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From: ebc417@uiucuxa.Uiuc.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Guitar vs. Mandolin
Message-ID: <10900003@uiucuxa>
Date: Sun, 21-Jul-85 15:38:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucuxa.10900003
Posted: Sun Jul 21 15:38:00 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Jul-85 05:51:23 EDT
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Nf-From: uiucuxa.Uiuc.ARPA!ebc417    Jul 21 14:38:00 1985


   First, size.  Mandolins are much smaller, and are tuned an octave higher
than a guitar.  Tuning:  quite different.  The strings of a mandolin are 
usually tuned GDAE  (7-fret intervals), to the same notes a violin are tuned
to (violins and mandolins are very similar instruments, if you ignore such
minor details as double strings, pick vs. bow, frets, etc.;  jigs, reels, 
any sort of fast, active music can be played just about interchangably on either
instrument).  The greater intervals between strings and the smaller number of
strings ( 4 unison pairs ) make the mandolin considerably less suitable for
accompaniment or chordal complexity than the guitar;  but this is counteracte
by the shorter distance one's fingers need travel from note to note, so that
melodic passages may be played rapidly much more easily on a mandolin.  The
notes tend to die out much more rapidly;  those short strings cannot store as
much energy to radiate as those on a guitar can.

To sum up, the two are decidedly different instruments;  which one to use
depends upon what the circumstances are.  I, by my lonesome, would much prefer
to accompany myself with a guitar.  Voice can handle melody, but the guitar
gives chords.  With several instruments around, the drawbacks of the mandolin
as accompaniment can be avoided, and the ..drive.. of a nice mandolin solo
is available as needed.