Mandolin
performance
with Ginger
About Me
I started playing the mandolin when I was 9. I was fortunate to be raised in a family band. I performed professionally for 11 years. My styles: western, big band, contemporary, bluegrass, and celtic.
Ginger Stockwell
Music has always been a part of my life, partly due to musically gifted parents and older sister, but I believe mainly due to my grandfather, the late John Landenberger, an old-time fiddler of St. Francis, Kansas. His love of playing music and performing was unstoppable.
A highlight from my early performing years (teens) was jamming with the outstanding musician, mandolinist, guitarist - John Moore and his sister Julie (Bluegrass, Etc.) at 'That Old Pizza Place' in Carlsbad, California. Nickel Creek's Chris Thile took lessons from John. John Moore is still performing and can be found online. He is the Best.
the Mandolin
I wish I had an interesting story as to just why I chose to play the mandolin, but honestly it was because of my small hands and short fingers. In forming our family band, my father decided my older sister would play the guitar and banjo and I got
dealt the mandolin card.
I am a picker. I play melody line and love the tremelo technique. I began by playing
the electric mandolin, learning to use the amplified sound to best advantage and quickly added an effects pedal. It was not until I was in my 40's that I happened to
try a Mid-Missouri Mandolin acoustic model at Wildwood Music in Arcata, Ca. My love for electric won out and the Muddy is replaced with a Dean black acoustic electric.
the Fiddle
My grandfather, John Landenberger, was the musician who inspired me from the age before I could talk. I wished with all my heart to play the fiddle just like him. When I was 13, my grandfather brought me a gift- his favorite fiddle. He proudly showed me the label beneath the violin f-curve: it was a copy of an Antonius Stradivarius.
I am self-taught. I played for 7 years before my first formal instruction from a music professor at Palomar College. Carol Duggin asked me to perform my version of Orange Blossom Special before the entire class, unrehearsed. After the class performance, she suggested swapping her personal Classical style instruction with me, if I would teach her my vamp bowing technique. Beautiful arrangement.