Mandolin Reflection #1

I have been trying my best to use my mandolin wherever I can, so that I can get used to playing it and become better through experience. I guess that my first "performance" was in history class, when I used the mandolin to make up a song to make my history project. My group and I wanted to have something that would distinguish our presentation on the Communist Party of Germany from the rest of the presentations, to do something that would be fun but still informative. We chose to do the song to the tune of "All My Lovin'" by the Beetles, and I wrote new lyrics that would actually fit in with the German communist views ("seize the factories and means of production, etc. etc.). There is a video of it on YouTube, and I actually think it went pretty well. It was a fairly simple chord progression, just the notes Am, D, G, Em in various combinations of being played. The first line was a bit on the rough side - I played the wrong chord, and that threw us for a second; but once we recovered, the rest of the song went perfectly, really. It got better as it progressed, and the transitions were smoother. But all the same, I think that it was pretty decent considering I had been playing for less than 2 months when it was filmed. Here is a link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLgkbsPz3Ek

I think that especially after the first verse, the mandolin sounds quite good. I had a consistent strumming pattern and the chords were well-played, and played correctly. I think it was a good way to do a "first performance", even if it was only in front of my history class. It also taught me the importance of preparing well in advance, because if I hadn't, then I think that I would have messed up the chords out of nervousness. It's good to know for future performances I might do, such as ones at the open mic nights.