Mandolin Vs Bouzouki

[Gregooch]

What are the differences between the mandolin and bouzouki?

[multidon]

Mandolin is around 14 inch scale tuned gdae in double courses. A bouzouki is usually around a 25 inch scale and tuned an octave below mandolin. Still double courses but the bottom two are in octaves like a 12 string guitar and the upper strings in unison. So something like GgDdaaee Add to the mix octave mandolin which has a 21 or 22 inch scale is also an octave below regular mandolin but all courses are in unison. To further muddy the waters some call these octave mandolas tenor mandolas or short scale bouzoukis. All of these instruments share the gdae tuning but the playing technique differs because of the scale length. For example on the mandolin each finger plays two different frets on melody but on OM or zouk its one fret per finger. It is impossible to do many of the four finger mandolin chords we are used to on OM or zouk so chords with open strings and open string drone playing is the norm. Hope this helps. There is much more detailed info in the CBOM section. You should check it out. This by the way stands for cittern bouzouki octave mandolin and mandocello.

[Svea]

Don,
That is one of the best short descriptions I've read on the comparison. I recently jumped into the octave/bouzouki club with an Austin Clark guitar body octave mandolin. (GOM) Mine is a 20.5" scale with unison pairs. Austin sent me a special compensated saddle that will allow me to string it as a bouzouki, which I've yet to try. There are many variations on these octave mandolin family instruments, and depending on what you wish to do with them, it's a good idea to do the research. I jumped in the deep water fast with this instrument, and couldn't be more happy with it. For anyone who has seen the Tim O'Brien dvd on mandolin and bouzouki, I would say that my Clark is more like the instrument he uses on that dvd. It has a shorter scale than the bouzouki you usually see him play on stage. Although he calls them both bouzoukis, one is strung in unison, the other with the two octave pairs. It is really worth checking out the Youtube videos of various octaves being used to get an idea of what works for which style of play, and how they are strung up.

Svea

[Tom Coletti]

One quick addition: I hear a lot of Bouzoukis for Irish Trad accompaniments tuned GDAD rather than GDAE, but both can be tuned either way, depending on the player's preferences.

--Tom.

[multidon]

I probably should have mentioned that I was speaking of the Irish bouzouki because I made the assumption that is what the OP wanted to know about. Not to be confused with the Greek bouzouki which is a quite different animal. I believe those are tuned in F if memory serves.

[Petrus]

None of which is to be confused with the balalaika, a three-stringed instrument with a triangular body.

[Nick Quig]

One quick addition: I hear a lot of Bouzoukis for Irish Trad accompaniments tuned GDAD rather than GDAE, but both can be tuned either way, depending on the player's preferences.

--Tom.

..and I think Alec Finn (De Danann) only has three courses of strings on his bouzouki! don't know what tuning he uses though,
anyone know?

[Niall Anderson]

Alec Finn's trichordo is (I think) tuned DAD. I think that's standard for the Greek 3 course instruments, whereas something like CFAD (maybe sometimes DGBE) is used for the 4 course ones.

The naming/ tuning/ stringing/ scale length situation in Irish and Scottish traditional music shows a real lack of standardisation. Lots of different combinations of the 3 physical aspects get called "bouzoukis" or "octave mandolins", so I don't think there's a single definition that works. The best you can hope for is a rough taxonomy based on scale length and number of courses, but then you have to accept some variation in stringing and Tunings thereafter!

[Gregooch]

I probably should have mentioned that I was speaking of the Irish bouzouki because I made the assumption that is what the OP wanted to know about. Not to be confused with the Greek bouzouki which is a quite different animal. I believe those are tuned in F if memory serves.

I was actually refierring to the Greek instrument; I didn't know there was an Irish version.

[mandroid]

8 string, Irish Zouk? down An Octave.

a long banjo like scale length..

my picking buddy has TC brand, the G & D string pairs are octaves,(like 12 string Guitars)

also plays fiddle and Mandolin , so All are GDAE..

[multidon]

I was actually refierring to the Greek instrument; I didn't know there was an Irish version.

You will rarely see the Greek version outside of groups playing actual Greek music. In the United States at least it is much more common to see the Irish version. In the 1960's several Irish groups playing Irish traditional music began using the Greek instruments, and it became a popular addition rather quickly. Very soon after their introduction to Ireland English and Irish instrument builders started building their own versions. The bowl back of the Greek instrument was abandoned in favor of the simpler to make flat back. The so-called "Portuguese" mandolin shape was adopted and the builds were much more robust than the Greek versions in order to utilize the preferred tunings of the Irish traditional musicians.

[DavidKOS]

I probably should have mentioned that I was speaking of the Irish bouzouki because I made the assumption that is what the OP wanted to know about. Not to be confused with the Greek bouzouki which is a quite different animal. I believe those are tuned in F if memory serves.

Not exactly.

The older 3 string Greek bouzouki is tuned DAD

The 4 string bouzouki is CFAD.

The instrument changed from a Middle-Eastern-ish twangy, treble melody instrument for Greek music into a new instrument, the Irish bouzouki, which is a low pitch deeper sounding bass/chord/melody instrument.

Other than the name and a few details, they are quite different.

[DavidKOS]

You will rarely see the Greek version outside of groups playing actual Greek music. In the United States at least it is much more common to see the Irish version.

Well, not if you hang out with Greek/American musicians!

I agree, the Irish version seems more common.

I still only play the Greek version.

[Eddie Sheehy]

My money's on the Bouzouki... size matters...

[allenhopkins]

Irish musicians took Greek bouzoukis and restrung them as octave mandolins, or in similar tunings.

The Greek bouzouki isn't strung in fifths, as (almost all) mandolin family instruments are. And it may have three or four double-strung courses, sometimes with the lower courses strung in octaves.

What is called the "Irish bouzouki" is basically a longer-scale octave mandolin, tuned GDAE or some variant thereof. Greek bouzoukis are tuned several ways, depending on whether they're three-course or four-course. One common four-course tuning is CFAD, fourths-and-a-third like the top four strings of a guitar, but a full tone lower. Here's a decent Wikipedia article on Greek bouzouki.

"Irish bouzouki" as a term usually bothers me, since the bouzouki's a Mediterranean instrument and what the Irish musicians are playing is really octave mandolin. But instruments migrate from country to country, and are modified as they travel, to suit the needs and preferences of their new players. Who woulda thought the ukulele was Portuguese, or the banjo from Gambia? That's the way things turned out.

[DavidKOS]

"Irish bouzouki" as a term usually bothers me, since the bouzouki's a Mediterranean instrument and what the Irish musicians are playing is really octave mandolin.

As a player of the real Greek bouzouki, it bothers me too, but it's the way the terminology has turned out. I prefer to think of them as a modern cittern, but they are just heavily built octave mandolins. The term "blarge" sure did not become popular.

[Bertram Henze]

It's just names. I need a name for my instrument only when some punter asks what it is during a session.

[High Lonesome Valley]

What are the differences between the mandolin and bouzouki?

What are the differences between Mini Me and The Terminator?

Playing them both, I play the mandolin as a very percussive rhythm-lead instrument, the bouzouki as a cross between a banjo and a guitar. Bouzouki is more rhythmic than percussive in my hands.

I also leave standard tuning on the bouzouki, going G-D-g-d, which forces a direction of playing that I just don't go with ont the mandolin.

[JeffD]

I have always thought the defining difference between a bouzouki and an octave mandolin was the G and D strings being tuned in octaves, not unison. Other characteristics seem to vary but that seems to work out most times.

[Bertram Henze]

I have always thought the defining difference between a bouzouki and an octave mandolin was the G and D strings being tuned in octaves, not unison. Other characteristics seem to vary but that seems to work out most times.

if that is a rule, it is drowned in exceptions in my experience. I'll call it a zouk if it's longer than 23".

[catmandu2]

Good heavens, there are many other instruments with more ambiguities, discrepancies and contradictions in nomenclature. As a harper, I occasionally get, "oh...no, I mean harmonica" when meeting other players. And as a hammered dulcimer player, I wish devotees of lap-style derivations of many forms of European simple zithers would find another name (although, it seems early producers of American HDs didn't call their instruments HD either!). Colloquialism reigns when it comes to folk arts and crafts--standardization and formalism isn't a priority.

When I play out with my, erhem...CBOM (built by a Swede--who calls it an "Irish" bouzouki), I often just explain it as a big mandolin.

Times were simpler...when we could just call our instrument ud.

Lately, I've been musing about--the three instruments that I practice are the lyre, bow, and stick-flute (well...a lyre is not a harp... )