![]() A mandolin is not the easiest instrument to tune, mostly because of the double strings. There is an old joke that if you have been playing the mandolin for thirty years, you have spent half of those tuning and the other half playing out of tune. What is each string tuned to on a mandolin? Therefore, you are bound to incur relatively high maintenance costs because of the double-strings. More strings also increase the probability of breakage. These are double the number of strings found on a violin. You will have eight strings to replace ever so often depending on how frequently you play. They require more maintenance: Maintaining four pairs of strings is no easy task. Like all skills, it takes patience and practise to acquire expertise and perfection. It requires a lot of patience and decent skill to keep each string in tune, which may be a frustrating feat, especially for a beginner. Keeping all those in check can be a challenging task. There are more strings to tune: A mandolin has four course sets, which add up to eight strings. Either way, it should get easier with practise. To tame the effects of plucking double strings, is important to set your instrument in ways that minimize the difficulty. It is especially difficult to adapt if you are accustomed to playing single-stringed instruments like the violin and the guitar. The result would be sore fingers or even blisters. Therefore, your fingers are likely to get overworked while playing the mandolin. They are tough on your fingers: Plucking two strings simultaneously is a heavier task than plucking just one. Also, it is imperative to keep in mind that the force you use to pluck the strings will determine the volume and sound produced- be precise. It may be challenging at first for a beginner, but adequate practice should do the trick. Even so, a mandolin is meant to be played by plucking both strings. There are special instances where playing a single string may produce the desired results as opposed to playing both strings. Still, whether to play one or both strings of a mandolin would depend on what you are working on. The result is more volume, and a unique sound only recognisable to the mandolin. What this means is that when plucked together, there is a concentration of vibrational energy which transforms into an amplification of resonance. Besides, strings coursed together are tuned to the same pitch and, therefore, provide the same frequencies. The strings are arranged into four courses, each of which you are supposed to strum simultaneously. Do you play both strings of a mandolin?Ībsolutely, as we have already established, a mandolin provides a fuller, sustainable sound when both strings are used. It is almost impossible to picture the mandolin with a different string structure, which gives it its unique sound. Along with its unique shape, the double-string feature of the mandolin forms the instrument’s identity. Fast decay means that the sound produced would subside immediately after strumming the string.Įvidently, mandolins have maintained the double-string feature long after the invention of electricity and technology that aid in amplifying the sound of string instruments. This is because smaller instruments tend to have faster decay. ![]() Since it is quite small, without the double strings the sound produced by the mandolin would be very minimal. The double strings served the purpose of amplifying the instruments. This was because there was no electricity to power up the instruments to increase their volumes. When the double stings are plucked, they produce a tone that has a fuller sound and are able to sustain stronger resonance as compared to single strings.Īnother reason why mandolins have double strings is that the instrument was designed quite a while ago when pairing strings in courses was the standard way of stringing instruments. The twin-strings give out greater vibrational energy compared to a single string, which results in a louder, stronger sound. Mandolins have double strings for the purpose of sound amplification. ![]() ![]() This is not the real reason the mandolin has double strings. It is also very likely that one may think that the double strings are for making techniques such as tremolo picking easier to perform. You may be forgiven for assuming that the double strings are for providing additional musical notes. Unlike those, the mandolin has double strings. The most popular string instruments like the guitar and the violin have single strings, which make them easy to learn and play. ![]()
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