Share this article. Search StringOvation. Connolly Music Home About us Shop our brands. StringOvation Latest articles Submit a guest post. Subscribe to StringOvation. Northport, NY The mandolin is often found in baroque, country, folk and traditional music as well as many other styles. Moreover, both instruments are often combined in music styles such as Irish folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, among others. He also performs as a mandolin soloist with orchestras and accompanied by different musicians to perform more contemporary music styles.
Here below you will find a video from a performance featuring Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau playing the song Scarlet Town , released in as part of their eponymous duet album. The earliest known methods and compositions for mandolin date back to the 17th century. When the mandolin adopted the tuning in fifths, the violin was the most popular instrument, which is why it was used as a reference. As a result, dozens of methods emerged explaining the transition from bowing techniques to those involving a pick.
And the pieces composed for the violin were adapted for the mandolin. It was during this period that specific playing techniques for the mandolin, such as the tremolo, were developed. But it is useless on the mandolin, since this instrument is played by plucking the strings with a pick.
As a result, many of the distinctive techniques and sounds of the bow will disappear in the mandolin. About this, Chris Thile told Laurie Niles, violinist.
But it is a fun little instrument. Its reduced sound capacity is largely due to the absence of the bow. This tool, which is so difficult to master, is the source of the great sound diversity that violins offer. With a mandolin, sounds are produced with the help of a pick or plectrum held in the right hand.
Therefore, the sound possibilities are limited. With a mandolin, say goodbye to those long notes that last when you move the bow back and forth! The only way to make them last is to try and overuse tremolo techniques. The tremolo also provides the possibility to play a diverse sound palette. The tremolo technique on a mandolin can actually produce very soft or very powerful sounds.
By simply plucking the strings with the pick, the note tends to fade quite quickly. And this is even more noticeable in the highest positions. The lowest-pitched string usually has more resonance, but naturally, it too will fade in a fairly short time. The tremolo can be used to generate a sound gradation that starts with a fairly soft and weak note, until it gradually builds up to a very present and powerful one.
All rhythmic techniques executed with a bow, such as chopping, can easily be performed with a mandolin. We invite you to read the article How to groove with a bow? Warren and Tracy Silverman. Besides, in the article, Jonathan explains very clearly that this type of techniques used on violins is largely inspired by mandolins and guitars. Another technique used in mandolin is the tapping technique, also used in the guitar.
It involves performing tapping patterns using the right hand, while the left hand executes chord positions. Slaps and slides can also be exploited to obtain new tones.
In fact, most guitar techniques and tools used to produce new tones such as capos, slides, etc. All the similarities mentioned above are behind that fact. There is such a great degree of congruence between these two instruments that the switching from one to the other is very easy. However, this transition is much simpler when switching from the violin to the mandolin because the techniques involving the bow no longer apply on a mandolin.
Conversely, it will take a while for the mandolin player to master the bow movements required on a violin. Every single violinist has placed his violin on his belly like a guitar at some point in order to locate some notes and melodies. It is a natural gesture that every violinist makes! But if, being in this position, you replace the violin with a mandolin, you would be ready to play that new instrument. When a violinist grabs a mandolin, his first reaction is often to notice how easily his left hand finds the right spot on the neck.
On the other hand, if the violinist has never used a guitar before, he will be a little confused by the movements of the right hand and the lack of bow.
The fact that the violin and the mandolin share the same tessitura makes the playing very easy. The fingers of your left hand will naturally find their position on the neck. Of course, nothing is ever achieved on the first try! Just as when you go from a 4-string violin to a 5-string violin , you will have to find or identify some points of reference and sensations in order to adjust your playing and technique.
Although you can't really sing while playing a fiddle, I do love the sound of it, and my dad already plays the mandolin. However, I also love the sound of the mandolin, and I could sing while playing it, plus we already have one at home.
Any ideas of which one I should play, and the pros and cons of each? IMHO playing clawhammer style banjo has subtleties and elements of rhythm and melody.
This style of banjo playing allows a musician to play and sing at the same time. I would also work on playing "old time" fiddle as well. You would be learning the same tunes for both instruments. Clawhammer banjo and "old time" fiddle are very complimentary. For the noting hand, fiddle and mandolin can be identical. But I don't feel that mandolin can be as "strong" an instrument as clawhammer banjo or "old time" fiddle.
Fiddle played "old time" style uses various tunings that make the instrument "sing". A banjo is a drum with an attached neck. Note that I am NOT an "old time" fiddler. As far as banjo goes, I play "Scruggs" 3 finger style. But I think that a clawhammer banjo and "old time" fiddle styles produce music that needs less accompaniment than most styles. Go on Youtube and watch clawhammer banjo players.
They often sing. I don't see many fiddlers singing. I think if you want portability and to sing while playing, mando might be the best idea. Fiddle is great fun, plus light and portable, but not friendly for singing, although there are some who can pull it off under certain circumstances.
Fiddle would probably have a higher learning curve for you, because of being fret less, plus the bowing Lots of people seem to move from mando to fiddle I started off with guitar in the 60's I still play one I began to flirt with a banjo in the 70's I'm still flirting I moved into mandolin in the 80's and still play almost daily..
I took up with a fiddle in 01' and play almost daily Here are some conclusions I have come to Bows are not picks, finger or flat If you want to learn to play a fiddle in my opinion it will be easier to move into a mandolin from a fiddle than into a fiddle from a mandolin.
If you truly are interested in being a singer learn to play the guitar. It is a much better accompaniment instrument than fiddle banjo or mandolin. If you learn the theory that supports the music you want to play moving from one plectrum instrument to another is very doable. After playing clawhammer banjo for quite a long time I decided years ago to try both fiddle and mandolin.
That was somewhere around I could afford to buy both an inexpensive fiddle and mandolin. So I played around with both of them for some time. Fiddle stuck and mandolin didn't. Eventually I sold the mandolin.
I would say give both mandolin and fiddle a fair try and see which one it is that you just can't put down. You mention wanting to sing while strumming and that it's hard to do picking a banjo and that your banjo is heavy?
Have you thought about replacing it with a light-weight open back instrument and experimenting with different styles--clawhammer or two-finger, for example? I agree with UsuallyPickin. Easier to go from fiddle to mandolin than the other way around.
I went from mandolin to fiddle, and I wish I had started on the fiddle first. When I perform for social occasions like weddings, I play several tunes that are hard to fit tight into either the violin or the fiddle category. Setting it this way gives easy access to plenty of double-stops using open strings for a big, bold sound, heightening the anticipation among the assembled guests.
He was a Mexican violinista born into a poor Otomi Indian family of musicians. After moving to Mexico City, Rosas achieved great success in his short life he died at 26 as a composer of salon music for the aristocracy.
His works included this piece in the style of the Viennese waltzes that were all the rage at the time. Then, in , Nashville great Kenny Baker included his fiddle version with a bluegrass band on the classic album Portrait of a Bluegrass Fiddler.
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