I got a mandola for Christmas this year. What is a mandola, you may ask. Well, it is a member of the mandolin family, only instead of the strings being E A D G, (like the violin) the strings are A D G C, like the viola. You are probably thinking as I did, that this is the same as the instrument I play, so should be easy to pick up. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
First of all, let’s look at the left hand. The strings are round wound instead of flat wound like the viola. That means that the metal winding around the core of the string is round. This has a whole different feeling on my fingers.
There are also 2 of each string. This makes putting down the fingers very different feeling than the viola. In addition, it has frets. At first I thought this would make finding the notes easier. Boy was I wrong! Frets are unforgiving things. If I put my finger in the wrong place, I’m not just out of tune, the note doesn’t even sound!
The neck is a lot longer than the viola, so the notes are farther apart from each other. This means some stretching is needed.
Okay, now I’ll talk about the right hand. This part is freaking me out! Picks? I have never played a picked instrument! It feels weird holding a little piece of plastic. Also the movement is back and forth, like a flipping of the hand, as opposed to drawing the bow.
Eventually I will get better, but for now I am slow and steady. (The only way to really learn, in my opinion).
Someday I will put up a video. When I feel braver. For now, I’m just going to share how learning to do something new feels. So far, it’s pretty great. It’s helped me with teaching a lot. Now I remember what it felt like to do something different for the first time. The awkwardness, the frustration. It’s helping my patience.
