Kent Griswold

Recently I have become interested in playing a stringed instrument and I have decided to give the mandolin a try.

I had briefly played the banjo and guitar in my teen years but never really mastered either. Recently I have rediscovered the mandolin. In the early days of Camp Yavapines in Prescott, Arizona I was exposed to the mandolin by the camp director Ed Clifford. He had learned to play the mandolin while a missionary in South America.

Recently doing research on the web, I discovered some free mandolin lessons by Brad Laird who is a professional bluegrass player and whose primary instrument is the mandolin. I really like his style and training technique and I hope to master some basic bluegrass and gospel music for at least my own enjoyment and once I learn a bit maybe go jam with some other like minded people.

I borrowed an Ibanez mandolin pictured above from a friend and today started learning a few chords. My fingers are going to take some breaking in but I will keep you informed of my progress and maybe even play you a tune down the road.

The picture below is a mandolin I found used on the internet that I would like to purchase for myself, it is a Morris A5 built by Howard (Sonny) Morris up in Irrigon, Oregon. We’ll see if that happens or not.