I am a guitar player and have been for about 25 years. I try to play and practice daily and love music of all sorts. Knowing this, for Christmas my wife bought me a cheap little $20 uke. I was surprised at how easy it was a apply my skill and intuition to the little guy and in a matter of minutes I was transposing song written for the guitar and generally having a blast. So I decided that I should branch out even further and bought a mandolin. I have had it for several days now and I have a few observations as well as a few questions.
Observations:
1) My fingers are sore. Those little strings are very tense. I've been playing guitar long enough to know that this will pass.
2) It takes way more flexibility and strength in your had and particularly your pinky finger to fret those chords and make them sound clean.
3) I am amazed at how loud the little bugger is. I bought a US Ovation MM68 and the thing is really projects. I've read that other mandos are quite a bit louder than the Ovation and I don't know that I'd want it any louder for practicing in my little house.
Now for the questions:
Since I have broadened my horizons I have been listening to Mandola, Mandocello and Bouzouki music on the youtubes and boy do they make beautiful music. I am interested in the differences between them. I searched the forums and I found someone else had asked this exact same question. I read the thread and I don't know if the answers were over my head or what, but I still don't know the difference.
1) Is an octave mandolin just an extended scale mandolin with GDAE tuning.
2) if so, what is a mandocello, how are they normally tuned? Are they sometimes tuned GDAE as well.
3) Where does the bazouki fit into all this. I've noticed that they sometimes have 6 strings and sometimes 8 are generally tuned open?
I am asking because I would like to add another instrument to my collection and I am wondering what would be the most efficient learning wise. I want to be able to directly apply what I learn on the Mandolin to my next intrument.
Thanks in advace.
Sorry for such a long first post : )
Aaron
Bookmarks