fretting on mandola: same as mandolin?

[Pasha Alden]

Hi all

Not for the mandolin, but the mandola. So hope someone can answer. Are there any significant differences to fretting on mandola? That of course apart from the bigger stretches that may be necessitated?

[Beanzy]

For the tenor mandola it would depend on your hand size and the actual scale length, I just do the same as mandolin but obviously everything is a fifth different due to the CGDA tuning. But on the octave one I change to the same as my mandoloncello or cello fingering. Obviously with the notes being shifted by a fifth you will use different shapes for chords. You can normally use basic mandolin shapes and just rename the down a fifth, except some of the seventh chords may need tenor guitar & banjo shapes for smaller hands.

[Pasha Alden]

Thanks so much Beanzy! Smaller hands will need to be considered for the 7th chords, small hands apply, <big smile>

[Jim Bevan]

If by fretting you mean fingering:

I use my pinky on 6th-fret notes (F#, C# etc), and a C-D-E or similar lick on the A-string is fingered 1-2-4.

After a year of pretty much only mandola playing (Irish Trad), I'm back to playing mandolin again, and I seem to be using these mandola fingerings on the mandolin now, so, actually, there is no difference.

[UsuallyPickin]

Yes ..... Beanzy and Jim give good advice here..... longer reaches combined with a fifth lower in tuning ..... I can only add to think in three and two tone chording and be ready to shift position because of the added "reach" .. Enjoy R/

[Pasha Alden]

My thanks to Jim Bevan and UsuallyPicking.


Helpful advice. Going to have to practice for those big reaches like crazy.

Hope I manage!

[Pasha Alden]

Hi folks, apologies for a typo: bar-chords instead of barr. Apologies. I fear my fingers and brain do not work together sometimes, think the brain is too quick for the fingers.

[SincereCorgi]

It might sound silly, but if you learn some music on tenor guitar and then go back to mandola, the mandola will be basically indistinguishable from a mandolin in terms of stretches. This is sort of the medicine ball approach to tenor guitar.

[Barry Wilson]

I actually find the mandola easier to get chords than mandolin because there is some breathing room between frets

[Jim Bevan]

Don't know if you're playing Irish Trad on your mandola or not, but if you are, I'd recommend doing this exercise:
It's a Bm pentatonic scale, from B up to F#, and it's fingered:

B (on the G-string)-2, D-0, E-1, F#-2, A-0, B-3 (on the D-string -- a shift up to 3rd position), D-1 (on the A-string), E-2, F#-3, and of course, back down again.

Being comfortable with it will give you an easy way to play tons of tunes in their normal (fiddle/mandolin) register, and it's very often easier than playing the tune down an octave.

I find that playing the A parts in the normal register and the B parts down an octave is often the easiest placement of a tune, and adds a nice non-tenor banjo version that fits in nicely with everyone else at a session.

[Pasha Alden]

Thanks Sincere, Jim and Barry.

I am looking forward to my mandola and Jim, I will try that scale!

It is a little more than a month when I get my mandola.

Stay well.

[Viola]

I've been fretting same as viola across all strings: O, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4.
Anything above the 7th fret requires me to shift.

I sketched out your (Jim's) scale in alto clef. Should be fun to try out.
Looks like you take advantage of the open A to shift up the fret board from 1st to 3rd position, yes?

[Toni Schula]

Regarding chords the mandola for me has a different role than the mandolin. On mandolin I mainly use Bluegrass chop chords. Before I had the mandola I started three finger "Jethro" chords (I had baught Don's Mandolin for dummies book) but always found it tricky on the mandolin to put so "many" fingers into so little space. On the mandola I love these chords, as well as open 2 finger chords. 'Let them ring!'

[UsuallyPickin]

Hey Pasha .... don't worry about the spelling ..... it is actually spelled barre .... go figure ... The term comes from the method of using the index finger to form a rigid "bar" across all of the strings. The specific spelling "barre" comes from Latin-Spanish, as the guitar historically originated in Spain. It is useful as well because the spelling "barre" distinguishes the term from the spelling "bar" that traditionally represents a measure, and that "bar chord" might generate confusion. Ta-da .... R/