Where Does Music Come From

I was talking on line about playing guitar and I realized that if you have the heart of a bard, you can turn even the most mundane of objects into an instrument. In ancient times and even today in primitive cultures, they don't get their instruments at fancy high end music shops. They use what is at hand. Reeds and bamboo to make flutes, gourds to make rattles, drums and banjos, sticks to make percussion instruments, hollowed out logs to make droning instruments and so on. So even if you are broke that is no reason not to get up and make some noise. Remember when you were a kid and you filled an empty plastic container with bottle caps or beans and made a rattle? So no more saying you can't be a musician without a $2,000 instrument. The rhythm is inside you. And me. And everyone.

Tuning Mandolin

My mandolin was very out of tune when I took it down from it's nail on the wall today. I found this handy site for tuning the mandolin: http://www.get-tuned.com/index.php It also shows how to tune other things like banjos and guitars.