Understanding four-fingered chords on the mandolin really expanded my musical brain as a violinist. It made finding chords on the fingerboard a lot easier.
I play both and agree with your assessment. I started on violin and played 4 years. Then a mandolin part was needed in an orchestra and my dad had one so i played the part... Fast forward 45 years during the pandemic inspired by the Petersen's, i pulled out my mandolin and started to learn fiddle tunes. After a couple of years, i pulled out my violin and already had a bunch of tunes under my fingers... I like the fiddle better but divide my time between the two and guitar. My ADD allows me to bounce around 😂 I found you from mandolin Monday and have learned a lot from Mandolessons. Baron has a massive library that works for all three instruments. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. All instruments are difficult to master... Of these three, violin is the most difficult even to get a pleasant sound from.
Yes!! That is the great thing about violin and mandolin, if you learn a tune on one, you can normally play it on the other as well! Mandolessons is great!
10 years playing Celtic fiddle (New England Contra, Scottish & Irish, Cape Breton) - just bought a Loar mandolin from Musicians Friend in July, and already have 2 dozen tunes under my belt! 😊 That being said, I also play guitar, flute, whistle, bodhran, dulcimer, etc. But, yes! the transfer happened within the week... Now, I have to learn off beats, timing, chops, chords other than D,A,G C...😅 ... GET A MANDOLIN PEOPLE!!😂❤
Frets also slow playing speed down , frets are harder in some ways . As a electric bassist I can play much faster and easier with a fretless then a fretted. There are also equivelents for the other instruments , Mandola, Mandocello, Mando bass . In the turn of the previous century the were orchestras that replaced the violin family with the mando family . circa 1890s-1940s
Em, I think this is one of your best videos. I particularly love the violin, and I think it always wins hahaha, but I was impressed with your performance. I'm not sure if it was the G major Ionian scale, I'm terrible at music theory, but I was really impressed. I admit that watching your videos is almost convincing me to buy a Mandolin to play around with a bit. Can you recommend a model to start with? I saw one similar to yours, and another one shaped like a guitar, smaller. Oh, and congratulations, your videos have been getting better and better.
Thank you!! It was the G major Ionian scale! David Benedict has a great video over on his channel called “What is the BEST budget beginner mandolin?” It is a great video that compares a bunch of beginner mandolins!
Not really a musician, just self-trained guy on both instruments, but here are some other differences from my time learning them: - After building some calluses, you can practice the mandolin for a way longer time than you can ever play the violin. My neck and arm never like it when I go over 3-4 hrs on the fiddle for consecutive days. Mandolin? you can go all day long, all week even (or I guess until your fingertips last). Play both? you can switch if you get tired on either. I'd even say that if you play the violin you owe it to yourself to pick up the mando just so that you can continue practicing in a more relaxed position, and put that complex piece under muscle memory. - While both are tuned the "same" and in fifths, more traditionally the violin is tuned with just-intonation (I believe this is specially done in classical music) using A as the "base" and playing it together with the adjacent E and D until the "beating" is gone. This usually means very very slightly lowering D and sharpening E from what the tuner says, and then doing the same with D and G. You get a very "pure" and clean sound when the adjacent open strings play together. But on the other hand, due to the frets, the mandolin is almost always tuned in equal-temperament, so you match to what the tuner / piano / other instruments say. This basically means that: if you only learned violin via classical tradition, but you also play the mando, you will have a way easier time playing and "fitting" with other musicians, as everything else but the violin family tunes to equal temperament (Basically you will understand why your sharp-eared guitarist keeps insisting your violin is "out of tune" and why he says "but that's not how my G sounds" 🙄). - The mandolin not only gives you a way to learn harmony and accompaniment: with chops you can very easily learn the percussion or rhythm line. Pick three or four chop chords, and match them to the high/mid/low beats in any backing track. Learn this and, if you are ever in a situation where the melody and harmony are covered, you can pull up "back-up percussionist" card. That's essentially the role of the mandolin in a lot of bluegrass tunes. As Emma mentioned in the video, not saying that you cannot learn harmony/chords or rhythm lines with the violin...but traditionally you are never encouraged to do that on it, since the violin's main strength will always be on the lead melody due to the powerful dynamics. - The electrical variants of both the mandolin and violin both tend to add range and a low C (basically taking the range of the viola and mandola) and also the mandolin specifically when it goes electric, tends to ditch the courses for single strings, basically almost becoming a portable / easier to play electric guitar. This is done for a number of reasons, but basically means that both instruments get one step closer in similarities and if you ever go electric and play with effects, you can save a buck and reuse a lot of the setup / pedals and keep the signal chains for both instruments. Just put an AB switch at the input, and keep the same pedalboard setup for both! (although...you will most likely miss the original sound of the courses of the mando, and always put a chorus effect specifically for it somewhere in the chain. But hey, violin sounds great with chorus as well!). Anyway just my two cents, hope I added something.
Im the opposite... played mandolin for years and just got a fiddle. Jigs and reels are fast ... and i got sky boat and oro se do bheatha bhaile first week... the violin/fiddle is easier than bagpipes were. No gracenotes or embellishments, number tabs vs ⅛ dots, less energy and im not even going into the guts of the beast for tuning .... And there's fretted violins for simplifying the thing. Leaving the bow which having a leaping frog I respect your skills
Great stuff Emma , I’m sure many folks will take the nudge to either instrument after watching this. lol I thought something went wrong about 5 min into the Video😮 then realised my thumb had touched the iPad screen and sped up the Video. Sorry Emma I had You talking like Alvin the chipmunk for a while. Cheers 👏🏻🙏🏽🇦🇺👴🏼
I never considered the violin because I heard it was the hardest instrument. I've been practicing the mandolin for three years and I don't think it's easier than the guitar. I have been with the guitar for a longer time. I have several books for mandolin and I do a lot of repetition. I didn't think reading music was important for mandolin. I read music on guitar and I never found it hard.
Really interesting perspective :-) I always enjoy your videos. I actually got into mandolin playing via playing chords (full triads) in a band on three string Transylvanian viola (tuned G-D-A with the A and G both G strings just one tone apart and the bridge cut flat so all 3 strings were the same level). In Transylvanian folk music this viola (brácsa) functions as a harmony and rhythm instrument like this : ua-cam.com/video/ZtYlHYG9Io8/v-deo.html. My viola chord fingerings translated directly to G-D-A strings on the mandolin and Mandola so it was great for playing chords to music traditionally played on tamburica. More recently I have started trying to learn mandolin single note playing (I read music) from a variety of publications, notably "The Complete Mandolinist" by Marylin Mair and assorted bluegrass and Irish methods mostly from Mel Bay. I have yet to find a book comparable to The Complete Mandolinist for Mandola. Based on your comments in the video, I am wondering if perhaps if graded violin and viola methods may be useful for me in terms of learning material, especially in terms of left hand technique. What resources did you use to learn mandolin coming from violin ?
Oh wow that is really cool!! I have never used The Complete Mandolinist, but it sounds like a very useful book. I had a teacher that helped me learn all of the technique for mandolin, so I didn’t go straight from a particular book for that. Mainly I just used Mel Bay books as well for learning bluegrass tunes, and I had a couple of classical music books also. Sorry that my answer isn’t too helpful!
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Understanding four-fingered chords on the mandolin really expanded my musical brain as a violinist. It made finding chords on the fingerboard a lot easier.
Yes!!
My hands wouldn’t stretch to make the four-fingered chords when I was young, and they really won’t now that I’m old and arthritic 😂
I play both and agree with your assessment. I started on violin and played 4 years. Then a mandolin part was needed in an orchestra and my dad had one so i played the part...
Fast forward 45 years during the pandemic inspired by the Petersen's, i pulled out my mandolin and started to learn fiddle tunes. After a couple of years, i pulled out my violin and already had a bunch of tunes under my fingers...
I like the fiddle better but divide my time between the two and guitar. My ADD allows me to bounce around 😂
I found you from mandolin Monday and have learned a lot from Mandolessons. Baron has a massive library that works for all three instruments.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
All instruments are difficult to master... Of these three, violin is the most difficult even to get a pleasant sound from.
Yes!! That is the great thing about violin and mandolin, if you learn a tune on one, you can normally play it on the other as well! Mandolessons is great!
10 years playing Celtic fiddle (New England Contra, Scottish & Irish, Cape Breton) - just bought a Loar mandolin from Musicians Friend in July, and already have 2 dozen tunes under my belt! 😊 That being said, I also play guitar, flute, whistle, bodhran, dulcimer, etc. But, yes! the transfer happened within the week...
Now, I have to learn off beats, timing, chops, chords other than D,A,G C...😅 ...
GET A MANDOLIN PEOPLE!!😂❤
That’s awesome!!
Thanks this was very helpful!
Thanks for watching! Glad you found it helpful.
Frets also slow playing speed down , frets are harder in some ways . As a electric bassist I can play much faster and easier with a fretless then a fretted.
There are also equivelents for the other instruments , Mandola, Mandocello, Mando bass . In the turn of the previous century the were orchestras that replaced the violin family with the mando family . circa 1890s-1940s
The violin has a beautiful sound, but I love the sound of the Mandolin. Great video, Emma.
Thank you!
Em, I think this is one of your best videos. I particularly love the violin, and I think it always wins hahaha, but I was impressed with your performance. I'm not sure if it was the G major Ionian scale, I'm terrible at music theory, but I was really impressed. I admit that watching your videos is almost convincing me to buy a Mandolin to play around with a bit. Can you recommend a model to start with? I saw one similar to yours, and another one shaped like a guitar, smaller. Oh, and congratulations, your videos have been getting better and better.
Thank you!! It was the G major Ionian scale! David Benedict has a great video over on his channel called “What is the BEST budget beginner mandolin?” It is a great video that compares a bunch of beginner mandolins!
@@emmabordersmusic oh, cool. I'll look for that video. But still the violin always wins haha. Thanks Emma.
Not really a musician, just self-trained guy on both instruments, but here are some other differences from my time learning them:
- After building some calluses, you can practice the mandolin for a way longer time than you can ever play the violin. My neck and arm never like it when I go over 3-4 hrs on the fiddle for consecutive days. Mandolin? you can go all day long, all week even (or I guess until your fingertips last). Play both? you can switch if you get tired on either. I'd even say that if you play the violin you owe it to yourself to pick up the mando just so that you can continue practicing in a more relaxed position, and put that complex piece under muscle memory.
- While both are tuned the "same" and in fifths, more traditionally the violin is tuned with just-intonation (I believe this is specially done in classical music) using A as the "base" and playing it together with the adjacent E and D until the "beating" is gone. This usually means very very slightly lowering D and sharpening E from what the tuner says, and then doing the same with D and G. You get a very "pure" and clean sound when the adjacent open strings play together. But on the other hand, due to the frets, the mandolin is almost always tuned in equal-temperament, so you match to what the tuner / piano / other instruments say. This basically means that: if you only learned violin via classical tradition, but you also play the mando, you will have a way easier time playing and "fitting" with other musicians, as everything else but the violin family tunes to equal temperament (Basically you will understand why your sharp-eared guitarist keeps insisting your violin is "out of tune" and why he says "but that's not how my G sounds" 🙄).
- The mandolin not only gives you a way to learn harmony and accompaniment: with chops you can very easily learn the percussion or rhythm line. Pick three or four chop chords, and match them to the high/mid/low beats in any backing track. Learn this and, if you are ever in a situation where the melody and harmony are covered, you can pull up "back-up percussionist" card. That's essentially the role of the mandolin in a lot of bluegrass tunes. As Emma mentioned in the video, not saying that you cannot learn harmony/chords or rhythm lines with the violin...but traditionally you are never encouraged to do that on it, since the violin's main strength will always be on the lead melody due to the powerful dynamics.
- The electrical variants of both the mandolin and violin both tend to add range and a low C (basically taking the range of the viola and mandola) and also the mandolin specifically when it goes electric, tends to ditch the courses for single strings, basically almost becoming a portable / easier to play electric guitar. This is done for a number of reasons, but basically means that both instruments get one step closer in similarities and if you ever go electric and play with effects, you can save a buck and reuse a lot of the setup / pedals and keep the signal chains for both instruments. Just put an AB switch at the input, and keep the same pedalboard setup for both! (although...you will most likely miss the original sound of the courses of the mando, and always put a chorus effect specifically for it somewhere in the chain. But hey, violin sounds great with chorus as well!).
Anyway just my two cents, hope I added something.
Wow, I’ve never even thought about some of the things you said, and they are so true! Thanks for your insightful comment!
Blessing
Im the opposite... played mandolin for years and just got a fiddle.
Jigs and reels are fast ... and i got sky boat and oro se do bheatha bhaile first week... the violin/fiddle is easier than bagpipes were.
No gracenotes or embellishments, number tabs vs ⅛ dots, less energy and im not even going into the guts of the beast for tuning ....
And there's fretted violins for simplifying the thing. Leaving the bow which having a leaping frog I respect your skills
Great stuff Emma , I’m sure many folks will take the nudge to either instrument after watching this.
lol I thought something went wrong about 5 min into the Video😮 then realised my thumb had touched the iPad screen and sped up the Video. Sorry Emma I had You talking like Alvin the chipmunk for a while.
Cheers 👏🏻🙏🏽🇦🇺👴🏼
Hahaha oh no! That happens😂😂
❤
I never considered the violin because I heard it was the hardest instrument. I've been practicing the mandolin for three years and I don't think it's easier than the guitar. I have been with the guitar for a longer time. I have several books for mandolin and I do a lot of repetition. I didn't think reading music was important for mandolin. I read music on guitar and I never found it hard.
Really interesting perspective :-) I always enjoy your videos. I actually got into mandolin playing via playing chords (full triads) in a band on three string Transylvanian viola (tuned G-D-A with the A and G both G strings just one tone apart and the bridge cut flat so all 3 strings were the same level). In Transylvanian folk music this viola (brácsa) functions as a harmony and rhythm instrument like this : ua-cam.com/video/ZtYlHYG9Io8/v-deo.html. My viola chord fingerings translated directly to G-D-A strings on the mandolin and Mandola so it was great for playing chords to music traditionally played on tamburica. More recently I have started trying to learn mandolin single note playing (I read music) from a variety of publications, notably "The Complete Mandolinist" by Marylin Mair and assorted bluegrass and Irish methods mostly from Mel Bay. I have yet to find a book comparable to The Complete Mandolinist for Mandola. Based on your comments in the video, I am wondering if perhaps if graded violin and viola methods may be useful for me in terms of learning material, especially in terms of left hand technique. What resources did you use to learn mandolin coming from violin ?
Oh wow that is really cool!! I have never used The Complete Mandolinist, but it sounds like a very useful book. I had a teacher that helped me learn all of the technique for mandolin, so I didn’t go straight from a particular book for that. Mainly I just used Mel Bay books as well for learning bluegrass tunes, and I had a couple of classical music books also. Sorry that my answer isn’t too helpful!