Well, this morning before I went out to my first class, I opened some sort of envelope, and somehow inside were my tax returns.. My dad had kindly put my tax stuff in with his company's accountant, so now all I have to do is sign and initial to get my refund, which is bigger then I thought it would be. I also found out that I am still a tax deduction, which is nice to know. Something else I found out is that I will be getting ALL of the tax Vermont took from me back.. One might ask as I do, why they would even bother doing this, as the cost of taking my money and giving the same amount back is directly shouldered by Vermont taxpayers?... Still, who am I to question such a magnificent system..
Last night, when I was buying mandolin strings on amazon of all places, I saw what could be the best instrument ever.. It is called a cumbus (pronounced jum-boosh) mandolin... It seems to be basically a cumbus, which is sort of a Turkish banjo with an aluminium body, and it's neck is that of a traditional mandolin. Something else about it that I like is that the neck can be adjusted very easily, and is able to come completely off the body of the instrument. What is more, it is only $100, and it could possibly be a good use for some of my tax refund..
I haven't really talked about music with you much lately and the only reason I can think of for this, is because I have not really felt like it. Wasn't I cool the way I handled reparations in my last post? Anyway, back to the music. I have been playing a lot of it lately, and mostly with myself. I have been playing a lot of ukulele, which is very interesting and fun. Seriously, if you have ever thought about learning to play an instrument, but have given up/ don't have the time/ just don't think you can do it, then the ukulele is right for you. It is very hard to go wrong when learning, and when you have learned the basics, it can be just a casual activity or a full blown hobby. I own 2 ukulele's, one of them is a cheap Chinese plywood affair that I bought for the equivalent of $10, and the other is a descent $6o model made of solid woods. I recently put steel strings on the Chinese one, and tuned it to an octave above standard guitar tuning. At first I though that this would snap the neck in half, but that has not happened yet.. It's sound is still fairly ukulele-esque, but with a hint of mandolin.
Last week before Easter, I got the neck of my 12 string straightened. I know many of you are not that familiar with guitars, so it is hard to describe the feeling of playing an instrument with a freshly straightened neck. I think the best comparisons would be something like going to a La-Z-boy showroom and sitting in all the chairs after a 7 hour car ride/ taking a hot bath after a day of hard work/ waking up early in the morning and finding out it's a snow day and going back to sleep/ cracking open a can of something very cold on a hot day. Needless to say, I was very pleased, and played and am playing the thing incessantly.
As far as other musicians go, I have been going over to the Vickery compound to jam most weekends. Most of our practices are less than satisfactory, but there have been a few gems. We need a singer and a drummer pretty badly now.
I have been playing with my other group a lot lately, but now that Easter is over things will go back to normal. Something that I have really started to notice, is not that our leader is an amazing musician, but that he has the ability to hold all of us together. I noticed this most strongly yesterday, when he did not come to practice and it seemed like we were all playing different songs. I think it probably has something to do with respect, because we all know that he knows what is going on in any given song, and so he is naturally the one to look to when you are lost, but when he is not there everyone seems to follow themselves. Sort of like an army.
I am looking forward to telling you about the jum-boosh, even if you do not want to hear about it. Just remember that in the best of all possible blogs, all is for the best..
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