Mayne Singers

Mandolin

The mandolin is the off-beat instrument in a folk band — it sits between the guitar's downbeat and the singers' melody and gives the music its drive. If the guitar is the foot stomp, the mandolin is the clap.

In Great Big Sea, Bob Hallett's mandolin (and his various mando-family instruments) sat exactly in this slot. So did Andy Irvine in Planxty, Tim O'Brien in Hot Rize, Chris Thile in countless bluegrass bands. Same instrument, same job: chop on the 2 and 4 while the guitar boom-chucks on the 1 and 3.

Tuning and basic chord shapes

The mandolin is tuned G–D–A–E in fifths (low to high), each pair of strings tuned in unison — eight strings, four courses. The tuning is exactly the same as a violin, an octave higher than a cello.

The five chord shapes that get you through this book:

  • G major — 0023 (low to high, "open" notes that ring)
  • D major — 2002 (most common shape; the "double-stop D")
  • A major — 2200
  • C major — 0230
  • Em — 0220
  • Am — 2200 (same fingering as A — slide the index finger off the high E)
  • Dm — 2000 (just lift the bottom string finger off the D shape)

Two-finger "chop" shapes are fine and often preferable to full four-finger barres for shanty work. The chop only needs to define the chord briefly — the listener fills in the rest.

The chop technique

The chop is the mandolin technique for backing music. It's:

  • A sharp, short, percussive down-pick across all four courses
  • On beats 2 and 4 of a 4/4 bar (or beats 2 of a 6/8)
  • Immediately muted by the left hand relaxing pressure on the strings the instant the pick passes

The mute is critical. Without it, the chord rings and turns into a strum. With the mute, you get a tight, snappy "chk" that pops above the guitar like a snare drum hit.

To practise: hold a G chord. Strum down on the 2 and 4 of an imagined 4-count. Immediately after each strum, relax your left hand without lifting the fingers off the fretboard. You should hear "um-CHK-um-CHK" — silent on 1 and 3, snappy stops on 2 and 4.

When you can chop in time with a metronome for a full minute without drifting, you can hold a shanty.

When to chop, when to strum, when to play melody

Chop (the default)

Use this for every rowdy chorus, every halyard shanty, every capstan shanty at full tempo. Roll the Old Chariot, Drunken Sailor, South Australia, Wellerman, Bully in the Alley — all chop, all the time.

Tremolo (the long sustained sound)

For slow songs where you want the mandolin to sing rather than punch — She's Like the Swallow, Don't Forget Your Old Shipmate, the verses (not the choruses) of Wild Mountain Thyme. Tremolo is rapid down-up-down-up picking on a single sustained note or chord, creating a flowing, ringing texture.

Melody / fills

The mandolin can carry the melody during instrumental breaks — particularly on tunes that come from the fiddle tradition (the Newfoundland reels embedded in I'se the B'y, the Irish jig feel in Wild Mountain Thyme). One run-through of the chorus melody on the mandolin between verses is a classic move.

But don't play melody under the singing. The mandolin's mid-high range collides with male vocal range and will fight the singer for attention.

Picking the right mandolin for this job

If you're shopping:

  • Style: A "A-style" or "F-style" body works (the names refer to the shape of the upper bout). F-style is more bluegrass; A-style is more Celtic / folk. The sound difference is small; both work.
  • Top: Solid spruce, not laminate. A laminate mandolin sounds like cardboard in a band.
  • Range: Around CAD $400–$800 for a serious entry-level instrument (Eastman, Kentucky, The Loar). Avoid anything under $200 — they don't intonate well past the 7th fret.
  • Strings: Medium-gauge phosphor bronze (D'Addario EJ74 are standard). Change them when they start sounding dull — about every 3 months of regular play.

If you're not the mandolin player in the band but might end up being: a good entry-level mandolin is a much cheaper "second instrument" than a second guitar, and the band benefits more from a mandolin chop than a second guitar.

Practising

The mandolin chop locks the band together. The most useful practice routine:

  1. Chop along to a metronome at 80, 100, 120 BPM. Five minutes. No drift, no missed beats.
  2. Chop along to the reference recording of Roll the Old Chariot (110 BPM). Lock into the guitar's downbeats.
  3. Chop along to Wellerman at the Nathan Evans tempo. Watch for the modal Dm — the chop technique is the same regardless of major or minor.
  4. Take one slow song (She's Like the Swallow) and play the chorus melody on the mandolin instead of chopping. Practise transitioning — chop on verses, melody on chorus, back to chop.

What not to do

  • Don't strum like a guitar. The mandolin is not a small guitar. Long sustained strums sound terrible — the instrument doesn't have the body to support them.
  • Don't compete with the guitar's downbeat. Chop on the 2 and 4, not the 1 and 3.
  • Don't tremolo a halyard shanty. Tremolo is for slow, lyrical songs. On a rowdy shanty it sounds frantic.
  • Don't tune to a guitar pitch reference if the guitar is even slightly out of tune. Mandolins amplify tuning errors — eight strings tuned to a slightly-off A will sound noticeably worse than a guitar's six. Use a tuner.
  • Don't forget to mute. A ringing mandolin chord is a strum. The "chop" depends on the silence between hits.