My mandolin and me.

I haven't really talked about my music at all yet, so here I go!

I play the mandolin (it has 8 strings and you play it with a pick to play sweet bluegrass music) and I love it! I went through this little...I guess you could call it a slump, where I didn't want to play much. I started when I was 11 and it just kind of got old. I wasn't getting any better and it wasn't quite as fun for me as it once was, but recently, I have decided that I need to play more and I have not regretted it. 

Last weekend, we went up to Ogden (a city about 45 minutes outside of Salt Lake) for a "bluegrass" festival. I say that with quotation marks because it wasn't strictly bluegrass music, but there was some good bands that were the correct genre for the event, and that was cool.

Anyway, my friend talked me into playing in the Utah State Instrument Championships. I was not really feeling it and I was sure that I wouldn't place well. I haven't really been practicing and I have been playing in this contest for a long time and haven't really done all that well.  Well, oddly enough, I played against 7 other musicians and they were true competition and I took 2nd place! I am truly proud of it!

For the first time in a really long time, music is fun for me and I want to play and play all day long and it's awesome. So, here's to getting a kick out of the things that you used to love and have rediscovered!