[nealmac]

I was thinking of learning a few songs on the mandolin, although I have no idea about how a mandolin works. I know it has 8 strings, but thats about it. How is it tuned for a start? And any other info on mandolins would be appriciated. The reason I'm interested is because our band wants to put on a sort of folky set in a couple of venues and one of the songs we were planning on doing is Steve Earle's "Galway Girl".

Thanks.

[laker0902]

Yes, eight strings, generally tuned low to high GDAE, and each string is doubled, so it's just like four strings.

Very fun instrument.

[dadfad]

Decide if you really want to "play mandolin" or if you just want to be able to add a little mandolin into the mix for an old-time or country sound because there are different approaches for each. Learning to play mandolin of course is much more effort and when (if) you do you'll actually be a mandolin-player. But there are a number of ways to "cheat" if all you want to do is add some mando sound into the mix for a few tunes. For example you can string it backwards then it will finger like the lower four strings on a guitar in the same order. You can also tune to partial equivelents of open-tuned guitar (if you're familiar with playing guitar in open-tunings). So there are several ways to "cheat" at mandolin. Of course, if you plan to use it quite a bit nothing beats learning to really play it properly.

[nealmac]

Well I wouldn't mind learning how to play it I suppose, but as I said the primary reason for bringing up the topic, was because we were planning on doing this particular song. I've no intentions of going out and buying one, as our bassist already has one.

But I'm guessing, once I start, I'll probably want to keep it up.

[laker0902]

It's a really fun instrument, I'd recommend teaching yourself properly.

[pbaxter2001]

The hardest part that I found is the damn frets are so close together.

[nealmac]

yeah well I played around with it last night but it's strung for a righty. Just need to re-string it and I'm good to go.

[nealmac]

That's it there. I'm actually not going to bother restringing it for a lefty. Think I'll just learn it upside down.