Moving from Mandocello to Octave Mandolin? (chord patterns)

[Rosie Cotton]

I've been playing mandocello for a few months and know most of the chords I need for everyday playing. But I've just bought an octave mandolin and I'm wondering what the best approach is to playing chords - the shapes are all familiar but they're different chords.

It feels a lot like when I learned alto recorder (F) when already knowing descant (C) - the patterns were the same but yield different notes. For recorder I found after playing for a week suddenly everything just clicked into place. Hopefully it will be same for octave mandolin!

[Marcus CA]

Yup!

The main difference from your recorder experience will be that you're going from C to G instead of from C to F. Another difference comes from dealing with a stringed instrument, rather than a wind instrument, on which you're only playing one note at a time. The bottom three courses on your OM are the same as the top three courses on your mandocello. So, you can also think of it that the mandocello patterns will yield the same notes on the OM if you shift one course lower.

[tmsweeney]

The shapes are all the same, just the notes are different, and not all the shapes work the same.
For example for me the Am7 4-2-5-3 on Mandocello works better than the Em7 4-2-5-3 on the Octave.
The Cmaj 7 0-0-2-2 on the Mandocello is one of my favorite chords, the Gmaj7 0-0-2-2 on Octave is a pretty sweet chord as well.
Recently Ethan Setiawan was demonstrating Octave chords that use only the G and D string fretted with the A (and sometimes E) ringing open, going pretty far up the neck, I've seen Mike Marshall do the same thing on the Mandocello.
That open G on the Octave can be profound, I have also tuned G-D-G-D and A-E-A-E, I liked the AE better but doesn't really work for G tunes which are plentiful.
Stretching over 6 frets like on a mandolin can be a challenge so 4 and 5 fret stretches are about all I can manage most of the time.

[Mandobart]

Something to remember here: 3 of the 4 courses (G, D, A) on the two instruments in standard tuning are exactly the same. So you don't have to relearn everything.

For me, with my earliest musical experience playing violin in school orchestras, I focus on notes more than shapes. Knowing that chords are built from 3 note triads (root, 3rd, 5th) that informs my chord fingering.

[mandocello8]

i tend to play both mandocello and octave roughly the same way. same fingerings for the melody leads, same chord shapes for chords. on mandocello perhaps more single-string (single-note) chords than on the OM. perhaps more x220 shapes than 42xx shapes, but only because on my cello the low C does more thump than tone. it is about to go to the mandocello hospital for nech reinforcement, so this might change when it returns and hopefully can support heavier strings.

[Rosie Cotton]

I focus on notes more than shapes. Knowing that chords are built from 3 note triads (root, 3rd, 5th) that informs my chord fingering.

I know the notes in each chord from a theoretical point of view, but I couldn't recall them fast enough to make up chords while I'm playing. I guess I've memorised 50 or so chord shapes. Worse, I find the more I've played a song, the more it seems to be stored in my head as a series of shapes. So I can play quite competently but if someone asks what the chords are then I'd have to stop and think.

[tmsweeney]

while rumored to be only an ancient myth, I do have a copy of "The Big Book of Mandocello Chords", by Harvey Reid, and while I have not played every chord on every page I have used it as a guide when I am not sure the best voicing on mandocello or mandola. Who knew

[Mandobart]

Another way to look at it is purely mechanical counting. A given chord shape played on a standard tuned (C-G-D-A) mandocello yields a chord 4 up from what that chord would be on a standard tuned (G-D-A-E) octave mandolin.

A "G" chord shape on the OM gives you a "C" chord on the mandocello. A "D" shape on the OM is a "G" on the mandocello. "C" chord on an OM becomes an "F" on the cello. Etc.

[RoamingJoe]

I moved from octave mandolin to mandocello ~ working in perfect fifths pitch (OM'G' to mandocello C) is harder to keep up the rhythm. The double course C usually vibrates metal if plucked hard. Since you're going mandocello to octave mandolin it will feel more deft and comfortable with a fuller chord instead of the mandocello's usual 3 note chords (2 notes for me sometimes )

The Big Book of Mandocello Chords is pretty awful for anyone starting out. It has an encyclopaedic span of chord patterns without flagging up the most common fingerings for beginner or intermediate players and transposing mandolin chords to mandocello never fully works without Rachmaninov finger spans. Octave mandolin isgreat for the in between grasp of the fuller chords ~ more like cello pitched bass recorder vs alto recorder