Is mandola played reading alto clef?
Is mandola played reading alto clef?
Yes, just like viola.
Thanks, Mandobart. My main teacher teaches violin and viola - and mandolin to me. I was asking her about an alto clef diagram I had found and she mentioned viola and alto clarinet were the only instruments she knew of that used the alto clef. She was wondering about a mandola. Do you know of other alto clef instruments?
Trombones use it. In an orchestral setting the first trombone part is usually in alto clef, the second in tenor, and the bass trombone's is in, well, bass.
Tenor viol parts are often in alto clef, and singers of a certain era were expected to read all clefs.
Mandola parts vary. If we're talking about a CGDA mandola, some parts are in alto clef and some are transposed so you play the notes like you would on a mandolin—good for someone who doubles on mandola and hasn't learned the clef, a lot less fun for a person fluent in alto clef. Alto clarinet parts are usually transposed into treble, again so players can quickly switch between Bb, A, alto, and bass clarinets without their heads exploding.
I use a standard treble clef when I am transcribing things for mandola, so I guess the short answer is that it depends on what is easiest for you. Piano was my first instrument and I have a really difficult time playing notes represented on a staff that aren't the notes I'm hearing.
When I had a mandola, I bought some beginner viola books to learn to read alto clef. Once I got into it, there is not a gigantic problem.
Alto clef, in theory, makes a lot of sense, because you can establish middle C wherever it's most convenient on the staff, but in practice the octave clef (treble clef with a little 8 where the curl is) is much easier and much preferred for mandola.
When I played mandola in the local mandolin orchestra, we had three different players using three different clefs. One used alto clef, one used treble clef transposed
a fifth so it read like a mandolin, and I used an octave treble clef like tenor banjo. Everyone used what they could read the best.
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the open G on the mandolin is the G below middle C ( on Treble clef) so it has 2 lines above it, the mandola has to go down an entire 5th, so reading it as Treble or G clef would involve a lot of lines on note stems.
The mandola 17th fret on the A string is the same as the mandolin 12th fret, my Weber has 24 frets so goes up to A an octave above the 12th fret.
So it has quite a range and shares a lot of sonic space with a standard guitar, although the guitar has a lower range.
I think the open C on mandola is the same as 3rd fret on the A string of guitar.
I have enough trouble trying to adjust to Bass Clef , let alone Alto, I generally try to read and write in treble clef for mandola.
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When I played mandola in the NY Mandolin Orchestra we read often from classical string orchestra arrangements so I had to learn alto clef. What was fun was the occasional up the neck sections which would change to treble clef. Then I would wing it. At least I was not sight reading and viola parts are usually pretty easy anyway.
Jim
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1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
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