Mandolin

At a glance

Role

Harmony — it can carry the chords on its own

Range

G3 – E6

Tuning

G3D4A4E5▶ all

previewed with the nylon guitar voice

Sits well in

GDAC

Fifths tuning makes the fiddle keys home; the open strings sit inside all four.

How it works

Each 'string' is two strings tuned in unison, which is where the shimmer comes from. Tuned in fifths like a violin, so scale shapes are compact and chord shapes are a stretch.

On the neck

Drills 2

A session's worth. Each one has a single point — do that, not the whole list.

1. Tremolo control5 min

   A sustained note on an instrument that has no sustain.

   1. Pick one note as fast and as evenly as you can for eight beats.
   2. Listen for the pulse — if you can hear the strokes, slow down until you cannot.
   3. Move the tremolo across a slow melody.
2. Closed-position scales6 min

   One shape, twelve keys, thanks to fifths tuning.

   1. Play a major scale using no open strings, starting on the second fret.
   2. Move the identical shape up one fret at a time through five keys.
   3. Name each key out loud as you start it.

Tips

• Both strings of a course must be in tune with each other or the tone goes sour, not just flat.
• Chop chords — muted, on 2 and 4 — are the mandolin's rhythm role in a band. Practise them as percussion.
• A thick, rounded pick gives tone; a thin one gives noise.

Heard on 0

Nothing linked yet. The pipeline never measures who plays what, so this list is human-curated: add recordings to the 🎙️ Recordings relation on this instrument's row in 🎻 MUSIC INSTRUMENTS [DB] and they show up here.

Worth practising on it

Suggested from what the pipeline measured — key, meter, tempo and the chords as played. Each one says why it is here.