks for reading!