TOPIC: I WONDER WHY THAT IS....????

At the Palatka Bluegrass Festival there were a few female mandolin players and what I noticed was that the "ladies" hold their mandolin a little different from the way the "gents" hold them. Of course, as soon as I got back to Miss Lou's house (DCone's awesome aunt )I went straight to the mirror with my mandolin and noticed that I hold mine like the "ladies" of the Palatka Festival, wonder why that is ....I also noticed that mostly they played (both ladies and gents) their chords up the neck....and they were LOUD!!!! and a couple of groups had 2 mando players at the same time....I always thought it was one of each...1 mando 1 bass 1 guitar 1 fiddle and maybe 1 dobro....boy was I wrong..Seemed like each group had their own variation!

We hold our mandos differently than men because of the way we are built. There is no set rule on how many of which instruments are in the band. You must have noticed most everyone played multiple instruments. Some songs need 2 guitars, some use twin fiddles, Bill Monroe often used 3 fiddles. And sometimes, people just like to show off(like Little Roy's banjo pickin', guitar playin', 11 yr old singing grandson).