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Thread: playing tenor and mandolin

  1. #1
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    Default playing tenor and mandolin

    Do y'all set your tenor guitar string spacing different from standard to make switching to picking mandolin easier, or just leave it as is and adapt? Also, how about string tension effects? I was talking to a much better mandolin player than me, and he said the lower tension on eg a John Pearse GDAE tenor set can make playing eg triplets in folk music harder cos the string takes longer to center again than on mandolin?

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    Registered User Ben Vierra's Avatar
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    My perspective is:

    First, one can adapt to a variety of string spacings and details of setup, within reason. Also, I like having the wider string spacing on a tenor guitar as it helps facilitate different chord voicings that are impossibly cramped on a mandolin.

    Second, think about tenor banjo players in Irish trad or related music. They are playing much lower-tension strings in general than you would see on a mandolin, and executing rapid-fire trebles/triplets is part of the sound.

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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    As someone who started out on tenor banjo and then later added the mandolin I personally found triplets easier to play on the lower tension strings of the banjo than on the mandolin meself. As a learner triplets came very easily for me on the tenor banjo but when I picked the mandolin up a few years later I had to go back to square one and really slow things down again, plus experiment with pick gauges/pick shapes until I found what worked for me. My tenor guitar is strung with heavier strings than my tenor banjo so tension wise it sits somewhere between my banjo and mandolin. On the tenor banjo I mainly use .60mm picks, on tenor guitar .70mm, and on the mandolin either .89mm or 1.0mm. For me string spacing, different string tension, different scale length etc. isn't an issue because the key thing I found out was to not try to play the mandolin the same way I play my tenor banjo or the same way I play my tenor guitar either. Like Ben said above, there are things that feel more comfortable to do/work better on the tenor guitar vs. the mandolin so I always take the viewpoint of playing to the strengths of the particular instrument in question.
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    Registered User Simon DS's Avatar
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Octave mandolin most of the time for me. Every now and then I play a very cheap mandolin and I'm always surprised at how narrowly the strings are spaced.

    Every time I learn a new tune on the octave I learn it with capo at the fifth fret, then open, and then a whole variety of different capo positions.
    I’ve found that I need about half a measure each time I begin at a different position. But now I'm used to making those adjustments.

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    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    I keep my tenor in CGDA tuning and switch back and forth between it and mandolin with no problem. However, I play old time stringband music so not a whole lotta triplets going on.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

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    Harley Marty
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    I just take them all as they come. It’s surprising your brain just switches to what ever you are playing just like jumping into your partner’s car. Being a cheapskate I just use the 1 pick for everything & double it (2 picks) for the bass banjo.

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  12. #7

    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Harley Marty View Post
    I just take them all as they come. It’s surprising your brain just switches to what ever you are playing just like jumping into your partner’s car.
    Exactly. For me, it's a totally unconscious muscle memory thing. I even switch between tenors with different spacing without difficulty. Once I've "learned" the layout of a given instrument, I just hold it in my hands and my body knows how to adjust.

    I play too many different ones (everything from cello to soprano-sized ukes) to try to make everything the same. Or even close to the same.

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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Escaped Cellist View Post
    I play too many different ones (everything from cello to soprano-sized ukes) to try to make everything the same. Or even close to the same.
    So, do you use 'cello fingering' (1-2-4 or1-3-4) for playing tunes on tenor guitar and ocatve mandos, and 'violin/mandolin' fingering (1-2-3) on smaller instruments?

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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Guitar, bass, OM, mandola, mandolin; they’re all different. I just get on with it!

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    Registered User Jill McAuley's Avatar
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by maxr View Post
    So, do you use 'cello fingering' (1-2-4 or1-3-4) for playing tunes on tenor guitar and ocatve mandos, and 'violin/mandolin' fingering (1-2-3) on smaller instruments?
    The scale length on my tenor guitar is 23" and on my tenor banjo is 21.5" and I use violin/mandolin fingering on both of them.
    2018 Girouard Concert oval A
    2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
    2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
    1969 Martin 00-18




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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Ray(T) View Post
    Guitar, bass, OM, mandola, mandolin; they’re all different. I just get on with it!
    - yes, but...

  20. #12
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    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by maxr View Post
    So, do you use 'cello fingering' (1-2-4 or1-3-4) for playing tunes on tenor guitar and ocatve mandos, and 'violin/mandolin' fingering (1-2-3) on smaller instruments?
    Quote Originally Posted by maxr View Post
    - yes, but...
    ....... and the guitars all have different width fretboards ........ The first 50 years are the worst!

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  22. #13

    Default Re: playing tenor and mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by maxr View Post
    So, do you use 'cello fingering' (1-2-4 or1-3-4) for playing tunes on tenor guitar and ocatve mandos, and 'violin/mandolin' fingering (1-2-3) on smaller instruments?
    I play cello, but given 50 years on guitar - I tend to default to guitar-type fingering on longer scale CBOM.

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