I love the sound of a mandola (tenor mandola, for those so inclined). Being a fifth-interval deeper than the mandolin offers a nice baritone voice. And since adding one to my stable, I've been exploring what I can do with it. I am really enjoying it.
My wife and I both play mandolin, and typically switch back and forth between lead/rhythm, or play melody/harmony duets. Mostly what we play is fiddle tunes, some bluegrass, Old-Time, Celtic-style tunes, etc. We're not much into classical/baroque music or the like.
But I'm finding it a bit difficult to make the mandola "fit in". For starters, I can't seem to find any good sources of written music tailored specifically to the mandola that isn't classical music. I do realize, of course, that anything written for a viola, tenor banjo, or tenor guitar will work, but those seem difficult to find. Or they just don't work well on a mandola. And when I do find them, they are usually just the same tunes we normally play, transposed to a different key so that they work with CGDA tuning. And to be honest, that's mainly what we've been doing with the mandola so far. Just playing our usual stuff in a different key so that a mandolin-mandola pairing can both have a comfortable range. But it seems rather limiting.
What I'd really like to find is a source (or ideas) for music that's written specifically for a mandolin-mandola duet, that isn't classical music. These being the equivalent of a violin-viola pair, I would think that there would be a vast amount of music out there (though I fear it may all be classical). Is there a site you'd recommend that is mandola-specific?
I've looked for inspiration on the web, searching YouTube, etc., but it seems that what most people do is just take mandolin tunes and play them on the mandola (in a key that's one fifth interval lower than the original). So it seems I'm not alone in this.
My main issue seems to be finding a key that lets both the mandolin and mandola work together without someone running out of strings to play. The key that seems to work best is G. But with the usual tunes we play, it ends up with the mandola never even being able to use that C-string, and basically just mimicking a mandolin by staying on the G, D, and A strings. Depends on the tune, of course. I think I'll have to find melody lines that fit the mandola's range first and foremost, then work up harmony on the mandolin.
On top of that, I have only found a handful of people who seem to use the mandola for bluegrass or even Old-Time music. Are there any artists I could look to for inspiration on getting the full potential from a mandola? Kind of like the way Sierra Hull has done with the octave mandolin in bluegrass? Or the way Mike Marshall has incorporated the mandocello?
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