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When I first played in the Princeton pick-up band, not only was I a beginning player, but I was also painfully shy. Robert LaRue, the father of the pick-up band who ran it and nurtured and shaped it in its early days, encouraged me constantly and tricked me into playing my first solo so that I wouldn't have time to think about it and choke. This was back in the late 1980's.
The way I got there in the first place was due to Annie Moos, formerly Annie Anderson. I heard her playing mandolin one evening, back before I played mandolin at all, when I just danced, and it was a wonderful, pretty sound. So I asked her how long she had been playing, and she replied "2 years". That phrase stuck in my mind; I went out the next week and bought my first mandolin and began practicing it. Then I arranged to take a few lessons from Richard Smith. A year passed and I showed up for a pick-up band. I took a seat in the back. It was many more months before I was ready to play out, but the die was cast.
The best thing I ever did was decide to memorize a tune. I learned one, then another. Then I set myself the goal of learning a favorite tune once a week. One thing led to another, to where today, I would rather not use music at all and rarely have to.
My mandolin has travelled all over the world with me. It can be played in a car or an airport. It changed my life for the better. To Robert, Annie, Richard and all the members of the pick-up band, who are very supportive of beginning players, I owe thanks for providing me a place in which to learn.and enjoy myself.
- Pat Palmer. May 2001