Is the mandolin easier to play?

[Gregooch]

Is the mandolin easier to learn to play than the guitar? It seems easier to me to learn to play than the guitar. Is that because of it's smaller size, because there are less strings?

[tkdboyd]

I don't believe there is such a thing as an easy instrument to play. If it is a quality instrument and well set up and you want to play guitar like Django Reinhardt, or the mandolin like Dave Apollon neither instrument will be easy.

[Jim Garber]

One that makes the mandolin "easier" is that it is tuned uniformly, that is, each course is one fifth higher than the one lower. Guitar is tuned in fourths until you get to the b string. Other than that I would not say easier -- they are both different and the approaches to learning them are different. For instance, I would say as a beginner you generally would play single note tunes or etudes vs. the guitar which you generally learn chords at first.

[Denny Gies]

Jim echos my experience. Overall I have found the mandolin easier to learn than the guitar.

[bmac]

If an instrument is "easy" you aren't working hard enough.... Growth demands hard work....

The guitar was my first "real" instrument and by comparison I found it easier than the mando. But with the mando I really worked harder and demanded a lot more of myself...

[Bertram Henze]

The instrument chooses the player, and whichever instrument chooses you will be the easiest, whatever reasons you try to invent for it afterwards.
That is because love for the instrument carries you through prolonged phases of practising with joy in your heart; the instrument you picked up for other reasons will bore you to death and make practising a waste of lifetime.

[catmandu2]

The instrument chooses the player, and whichever instrument chooses you will be the easiest, whatever reasons you try to invent for it afterwards.

In my case, it's the music that chooses (me)--and the instruments follow. The instruments I've settled on are the most challenging (and the most difficult) for me--but they best execute the music I want to play...

I would love it if they were the easiest for me...but it's quite the opposite

[SincereCorgi]

Any instrument that is 'easy' in some way always makes you work hard to make up for its limitations in other ways. Guitars have a more complicated tuning, but that tuning lends itself extremely well to sophisticated chord shapes, whereas with mandolin you have to work much harder to overcome its 'easy' tuning to play a lot of chords. A pianist has to work for years to learn the phrasing and pedal technique to create legato effects that come easily on, say, a saxophone. Having said that, at the very beginning stages of learning, some instruments are definitely easier than others.

[catmandu2]

Any instrument that is 'easy' in some way always makes you work hard to make up for its limitations in other ways. Guitars have a more complicated tuning, but that tuning lends itself extremely well to sophisticated chord shapes, whereas with mandolin you have to work much harder to overcome its 'easy' tuning to play a lot of chords. A pianist has to work for years to learn the phrasing and pedal technique to create legato effects that come easily on, say, a saxophone. Having said that, at the very beginning stages of learning, some instruments are definitely easier than others.

Yep. Again the (OP) poses an insufficient question. Other factors must be known if we can answer meaningfully--otherwise, it's like asking: "what's easiest--running or swimming?" What's more difficult--piano or erhu?

But, so much also depends upon what one is learning in the beginning stages (at least two disparate approaches in guitar, for example). Beginning pedagogy probably varies less with mandolin--with fewer variances in its "popular" deployment, etc.

Yes, what Jim said above (about the "chording" nature of the guitar). I look at the guitar a bit more like a "piano"--and a mandolin a bit more like a "fiddle." An instrument with a lot of polyphony is going to be much different (from the outset) than the instrument with relatively less

Yes one more thing about what s-corgi said: lots of remarks from the great horn men speaking about struggling against the limitations of their instruments, technique, etc (in the arts, it's a common problem)

[Bertram Henze]

The instruments I've settled on are the most challenging (and the most difficult) for me--but they best execute the music I want to play...

I think multi-instrumentalists are a different breed - not applied to by my statement because they never actually fall in love with one single instrument like I do.

[Pasha Alden]

Well I guess it depends what you wish to compare it to and if you actually can.
With my small hands the mandolin is easier than the guitar. However, I must agree with a previous post: every instrument will have its challenges. Someone once remarked nothing worthwhile comes easy. Perhaps that is something for musicians to keep in mind?
So let us all strive for that beautiful gold standard? <big smile>
Happy playing all

[Bertram Henze]

There is proof that small hands are no excuse for not playing the guitar...

[Mark Wilson]

New to mandolin myself. Coming from guitar, I noticed how much easier it is to 'find' a chord (even a new chord) in so many places on fretboard. I already find myself locating new chords by ear quickly w/o use of a chord book.

One of challenges for me is overshooting a fret on mandolin. Don't recall doing that on guitar

[Mandobart]

On a different note, I find that mandolin is much tougher on my fingers than guitar. Guitar is "easier" to learn because there are more and less expensive instruments, resources, teachers.

[9lbShellhamer]

I second many of the above comments. The mandolin makes more "sense" than the guitar in its tuning, and I believe the tuning of each suits its purpose.

The tuning of the guitar allows not only strong chord formations for rhythm players, but also for scales to be played keeping the wrist in the same station. (meaning: full scales can be played on all six strings using the standard guitar one finger per fret rule), whereas in Mandolin the scales can be easily be played up to the fifth and sixth frets keeping the wrist in the same station using the two frets per finger rule.

The guitar is an incredibly versatile instrument, lending itself to a multitide of voicings. It's an incredible instrument.

The mandolin is not as versatile, (even Chris Thile admits its limitations). The mandolin in its tuning in fifths however is such a beautifully logical instrument!

Like someone above said already, its as hard as you want to make it. I do think that the mandolin is "easier". That being said, both can be so challenging they easily allow time for a lifetime of full time study. They are both instruments, and music theory applies evenly to both. The application of music theory is universal, and theory is a lifetime study.

Enjoy it!

[catmandu2]

I think multi-instrumentalists are a different breed - not applied to by my statement because they never actually fall in love with one single instrument like I do.

Yes, I think you're accurate--in distinguishing a difference--now that I think of it. For decades I was completely absorbed with but one (flamenco guitar, and Bach), and that was it. It's been but a decade since getting into broad musics--I didn't realize my memory is this short!

That may be a succinct way of putting it--but perhaps apt nonetheless. It's not that I've fallen OUT of love with these...but IN love with other (more diffuse) sources, I suppose

[Timbofood]

I always love this question! It reminds me of what an old boss used to say:
"Do you walk to work or carry your lunch?"
I don't know if it's really easier to play mandolin than guitar it's "Different."
If you want to play any instrument you will find a way, the desire makes the difficulty undaunting. No obstacle will keep you from the pursuit of learning. Every instrument presents it's own challenges, embrace the difference. More learning, more knowledge, more appreciation!

[catmandu2]

... the desire makes the difficulty undaunting. No obstacle will keep you from the pursuit of learning.

Quite well said

[Pasha Alden]

Well Bertram - I have to say, the guitar I still play from time to time, however, my pinkie just cannot bar chords I have actually tried. So I guess here is proof that in some cases it is not possible? But thanks for the encouragement anyhow! I think I will stick to the mandolin and perhaps the ukulele?

[Pasha Alden]

In addition to my response I must then say: perhaps it is my physical limitation: that of small hands and not the instrument that is too difficult.
While I am reticent to speak about the limits of mandolins, I agree that the guitar is extremely versatile, but that the mandolin makes an exquisite contribution to music and has crossed many genres.

[JeffD]

I started with mandolin. I have played with a guitar for fun and curiosity.

I think the mandolin is easier to play well, while the guitar is easier to play poorly. There seems to be a level one can reach on the guitar where you are adequate, and even useful, but its extremely hard to get any better. Its almost like you have to start from the beginning again and go a different way to make progress on it. While mandolin makes so much sense, with so much symmetries, it seems easier to get real good.

But really, YMMV.

[catmandu2]

...the guitar is easier to play poorly. There seems to be a level one can reach on the guitar where you are adequate, and even useful, but its extremely hard to get any better. Its almost like you have to start from the beginning again and go a different way to make progress on it.

One of the big problems in guitar pedagogy. Because of its immense popularity, prevalence in "pop" music (what permeated much of our listening experience--at one time or another), and the fact that most of the guitar in this milieu is trite...produces the phenomenon that--everyone CAN play to this level (basic few chords and progressions, picking patterns, licks) without ever discovering much about the instrument or its capabilities -- right, scores of people have made millions from the guitar--in its simplest and most basic form

When something becomes so vastly popular--it tends to be easily parodied. The guitar certainly has, and has been done a tremendous disservice (and those who might have been interested in learning more about the guitar) for having been iconicized and suffering the perfidious effects of popular culture--relegating it (a complex instrument capable of extensive polyphony and subtlety) by the masses as a trite accessory and preeminent instrument of the dilettante.

One other thing which may or may not have been said: the guitar is an excellent instrument for music pedagogy (much like piano) -- an instrument well suited for formal study in Western harmony, counterpoint, composition, as well as all the popular styles

[JeffD]

One of the big problems in guitar pedagogy. Because of its immense popularity, prevalence in "pop" music (what permeated much of our listening experience--at one time or another), and the fact that most of the guitar in this milieu is trite...produces the phenomenon that--everyone CAN play to this level (basic few chords and progressions, picking patterns, licks) without ever discovering much about the instrument or its capabilities -- right, scores of people have made millions from the guitar--in its simplest and most basic form

I agree. What is considered acceptably good in guitar is gigantically influenced by its prominence in pop culture.

If apples are compared to apples, I would think comparable levels of good are probably equally hard to achieve on most instruments.

[Bertram Henze]

Well Bertram - I have to say, the guitar I still play from time to time, however, my pinkie just cannot bar chords I have actually tried.

Neither can't I. My pinkies are approx half the size of their ring finger neighbors, while people playing the guitar by the book on videos always seem to have pinkies as big as their ring fingers. But I play the big instrument anyway (OM, not guitar), cheating my way around pinky usage and in fact around most orthodox ways to play, and it works.
That's my point - there is always another way. If you can't run like the others, just take the bus.

[Darren Bailey]

I started with mandolin. I have played with a guitar for fun and curiosity.

I think the mandolin is easier to play well, while the guitar is easier to play poorly. There seems to be a level one can reach on the guitar where you are adequate, and even useful, but its extremely hard to get any better. Its almost like you have to start from the beginning again and go a different way to make progress on it. While mandolin makes so much sense, with so much symmetries, it seems easier to get real good.

But really, YMMV.

I agree. I think it is easy to get very satisfying sounds out of a guitar after a short time of trying without much skill. The mandolin makes a less satisfying sound at first because it requires more abiity. However, after a few years the mandolin feels infinitely simpler to me but this may we be due to greater application. I think a poorly played mandolin can sound awful whereas most peope can knock something out of a guitar simply because so many great songs are based on a few simpe chords.
There is a famous quote from Bob Dylan. He and Bono (of U2) were in the studio. Bono says to Dylan "Bob, your songs will be known long after we're gone."
Dylan replies "So will yours, ony difference is no one will be able to play them."
Simplicity isn't necessariy a sin!