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Solar Mandola

by Seth Austen

Hello and welcome to Mandolin Sessions.

I've been fascinated with all the related instruments of the mandolin family ever since I first started playing mandolin. A number of years ago I bought a mandola, and for a few years even played it more than mandolin. I find the alto voice of the mandola well suited to many styles of music and especially enjoy playing the mandola in mandolin ensembles.

During the early 1900s, mandolin orchestras were all the rage, during this time various instrument companies, including Gibson, Lyon & Healy and others, manufactured instruments for these ensembles. Mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass are all tuned similarly to their violin family relatives.

Mandola is the alto voice of the mandolin family. The mandola is traditionally tuned CGDA, a fifth lower than mandolin, and is the same tuning as used on tenor banjo, tenor guitar and viola. To play tunes that you already know on mandolin often requires learning them in a different fingering pattern to be in the same key. If you simply play a tune in its usual fingering it will sound a fifth lower. For this reason some mandola players tune up a whole step to DAEB or use a capo on the second fret. DAEB tuning facilitates playing many tunes an octave lower in the same fingering as mandolin but over one set of strings without changing the key. I generally use CGDA, but have also experimented with various open tunings. Here are some tunings frequently used by mandola players; DAEA, DADA, CGCG, CGDG, DGDG. Our tune this month, Solar Mandola, uses CGDA.

Rather than confuse our readers with alto clef which is normally used for viola, I've written Solar Mandola in treble clef, actual pitch, so you'll have a few extra ledger lines to deal with. Mandolin players are welcome to try this tune as well, playing the TAB as written will sound in the key of D instead of G. On either instrument Solar Mandola is a good exercise in string crossing while maintaining constant down up alternation throughout.

Enjoy,

Seth Austen

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Seth Austen is a nationally acclaimed acoustic multi-instrumentalist; composing, playing and teaching diverse styles from traditional Appalachian, Celtic and bottleneck blues to eastern European Klezmer, Balkan, Scandinavian, jazz and classical. Seth plays a wide array of stringed instruments including mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, acoustic and slide guitar, fiddle, 5 string banjo and fretted dulcimer.

Seth performs concerts, coffeehouses and festivals nationwide with duo partner Beverly Woods, and is a popular workshop teacher. Seth has recorded 5 solo albums, most recently Metamorphosis and Desert Winds and has produced, engineered and played on over 30 recordings by other acoustic artists, three of which have won Indie Awards from NAIRD. Seth has composed music for PBS documentaries, written guitar and mandolin instruction books for Mel Bay Publications and numerous other musicians have performed and recorded Seth's tunes. In 1981 Seth was a triple winner at The Walnut Valley National Flatpicking Championships, Winfield, KS in fingerstyle guitar, mandolin and fretted dulcimer. Seth is currently putting the finishing touches on upcoming Mel Bay books of klezmer music for mandolin and guitar.

Visit Seth on the web at www.sethausten.com.