You Can Play the Mandolin

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GETTING STARTED

I hope that some of you out there got ambitious over the past couple of months and built your own "hamdolin" (a rather funky mandolin made out of a ham can), using the instructions I provided in the last issue of MOTHER. But even if you didn't, you should have no trouble getting your hands on a playable mandolin-beginner's models are fairly inexpensive and available most anywhere instruments are sold. (You can also sometimes find them, bargain priced, at flea markets and garage sales . . . so keep your eyes peeled.) The mandolin is a great instrument for learning to play any or all of a variety of styles: folk, country, bluegrass, old-time, and even ragtime and jazz. So whatever effort you have to make to obtain an instrument and pick up the basics for making music on it will be well worth your while—that's a promise. Besides, I'll make learning to play so simple you'll be picking out tunes in a matter of minutes.

So what are we waiting for? Let's get started right now . . . hold on to your hat!

A QUICK CHECK

Before we jump right in and start to play, we'd better make sure that your instrument is in playable condition and that it's tuned. (First things first, right?)

I'm assuming that you've already checked to make sure that your mandolin's tuning pegs work smoothly, that the instrument isn't noticeably cracked or warped, and that it has all its strings—there should be four pairs. Although the mandolin has a total of eight strings, both members of each pair—called unison strings-are tuned to the same note and played at the same time. Thus, each pair is counted as only one string. . . either the first, second, third, or fourth.

Now let's take a look at your mandolin's action, which in musician's language means the height of the strings from the fret board. This is a critical factor, because if the strings are too high, you'll have a hard time pushing your fingers down on them to create notes and chords, and if they're too low, they'll rattle or buzz on the frets (the little metal bars spaced at various intervals along the neck).

Hold your mandolin on your lap so that the neck is pointing to the left, and look at the little strip of bone or plastic, near the tuning pegs, which the strings cross over. This is called the nut. The grooves in the nut should allow the strings to barely clear the first fret.

Now look at the bridge —the wooden bar that the strings cross over at the other end of your mandolin. The bridges on most modern mandolins have round adjustment nuts that allow you to raise or lower the action. To determine whether you need to do that, reach into your pocket end pull out some change (or borrow some from a less poverty-stricken friend). Now stick a nickel between the strings and the twelfth fret, and adjust the bridge so that the action at that fret is exactly a nickel's thickness. This will give you an extremely low action, but you should keep in mind that a low action is generally easier to play. If the strings make funny buzzing noises when you play them, though, the action is too low , and you'll need to raise them up just a bit.

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