Hi all, I have an odd question. I’ve playing mandolin for a little over a year and I am still on a steep learning curve, but my “shiny object” attention span really wants to learn banjo or guitar as well. I have purchased a banjo, but haven’t found a lot of time for it with always trying to work on my mandolin skills. So for you talented multi instrumentalists? How do you manage or did you get to an advanced level on one before moving to other instruments?
New instruments
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I say that if your heart so desires, push into other instruments and let your joy and excitement determine which you pursue and when. Any pursuit of one has nothing but positive effects on the others, even if just a little.
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Ben, would your answer be the same no matter how old the student? As we talked about at camp our 7 year old is learning violin and is wanting to pick up the mandolin. He’s still at the age that he has to be encouraged to practice or he won’t do it. He enjoys it, but needs the encouragement.
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I would say it depends on how focused and dedicated he is to still learning the violin. It’s great to learn more than one at once but it’s also very important to have a strong foundation on one before hopping around…
Does he at least know the basics on the violin?
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I agree with @LinusL. I think he needs to press on with the violin for now. Playing the violin is like learning Spanish…it gets harder the older you get. I’d be totally fine if he started mando but if you want him to be a fiddle player, he needs to keep it up. His violin teacher will be frustrated with his intonation since the mandolin has a longer scale length, but they’ll both get over that over time. I say do both.
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I recently picked up a second instrument. While I’m working my way through the lessons I decided to play for the pure joy of playing from now on. I think we can get bogged down in the minutia and compare ourselves to the virtuosos that we hear on today’s recordings. I’m never going to be Billy Strings or Earl Scruggs but I can have as much fun playing as they do.
Follow your heart and pick up another instrument if you want to.
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As a kid, I always naturally gravitated toward one or two at times (going through “phases”), and that naturally ended up directing how good I was going to be at each instrument. From ages 13-16 or so it was mainly banjo and from 16 onward it’s been guitar.
How much I’m using an instrument is also a big factor. Playing piano around church and for specials made me naturally go through piano phases, since I had something tangible to practice. I know a guy who seemed like he was mainly banjo/guitar, but then switched to mandolin full time in his band and now he’s basically Sam Bush.
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I think learning to play multiple instruments is great, but for me personally, my desire to play guitar and mandolin along with many other hobbies has been somewhat of a curse. I have become a jack of all trades and master of none. I have even dabbled between banjos. My wife’s grandfather played a beautiful plectrum banjo that was given to me, I played it for several years at the expense of my five string. I also tried the tenor banjo. The more instruments you want to learn, the more your practice time is divided. One of the reasons I became a member here is to finally focus solely on banjo and develop my skills deeper beyond a basic to intermediate level. Just my thoughts, not discouraging following your interest.
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Lots of great advice above. The only thing I can’t get settled about is the 7 year old fiddler. It seems like if you encourage/push a kid to something, they often have an opposite reaction. I know I did (with violin lessons as a rugrat). I wish I knew what the answer is, but I don’t. Maybe forbid him from ever playing fiddle, but provide a sweet playing 3/4 scale violin that is poorly hidden in the house? Just kidding… but seriously.
I have gone through phases with basically anything with strings. My current daily player is fiddle. I am not very good at it and I don’t expect I will ever get very good at it. I am significantly better at other instruments, but perhaps I like it because of the challenge. Back to the OP question… if your goal is to be elite on mando, hunker down and play mando with passion and purpose (i.e. systematically work on the fundamentals and hard things). If (like me) you play for the enjoyment, follow your heart. Like Ben said, they all support each other.
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Luke, I had a similar experience with my son when he was very young. He started out on violin, but it wasn’t long before I realized it Hart wasn’t in it, and he wasn’t practicing very much. So I just started introducing him to instruments until I found something that absolutely made him perk up. Initially, that was a couple of drumsticks. He started playing drums in school. He got to be very good not only in orchestra, but on the drum set as well. Then he showed an interest in guitar when he was in high school, I found out he was playing my guitars when I wasn’t home. So I helped him get started on guitar and then Bass and then he followed his heart from there on. He taught himself to play piano. he is an excellent singer. He’s a choir director and elementary school music teacher. He is a music producer, he has a small studio at his house. He is very busy producing albums for people. He ended up going all over the map. But I really think the important thing was as his parent I began exposing him to different things and paying attention to what sparked him. And then I surrounded him in that. Once we realized his passion was drums, we started giving him drum gifts. Conga, bongos, Latin percussion instruments. And eventually a drum set. Whatever he loved we just surrounded him with that thing whatever it was. You’re doing a good job. You’re paying attention to your son and his Music. If he doesn’t want to practice the violin, I wonder if there’s something he would practice? Mr. G.
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I agree with that, but want to offer some balance. If you leave it completely up to most kids, they won’t practice anything 
I was MADE to play piano and I hated it, but I now do what I do because of that foundation. It’s a discretionary path you have to walk…figure out when to press and when to give.
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Hi all. My comments are based on me putting myself in the 7 year old kid’s shoes, remembering what it was like being a kid, and knowing what I know now in my late 60s. And I am sharing a few thoughts, and I don’t intend to give advice about someone else when I don’t know them. Here goes. I think encouragement is good. My thought and opinion is if the person (child) is practicing or playing the violin, for example, but he/she is dreaming/wishing they were trying/practicing/playing another instrument instead, mandolin, for example, so that their heart and mind is not into what they are doing on the violin, and not embracing it, I believe the learning can be stunted, and might even start to erode the desire and joy out of learning the instrument, or even music in general, depending on the person. Who knows, if the child tries the other instrument for a while (day, week, or month, etc), might decide oh, I like the violin better, and then focus on that, or might decide, oh, I really like both, and want to learn both, or might, really want to pursue the mandolin. If the child enjoys music, and really wants to learn to play an instrument, their desire, aptitude, what sounds they like, will help them toward an instrument or instruments. Another thought, if it becomes just a chore, I believe a young person can develop a resentment toward the “chore”. One other thought, sometimes a child will do something just to please their parents, and won’t always make that obvious. I agree with @BanjoBen if leave it completely up to kids, they won’t practice anything, unless they have an unusual motivation level.
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My parents made me take organ lessons as a kid in the 70’s. I hated every minute of it. My instructor, Mr. Zimmerman was like an organ Nazi. He recorded every lesson and was a strict critic, I was forced to practice every day while my friends were out playing hide and seek and having dirt clod fights. I have horrible dreams of the song, Tiny Bubbles all highlighted and marked up with fingerings and foot pedal notation. I finally got to quit when Mr. ZImmerman died. Now, looking back 50 years later, I learned a lot from the organ nazi. I can read music and understand timing. It was a great asset to learning the instruments I love to play now. Thank God they forced me to take lessons.
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So sorry to the OP I feel like I hijacked his thread, but thank you all so much for all of the advice/insight!