Smiling Fingers

I found a mandolin about a month ago. Saw it at some guy's yard sale while I was out walking the family dog one morning. When I first saw it I wasn't exactly sure what it was. All I thought was, "What a curious looking instrument... it's cute, I must have it." It was only $25 and I had a lot of cash at the time.

I took it home and started researching what it was. The guy said it was Russian so I looked up Russian stringed instruments. The balalaika was too angular, and the other instruments were too strange to be the little thing I was holding. I was starting to think the guy was wrong, but I looked at the maker tag inside the body and that was definitely in Russian. I guessed it was just made in Russia.

That's when I started thinking it might just be a mandolin or a lute, something from that family. I looked up Mandolins, but they either had the funky scrolls or the F shape sound holes, nothing simple looking like mine. Eventually my boyfriend found a picture of an A style Soviet Mandolin that was almost identical to mine. We translated the Russian Text and it pretty much said the same thing.

Now that all the background has been filled in I can go back to "Fingers". They hurt. I never could play stringed instruments like guitars for very long. They always made my hands hurt. I could never reach chords because the fret boards were so wide, not to mention the pain from having to push down the strings. My tender fingers only knew how to push piano and clarinet keys not thin wires. But that is the funny part. Mandolin strings are thiner and a lot harder to push down.

While playing, the strings have actually sliced into the edge of my nail giving them strange toothy edges. You're probably wondering why I don't give up and just make the instrument part of my room's decor... I can't, because it makes me happy. Not the pain in my fingers, but the mandolin sound. It makes me want to keep trying. Every time I attempt to play Irish jigs, Spanish melodies, or any tune my sister throws at me, it gets me excited. I keep plucking and plucking until I find the right notes.

I love my mandolin now. It's small, it's cute, and I can't wait for the *plink plink* sound of the double strings to makes me smile. ^^ Now if only I could get my sister to play her guitar with me.