My latest musical fascination has been with uncommon instruments.

Once in a while you walk into one of those tiny music stores. The ones with the front door and front window on one wall, the long glass case and cash register along the next wall, hanging guitars and sitting amps on the opposite side of this wall, and an employees-only back room on the far wall. And sometimes in that dusty collection of guitars you'll find something like a mandolin, a ukelele, or something you haven't seen before.

After eating on Thanksgiving, the hosts and some of the guests brought out various sized drums. You know, drums for individual playing that Pagans and the like drag out for get-togethers. But a lot of other unconventional instruments were hanging up in the dimly-lit living room we were all crammed into. Some of them were damaged and just hanging up for show, but others seemed playable. I tried playing around with a thumb piano, but it took me a while to figure out the scale it was in, and even by then is sounded like something out of Mr. Rogers. But then I picked up the balalaika that was hanging from the rafters. I wiped off most of the dust and tuned it in fourths like a guitar. Only 3 strings, but hey, that's still only one less string than the average bass guitar. I improvised some stuff while the others banged away on the drums and one of the hosts picked up a mouth guitar. (Actually, I think those things go by another name. They make a wild springy noise.)

The host said that the balalaika was for sale. She needed the money. So Gloria and I turned to whisper some numbers, and I offered $70. The proposed amount was quickly and happily agreed upon. Next time I saw Gloria I gave her the cash to pass on, because she sees these folks at least once a week. And she eventually brought back the balalaika for me. A few nights ago I spent a lot of time cleaning the wood, cleaning the frets, polishing, buffing, unscrewing, screwing, stringing, restringing, and tuning.

Now I just wanted to get some Russian song books. I'm sure a lot of it would be interesting, with all those minor keys. And as luck would have it, I found some sources at work. I was talking to Lina, one of our DBAs. Like many of the co-workers I've had since grad school, she's Russian. Lina had told me that she used to sing in her younger days. Bob (who plays guitar) gave her a bunch of these ethnic song books. Two Russian, one Italian, and one French. She pointed out some of the songs she particularly liked. I made some photocopies of those ones and others I found interesting. I can't read Cycrilic, but I can read sheet music. Who knows if we'll ever play something together, for the fun of it.

So is this unusual anyway? For a bass player to be playing bass for years, then get into all these other instruments? I kept thinking of John Paul Jones, from Led Zeppelin. Bass was always his main instrument, but he played a variety of basses, plus organ, steel guitar, mandolin, and probably more. I'd love to hear what he's said on the subject. I'm sure he's been asked "So why move from bass to all these other instruments?"