Is it more difficult to learn to play mandolin after learning guitar than if starting from scratch since the tuning is opposite?

Question

My main instrument is guitar. I have played electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar and 12 string guitar and the patterns and fingering is pretty much the same. I have tried playing a 4 string bass guitar and it's not too hard because the intervals and tuning are common to 4 of the strings of a 6 string guitar.

My ukulele is a baritone uke - tuned like the top four strings of a guitar so there was very little learning curve there.

Playing piano or harmonica are so radically different than guitar that my guitar autopilot does not try to kick in when I play those instruments.

I like the unique sound of a mandolin and I'm thinking I might want to give it a try. It doesn't look that hard to play when I watch others play it.

But since the mandolin is tuned pretty much the opposite of a guitar (GDAE instead of EADG) I am wondering if the fact that I have played guitar so long and the patterns I play have become second nature in my brain (I don't have to think about them) will it be difficult to learn to play mandolin?

I can imagine that my brain will want to default to guitar mode and cause great frustration when that fails to work. And I fear that because the guitar patterns have become so ingrained - it may be harder to undo those to learn mando - than if I had started with mandolin first - without having learned guitar.

Does anyone have any personal experience going from guitar to mandolin after many years of playing guitar? Are there any tricks to help with transitioning? Will learning mandolin cause me to start messing up when I switch back to guitar? I don't want to have to "unlearn" guitar!

I can remember how much time I spent in the beginning to learn to play guitar. If it takes that long to switch over to mando - I may just stick to improving my guitar skills and forget learning a new instrument.

Answer 1

I would say scales are easier and chords are just different. It's almost like learning the same chords in a different position on the neck of the guitar that you've never learned before because that "position" doesn't even exist on guitar. It's also only four courses so it's a bit simplified. For example, an open G major chord is easy on mandolin: It's 0 0 2 3 (low to high - G D B G). Open D major is just 2 0 0 2 (A D A F#). Now take those two shapes, barre with your index finger, and move them around the neck and you've got I and IV or I and V in any key depending on which one you consider the I just from knowing two shapes. You only need a couple more shapes under your belt and you're off to the races. Drop the thirds one fret to get minor chords (G minor is 0 0 1 3 and D minor is 2 0 0 1).

Overall I wouldn't worry too much about it. You should be able to be competent on mandolin pretty quickly without even hurting your guitar knowledge. A lot of people play both with no problem - Jimmy Page and Ricky Skaggs just to name the ones that spring right to mind.

I would say mandolin and guitar coexist as skills a lot better than banjo and guitar. With banjo, you have to play finger style with finger picks, you have to learn rolls, you can't re-use your strumming knowledge, the whole style is completely different. Mandolin is almost identical in picking hand work and not that different in fretting hand work.

Personally I found mandolin to be fun to learn coming from a guitar background. Banjo I found to be frustrating and never got close to where I wanted to be with it. Mandolin also has a cute little scale length and the two-string courses dig into your fingers a lot less. It's almost like playing a ukulele that sounds really cool.

Definitely don't think of the mandolin as tuned upside down or anything like that. Instead it's just tuned two frets wider, which isn't a problem because the scale length is so short you can access a lot more frets without stretching than on guitar.

You do want your guitar autopilot for your picking/strumming hand. It will serve you well and work almost right away. It's a little different picking single notes on two-string courses but surely you've played a 12-string guitar before, right?

Answer 2

Having spoken to a guitarist I work with who planted a mandolin neck onto his acoustic guitar complete with bridge and soundhole, and pup, (it works really well with both!) he said that he thinks of each as a separate instrument. Guitar chord shapes belong to one set, mandolin shapes to another, and the twain never meets. So, just like learning a new guitar chord, start to learn some new chord shapes - on mandolin. Good luck, you did it for guitar, so...

Answer 3

If you understand intervals and chord tones, this should serve you well learning the mandolin, because you can learn a few "core" shapes and fingerings and then know how to modify then to get the full palette of chords. In this sense, your guitar knowledge shouldn't get in the way of learning mandolin.

For example: learn the basic open major chords on the mandolin, identify the roots and thirds, then drop the thirds a half-step to get your minor chords, drop the roots a full step to form dominant seventh chords.

You probably already know this on the guitar. I think this knowledge will give you an advantage when learning mandolin.

Another way you might think about it is this: how do you approach playing the guitar with different tunings? Understanding chord tones lets you adapt quickly to new tunings. Maybe think of the mandolin as another alternate tuning.