Playing the Mandola

This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to playing but it will give you a start. There are many tutorials on-line and there are many great tutorial books geared to different styles of playing (Celtic/Irish, Country/Bluegrass, Jaz etc). You can order some here from The Music Room


The Mandola is ideal for playing chords, but has a short enough neck to allow the playing of melody as well.

There are some decent tutor books and videos at music shops which specialise in folk music. The tutor books usually assume that you can or will learn to read music, while the videos
tend to allow you to follow the leader.

Going to local sessions is a good way to learn. The tunes get into your head and you start picking them out after a while. Listening to tracks of the tunes you'd like to play is good for this too.


This example assumes octave tuning but works just as well in tenor tuning except you'll be playing in a different key if you follow the instructions.

Whether you read music or not, you need to know where all the notes are on the GDAE or CGDA fretboard. It isn't essential, but it certainly helps.