I'm thinking of getting a medium quality Mandolin. I really can't be bothered to learn everything upside down due to the GDAE tuning. Should I get a lefty Mandolin and flip it upside down?
Many thanks.
Many thanks.
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A few questions about Mandolin tuning?
- Thread starter Electricblue
- Start date
If you can't learn it the way it's tuned, why bother? Just take the first 4 strings of a guitar chord and reverse it, blam, you've got a mando chord. It's not that hard...
It is not very hard to learn the tuning, and you already have a big head start. If you tune it like a guitar, you loose all the chord voicings that make the mando sound so sweet.
Stick_Player
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- Nov 13, 2009
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If my, then 9 year-old, can play both standard tuned electric bass AND mandolin - you can too.
Your comment: "I really can't be bothered to learn everything upside down..." is goofy, at best. News Flash... These two instruments do not assume the same musical roles.
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As a mandolin teacher, I strongly advise against putting your own tuning on it. The tuning, voicings, and chordal/melodic potential of this unique instrument will be completely lost. It's not that hard to learn on it in its standard tuning of GDAE.
Truth. I started to play a few months ago and the tuning is really not that hard to get used to. Just think of it as a new instrument and use your theory skills to do the rest.
The lowest string(s) on a mandolin is G, no matter how you flip it around. The highest string is E. You will still have to learn different tunings, only you won't be able to get much help online because you'll be using an upside-down mandolin. If you try to restring and retune it so that E is the lowest and G is the highest, like a bass, you'll have to order special strings every time you need to restring it and you'll still be at a loss when it comes to asking fellow mandoliners for help.
It'd be sooooo much easier to just approach it as a different instrument and not bass jr.
