Sharing the Mandolin

I was given my first mandolin for Christmas this year. I have no clue how to play it but after I got it tuned up and strummed it the first time I found a pretty sweet tune flowing from my fingertips. Unlike a guitar the mandolin is normally tuned in perfect 5th with string pairs in unison, and although I have only played it a few short moments I've already noticed that one almost has to try to hit a sour note because of this. My kids are convinced it's a baby guitar though and every time I try to work on adding this new instrument into my musical vocabulary I find myself instead having to teach valuable lessons to them about sharing ...and leading by example!

I was in need of a new guitar and started my search online.  As a cowboy singer for kids, I decided to try and find a guitar that would go with my look.  I discovered that there was such a thing as a 'cowboy guitar.'  Originating back in the days of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, cowboy guitars back then were typically standard guitars with a stencil of a western scene painted over the finish.  I then discovered that Martin Guitar had been making cowboy guitars a different way.  Five special-edition models have been made to date, each one with its own western scene embedded into the finish.  Not just a stencil, but a copy of a painted scene covering the entire top of the guitar.  Very cool.  The Cowboy V model was the latest one but was only 3/4 size.  I found some earlier models online but none in my price range.  Lo and behold, I walked into a guitar store in Towson, MD one day soon after and saw a ten-year-old Cowboy II hanging on the wall.  The owner seemed to be keeping it only as a collectible and thus it was in perfect condition.  The price was very reasonable so I snapped it up and am now the happy owner of a Martin Cowboy guitar.  Yee-haw!