Any Mandola Mains Here?

[Stehvia]

A little bummed that Mandolas don't get as much attention as the mandolin. As a recent discoverer of this lovely instrument, could anyone recommend me any musicians that "main" the mandola (uses it as their primary instrument)? It's tough finding videos / instruction on the instrument.

Thanks

[multidon]

Brian McDonagh of the Irish group Dervish plays a mandola as his main and only instrument.

[Pittsburgh Bill]

I don't know of any noted musicians that play a mandola as their main instrument.
As for your other comment it is very difficult to find written music for a mandola. People have suggested music notation found in limited amounts for tenor banjo, of which I have never researched. Also, you may find music notation written for a viola in alto clef and most likely for classical music.
As being totally self taught in all aspects of music I am of course no expert. I play my mandolas solely for my own enjoyment fingered the same as I do a mandolin. Therefore, I rarely play a mandola in the presence of others or with others in which case I default to a mandolin. I find transposing a dola when playing with others to be in the key daunting (especially for melody while not so much for rhythm).
I do very much enjoy my dolas when playing solo for many tunes that just to me sound much better on a dola than on a mandolin.
If I were a truly gifted or trained musician I perhaps could accomplish this by ear. But, sad for me, I cannot. I just have fun and know that the Punch Brothers will not be trying to recruit me. So enjoy your mandola. I cannot imagine not having at least one in my arsenal of weapons.

[multidon]

I just wanted to point out that when you Google “famous mandola players”, the first thing you see on the results is “Did you mean: famous mandolin players?”

[Bob Visentin]

Mandolas suffer the same as violas. Most people don't know what they are. The difference between a mandolin and a mandola? The mandola holds more beers.

[William Smith]

My bandmate plays Viola as he doesn't have a violin! I'll soon have a 1924 Gibson Tenor Lute conversion to Mandola by Gary Vessel so that's sweet! But to be honest I've never played a mandola but I'm sure I can figure it out rather quick!

[Viola]

My main instrument is the mandola. But I certainly wouldn't call myself a professional by any means and I definitely hope there aren't any videos of me playing it out there!

In terms of written music, I use sheet music written for violas since that's what I learned as a kid. You can find a decent amount of classical, celtic, folk, show tunes, etc... out there. The library isn't terribly extensive once you get outside the classical world, but there's enough to give a person a good start. Alternately, you can use tenor banjo music - either written in 8va or tabs. Like the viola music, there's a okay amount of that out there to get you started, but, still, not exactly a treasure-trove. Another resource I've found helpful recently is violin / fiddle music... now, I'm no good at reading g-clef... but there are a few computer programs out there where you can type in that violin / fiddle stuff and have the program transpose it into c-clef. And that's worked nicely for me. Last thing I can think of is to just use mandolin tab as-is. You'll be off by a 5th, but it'll sound just fine. You only run into a problem if you're playing with others. And, even then, depending on what you're playing, it may not sound all that bad -- particularly if it's a simple piece.

Technique-wise, it's pretty similar to a mandolin. You can use the mandolin instructional videos. They'll be fine.
That said, I do find some chords on the mandola much trickier than on the mandolin. Same with some note combos too - like anything that moves between a low-1 or low-2 to a 4. Just can't seem to reach those very well on the mandola since the distance is greater between them than it is on a mandolin. So... I fudge it a bit... I'll shift a touch or chose an alternate fingering or otherwise modify what's written a bit to make the piece work. Of course, these things may not pose a problem for everyone - different biology brings about different hand sizes and such.

For inspiration, I tend to look more toward youtube videos featuring octave mandolins because (as you point out) trying to find ones with mandolas isn't so easy.

All-in-all... Congrats on finding a mandola!

Mandolas suffer the same as violas. Most people don't know what they are. The difference between a mandolin and a mandola? The mandola holds more beers.

I thought the answer was: "they burn longer"

[chuck3]

I've started a thread or two here on the Cafe about how much I like playing the mandola. I think it's a great instrument, and when I'm just playing myself it's often my instrument of choice. But when I play with others (read, guitarists), I stay with mandolin as the higher pitch of the mandolin sounds better with instruments pitched in that middle range. (My opinion, but I don't think I'm alone.)

But ... go mandola! Love playing it.

[bbcee]

Peter Rowan plays mandola a lot.

John Reischman played a lot of mandola on the Harmonic Tone Revealers album. Sounds amazing in combination with Sharon's mandolin.

I'm a recent mandola person, and I find I'm playing it more & more. I love how open chords & double stops sound on it playing rhythm, and just generally love the deeper timbre.

[Rewjeo]

Any viola player will spend a lot of time playing violin and cello music. I imagine the whole situation will be pretty similar for mandola, including that some pieces will work brilliantly on the new instrument while other ones just won't work. If you like baroque music, I think a lot of the viola transcriptions would work pretty well, and you won't need an accompanist. Later classical music might not transition from a bowed to a plucked instrument as well. If you're more interested in fiddle tunes, then I'd say basically just go for it. You can tune it down a fifth and preserve fingerings, or just down an octave, or whatever works for you. You've stumbled across one of those neglected instruments where you kind of have to make your own way - but plenty of people have done that, and it can be very rewarding.

[Mandola87]

Mandola is my main instrument, although I'm still very much a beginner. I prefer the deep sound of a mandola but it can get frustrating that there's so much more material out there for mandolin. The big positive is that this forces me to think about music theory a lot more and become more adaptive overall. The best advice I have is to learn to read alto clef and then your left hand can use all the music that's been written and transposed for viola players, whilst your right hand strums, picks and tremolos like a regular mandolin player.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Grisman occasionally uses a mandola.

If you want to play the same repertoire on mandola as mandolin, then do that. Use TablEdit to get the tune, but change the instrument from GDAE mandolin to CGDA tenor banjo (I think).

You may need to be creative with the point at which you change positions to move up to cover what would normally get played om the mandolin's e strings. But it should work.

Daniel

[Toycona]

I've had a Girouard mandola since 2013, and it was my main instrument for 4 of the last 5 years. I love it and love playing it, except when in a jam setting picking white hot fiddle tunes. Transposing some fiddle tunes on the dola is tricky - like the key of A for example. Many Reischman fiddle tunes fare nicely on the dole, due to JR's adroit dola picking. In preparation for Swannanoa in 2017, I weaned myself off of the dola as an everyday instrument and went back to the mandolin. All the notes were where I left them, and I realized after a week of intense playing in that fantastic setting, the mandolin is for fiddle tunes and unpredictable jams, and the dola is for gigs where we are primarily singing. Once I sorted that out, I could and do enjoy both instruments a lot.