By Brian Thomas
Cardinal Staff
Senior Andy Bauer learned how to play the bass guitar at age 12, but his passion for musical instruments didn’t stop there.
His knowledge of the bass guitar led to a “solid foundation in music,” Bauer said. This has allowed him to play more complex and exotic instruments such as the electric guitar, mandolin, bodhran and djembe, just to name a few.
“I own a didgeridoo, an aboriginal instrument mostly [used in] Australia, [and] a charango, an instrument I got from Argentina,” Bauer said. In an attempt to fine-tune his skills, he brought several of the instruments to school with him to practice regularly.
“The charango is an instrument unlike anything else I have played,” said Bauer. “The tunings are challenging to work with.
“The mandolin is always challenging. It requires a lot of nimbleness in the fingers which is very different from bass [guitar],” he said.
Bauer said that his favorite instrument will always be the bass guitar, since it’s what he started with. He is usually a crowd favorite, playing bass guitar in several acts in SMU’s Blue Angel and Gaslight music shows.
Bauer has considered taking on a new instrument as well: “I have always been fascinated by the tabla,” he said. A tabla is a pitched drum, which is something different, and the rhythms are truly different. I think that the challenge would be fun.”
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