Mandolin

A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of eight strings. A variety of string types are used, with steel strings being the most common and usually the least expensive. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin. Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.
There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the archtop mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued together into a bowl. The archtop, also known as the carved-top mandolin, has an arched top and a shallower, arched back both carved out of wood. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. Each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular styles of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and in traditional music like the Andean music of Peru. Archtop instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music, and Mexican estudiantinas.
Other mandolin variations differ primarily in the number of strings and include four-string models such as the Brescian and Cremonese; six-string types such as the Milanese, Lombard, and Sicilian; six-course instruments of 12 strings such as the Genoese; and the tricordia, with four triple-string courses.
Design changes in the history of the mandolin have often involved the soundboard. Early instruments were quiet, strung with gut strings, and plucked with the fingers or with a quill. Modern instruments are louder, using metal strings, which exert more pressure than the gut strings. The modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. It usually has one or more sound holes in it, which may be round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic . A round or oval sound hole may be covered with a decorative rosette or bordered with purfling.

History

Mandolins evolved from lutes, a family of instruments in Europe. Predecessors include the gittern and mandore or mandola in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were a variety of regional variants, but the two most widespread ones were the Neapolitan mandolin and the Lombard mandolin. The Neapolitan style has spread worldwide.

Construction

Mandolins have a body that acts as a resonator, attached to a neck. The resonating body may be shaped as a bowl or a box. Traditional Italian mandolins, such as the Neapolitan mandolin, meet the necked bowl description. The necked box instruments include archtop mandolins and the flatback mandolins.
Strings run between mechanical tuning machines at the top of the neck to a tailpiece that anchors the other end of the strings. The strings are suspended over the neck and soundboard and pass over a floating bridge. The bridge is kept in contact with the soundboard by the downward pressure from the strings. The neck is either flat or has a slight radius, and is covered with a fingerboard with frets. The action of the strings on the bridge causes the soundboard to vibrate, producing sound.
Like any plucked instrument, mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously as with a bowed note on a violin, and mandolin notes decay faster than larger chordophones like the guitar. This encourages the use of tremolo to create sustained notes or chords. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique: the plectrum strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would.
Various design variations and amplification techniques have been used to make mandolins comparable in volume with louder instruments and orchestras, including the creation of mandolin-banjo hybrids with the drum-like body of the louder banjo, adding metal resonators to make a resonator mandolin, and amplifying electric mandolins through amplifiers.

Tuning

A variety of different tunings are used. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are tuned in unison. By far the most common tuning is the same as violin tuning, in scientific pitch notation G₃–D₄–A₄–E₅, or in Helmholtz pitch notation: g–d′–a′–e″.

fourth course: G₃
third course: D₄
second course: A₄
first course: E₅

The numbers of Hz shown above assume a 440 Hz A, standard in most parts of the western world. Some players use an A up to 10 Hz above or below a 440, mainly outside the United States.
Other tunings exist, including cross-tunings, in which the usually doubled string runs are tuned to different pitches. Additionally, guitarists may sometimes tune a mandolin to mimic a portion of the intervals on a standard guitar tuning to achieve familiar fretting patterns.

Mandolin family

Soprano

The mandolin is the soprano member of the mandolin family, as the violin is the soprano member of the violin family. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about. Modern American mandolins modelled after Gibsons have a longer scale, about. The strings in each of its double-strung courses are tuned in unison, and the courses use the same tuning as the violin: G₃–D₄–A₄–E₅.

Piccolo

The piccolo or sopranino mandolin is a rare member of the family, tuned one octave above the mandola and one fourth above the mandolin ; the same relation as that of the piccolo or violino piccolo. One model was manufactured by the Lyon & Healy company under the Leland brand. A handful of modern instruments makers build piccolo mandolins.

Alto

The mandola, termed the tenor mandola in Britain and Ireland and liola or alto mandolin in continental Europe, is tuned a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the viola to the violin. Some also call this instrument the "alto mandola". Its scale length is typically about. It is normally tuned like a viola and tenor banjo: C₃–G₃–D₄–A₄.

Tenor

The octave mandolin, termed the octave mandola in Britain and Ireland and mandola in continental Europe, is tuned an octave below the mandolin: G₂–D₃–A₃–E₄. Its relationship to the mandolin is that of the tenor violin to the violin, or the tenor saxophone to the soprano saxophone. Octave mandolin scale length is typically about, although instruments with scales as short as or as long as are not unknown.
The instrument has a variant off the coast of South America in Trinidad, where it is known as the bandol, a flat-backed instrument with four courses, the lower two strung with metal and nylon strings.
The Irish bouzouki, though not strictly a member of the mandolin family, has a reasonable resemblance and similar range to the octave mandolin. It derives from the Greek bouzouki, constructed like a flat-backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings, most often G₂–D₃–A₃–D₄. Other tunings include: A₂–D₃–A₃–D₄, G₂–D₃–A₃–E₄, G₂–D₃–G₃–D₄ or A₂–D₃–A₃–E₄. Although the Irish bouzouki's bass course pairs are most often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, similar to the 12-string guitar. While occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is theoretically distinguished from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from, although scales as long as, which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown. In modern usage, however, the terms "octave mandolin" and "Irish bouzouki" are often used interchangeably to refer to the same instrument.
The modern cittern may also be loosely included in an "extended" mandolin family, based on resemblance to the flat-backed mandolins, which it predates. Its own lineage dates it back to the Renaissance. It is typically a five course instrument having a scale length between. The instrument is most often tuned to either D₂–G₂–D₃–A₃–D₄ or G₂–D₃–A₃–D₄–A₄, and is essentially an octave mandola with a fifth course at either the top or the bottom of its range. Some luthiers, such as Stefan Sobell, also refer to the octave mandola or a shorter-scaled Irish bouzouki as a cittern, irrespective of whether it has four or five courses.
Other relatives of the cittern, which might also be loosely linked to the mandolins, include the 6-course/12-string Portuguese guitar and the 5-course/9-string waldzither.

Baritone/Bass

The mandocello is classically tuned to an octave plus a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin, its strings being tuned to C₂–G₂–D₃–A₃. Its scale length is typically about. A typical violoncello scale is.
File:Giuseppe branzoli concert rome.jpg|thumb|upright=.5|right|A mandolone played by Giuseppe Branzoli during a concert in Rome, 1889
The mandolone was a Baroque member of the mandolin family in the bass range that was surpassed by the mandocello. It was part of the Neapolitan mandolin family.
The Greek laouto or laghouto is similar to a mandocello, ordinarily tuned C₃/C₂–G₃/G₂–D₃/D₃–A₃/A₃ with half of each pair of the lower two courses being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddle-less bridge glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings, and tied gut frets. Modern laoutos, as played on Crete, have the entire lower course tuned to C₃, a reentrant octave above the expected low C. Its scale length is typically about.
The Algerian mandole was developed by an Italian luthier in the early 1930s, scaled up from a mandola until it reached a scale length of approximately 25 to 27 inches. It is a flatback instrument, with a wide neck and 4 courses, 5 courses or 6 courses, and is used in Algeria and Morocco. The instrument can be tuned as a guitar, oud, or mandocello, depending on the music it will be used to play and player preference. When tuning it as a guitar the strings will be tuned A₂ A₂ D₃ D₃ G₃ G₃ B₃ B₃ ; strings in parentheses are dropped for a five- or four-course instrument. Using a common Arabic oud tuning D₂ D₂ G₂ G₂ A₂ A₂ D₃ D₃ . For a mandocello tuning using fifths C₂ C₂ G₂ G₂ D₃ D₃ A₃ A₃ .