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Friday, February 6, 2015

My Mandolin and Music

Here is the latest addition to my collection of
musical instruments -

        a florentine mandolin

            (the florentine is the curl at the top of the
              sound box, if you were wondering)

I'm a beginner,
so I've just been playing around with it and not
getting too serious.


Tuning
I have to tune the 4 pair of stings, to these notes -

        (deepest)        G  D  A  E        (highest)

I've been using my keyboard as the comparison,
as it is much easier to see all the notes in front of
                                                                   you.

Musical Notes
It is handy to know that there are -

          12 basic musical notes

                    1       2       3     4        5        6        7        8    9      10       11       12      
                    A   A#/Bb   B    C    C#/Db    D    D#/Eb    E    F    F#/Gb    G    G#/Ab

            1                                                       Highest

            2

            3

            4                                                       Deepest


          In 4 levels  (octaves, pitches)
          from Deepest to Highest


Chords
Chords are groups of musical notes played together,
which make a harmonius sound.

These are also based on the 12 basic musical notes.


                               1       2       3   4       5       6       7       8    9      10     11     12
Basic Chords          A   A#/Bb   B   C   C#/Db   D   D#/Eb   E   F   F#/Gb   G   G#/Ab   



There are many other versions of these basic chords.


Learning all of this
At the moment,
I'm finding it easier to just put my fingers wherever on the instrument
and see what sounds good.

And I'll see where it leads me.......   :)


(c) Katherine Stuart 2015