KENT GUSTAVSON :: THE MANDOLIN
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A Historical and Practical Introduction to the Mandolin!
Just read below about the history of the mandolin, then forget about it, play a few chords, a few melodies, and enjoy the sound!
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The mandolin was a classical instrument that developed out of the smaller lutes in Europe in the Middle Ages. The Neapolitan-style lute is still used in classical music, and was the instrument for which Vivaldi and other composers of his time composed many concertos and chamber music. The first mandolins made in the United States were made by an instrument luthier from Germany, who brought his trade with him.
The Neapolitan form of a mandolin has a bowl-back, with stripes of wood running along the instrument's belly. Out of this form developed a newer, simpler form for easier playing, now called the A-style mandolin, which has a sound hole much like the guitar's, and has an oval body with a flat back. And out of this form developed a much fancier form, the one which is most commonly used for bluegrass music today, the F-style. This mandolin has a curl on one end in the wood, and f-shaped sound holes like a fiddle might have.
The mandolin is now used in celtic music and bluegrass, with much crossover of players. The style of playing 'fiddle' tunes or old-time music on the mandolin often prefers the A-style mandolin, and the style of playing 'bluegrass' favors the F-style mandolin. The sound of the A-style mandolins is very sweet and more classical, and the sound of the F-style has more bite, and can be used more easily for fast, clean notes, and a really solid rhythmic strum (called the 'chop'). In bluegrass music, the mandolin has the role of the off-beat. The string bass plays 1 and 3, the mandolin plays 2 and 4.
Bill Monroe, the 'father' of bluegrass music, used the mandolin to drive the music. In a style of music without percussion of any sort, the metronomic playing of the bass and mandolin are key!
If you don't have much experience on the mandolin, don't worry so much about doing it 'right'... Just play! Learn some chords and strum like you would a guitar -- then listen to recordings of bluegrass or folk music with mandolin in it, figure out how to strum the way it sounds, and learn how to play a tremolo (a fast repeated note that is the closest on the mandolin to sounding like a long bowed note)... Give yourself time, and play with other people if you can!
And most importantly, enjoy it!
For more information on the mandolin, google it here!
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