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Thread: Where are the Mandola Books?

  1. #26
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    I recently got a copy of Niles Hokkanen's small book The Mandola Sampler. The type is pretty small for my oldish eyes, but it's VERY full of information. Extremely concentrated. I've only read through it once so far, but I think it may cover almost everything I was wondering about. I feel like almost anybody who takes up the mandola could benefit. BTW, I PM'd Niles (Mandocrucian) and bought the book, along with some other stuff directly from him.

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  3. #27
    Summit County, Colorado
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    There are now several mandola sheet music books on Amazon. Many are composed or arranged by Ondrej Sarek.
    My favorite is by Hans Landau - Mandolin Instrumentals.
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  4. #28
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    There’s also, of course, thesession.org for mainly Irish tunes and TAB .abc files.

    There’s mandolintab.net too, which will take your tune or exercise written for mandolin in .abc and convert it to mandola with the mandola button on the transcription page.

    And if you play a bit with TAB (fretboard-thinking) and play by ear then you can make do with a lot of tunes you may already know by heart with the mandolin simply by shifting everything one string towards the ground.

    Or by tuning the mandola up by one tone (lighter strings) and shifting everything one string to the sky.

    Or capo on second fret and shift one string to sky.

    Use mandolintab.net to see what happens when you transpose a mandolin tune up to it’s fourth.

    Print out the TAB for ten G major tunes with the C major tunes just below them to get a feel of the shifts involved. After a while it’s intuitive where you think about tonal centres on the fretboard.

    Good luck, and well done getting a mandola!

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  6. #29
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    Some good ideas there Simon, thanks. I'm still a newbie, but having lots of fun with the mandola. It's still my second to favorite instrument; I love the sound and play with it pretty often! When something would go up to the E string on my mandolin, I've been trying to think about what note it needs to start on, start somewhere else on the fretboard, then take it from there by ear.

  7. #30
    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    Here’s a great book for mandola. https://www.tenor-banjo-tabs.com/

    Definitely not classical, but has loads of pop and rock song melodies, and can help a lot with ear training.
    Ideal, for example, if you want to play a bit of melody in a ukulele group.

    The mandola low string is C, and C major is THE key for playing ukulele. So if you play any mandolin tune or song in G major with a ukulele group except that you’re actually playing a mandola then you’ll be in the perfect aloha key. How cool is that?!

    I agree with the author, I can’t understand why pop and rock music is still instrument specific.

  8. #31
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    Another solution, with the added advantage of fueling MAS.

    Get a five course.

    I had a mandola, and the learning was slow. I capoed it to play as an octave (capo 2 and down a course) and I messed around. The only progress I really made was to learn alto clef.

    I sold it a while back, as I was tired of shlepping two instruments to a jam, and mostly playing mandolin anyway, or playing poorly on mandola occationally.

    With the five course, I bring it and play as a mandolin, and I work on alto clef, and move down by ear for alternate ways to play the standard tunes etc., in regular key but mandola range... Seeing the mandola as an extension of the mandolin has really really helped. I often play a jam tune once or twice as a mandolin, and then drop down an octave and play it in mandola range a few times.

    I am still predominantly a mandolinner, but with the five course, I get much much more mandola time and practice than when I had a separate mandola.
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  9. #32
    Registered User Sue Rieter's Avatar
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    Quote Originally Posted by JeffD View Post
    Another solution, with the added advantage of fueling MAS.

    Get a five course.

    I had a mandola, and the learning was slow. I capoed it to play as an octave (capo 2 and down a course) and I messed around. The only progress I really made was to learn alto clef.

    I sold it a while back, as I was tired of shlepping two instruments to a jam, and mostly playing mandolin anyway, or playing poorly on mandola occationally.

    With the five course, I bring it and play as a mandolin, and I work on alto clef, and move down by ear for alternate ways to play the standard tunes etc., in regular key but mandola range... Seeing the mandola as an extension of the mandolin has really really helped. I often play a jam tune once or twice as a mandolin, and then drop down an octave and play it in mandola range a few times.

    I am still predominantly a mandolinner, but with the five course, I get much much more mandola time and practice than when I had a separate mandola.
    Jeff, I've thought about that, and thought it would probably be the way you describe. Let's say it's on my radar

  10. #33
    Summit County, Colorado
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    Default Re: Where are the Mandola Books?

    Tenor Banjo music is now written an octave higher than it sounds, i.e. The low C on the mandola is notated as middle C. That makes tenor banjo music accessible to mandola-ists
    Greg Keeing has offered this. https://www.banjohangout.org/topic/396182 Should keep you occupied for a while.
    Collings MT-0
    1940s Gibson A that needs refretting
    Old bowlback
    Considering a Big Muddy because I still regret
    selling my Mid-Mo

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