So the mandolin lessons have been slow going. It’s frustrating because there’s a clear gap between my physical abilities and my sight-reading skills.

On the former front, I can stretch my fingers far more than a beginner, have no trouble with up-down strokes, can play a little tremolo, don’t have any trouble with barres, etc. (although the chop G chord continues to evade me and my very short little finger). But then there’s the music-reading.

That’s sort of been OK, but the text I’m using has a tendency to throw in multiple new concepts per exercise with no warning, and I find it frustrating. Currently I’m working on strums, which require me to read multiple notes at the same time, and I’m struggling with that — especially since a few of them also require finger gymnastics.

But I can start to see the good part of this rainbow now. As my music-reading improves, I’m getting to rely more and more on just learning how to do various physical actions on the mando. I’ve been farting around on guitar for decades, so the five-finger spreads and pushing down multiple strings with one finger and so on are easier for me than figuring out the location of middle B on my fretboard. Even the basics of tremolo are coming fairly easy for me.

So as this goes along, I should be able to step on the gas pedal a little more. I’m still limited by my inability to find practice time — it’s probably not a good idea to learn a new instrument when you have a busy full-time job and already are playing a completely different instrument in two bands — but so it goes. The mando has grabbed me in a way the guitar never has. I’m already lusting after better instruments, which I don’t need and haven’t earned the right to play yet. But I’m progressing.