Chords for Types of Mandolins

_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [A#] Hi, my [F#] name's Tim.
[Am] I'd like to welcome you to an introduction to the [E] mandolin.
I'd like to start off first by showing you some of the different
mandolin instruments that have evolved [F#] through time and maybe this will give you some ideas about
what you might like to purchase for your first mandolin.
_ [A] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[A] This is what we call a Neapolitan [N] mandolin.
And this is what you might have seen or something similar to this made in Italy as far back as 200 years ago.
And this is quite a piece of artistry here where they've taken individual slats of wood to form a domed back. _ _
And on the front they have a canted top, which is two planes.
_ _ And they're quite decorative as well.
You can see some nice wood inlay work done here and
also mother-of-pearl designs with
butterfly.
Very nice instrument and these are still used for classical
_ concerts and [D] things of that sort. _
_ _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
So as [F#] time goes by the design changes a little [Cm] bit and we'll see here that
[F#] they've developed a flat back instead of the bowl back and
the top is still canted with the two planes, a small bridge,
still the same oval hole, some nice inlay work, and this is a bit more of a modern style of instrument. _
_ [C#m] _ _ [D] _ _ [C#] _ [F#] _ _
Someone came up with a clever idea about
1900.
His name was Orville Gibson of the [B] famous Gibson Guitar Company.
And he realized that hundreds of years ago the [C] masters,
_ Stradivarius and the great luthiers of the past,
had really perfected the [N] stringed instrument in the violin and the violin family of instruments.
So they looked at the classical designs of the violin and
they realized that the violin has a domed top.
It's actually hand carved and graduated to [F#] be precise thicknesses that vary over the surface of the instrument.
And likewise the back of the instrument is also domed.
So they'll carve it out and precisely tune the instrument.
[G] You'll notice also that the violin has the F type of sound hole.
So they decided to borrow from the masters and try to incorporate some of the features of the violin family [E] into the mandolin.
[F#m] _ _ [E] _ _ [D] _
_ [C] _ _ [A] So here you can see one of the more [N] modern styles of
mandolin and this was founded by the Gibson Company where they incorporated the violin features into the mandolin.
So you'll notice right off.
Here's the violin F
holes for the sound holes.
And
here again, you can see the instrument is domed.
So it's hand carved from spruce and graduated to different thicknesses and different areas of the body.
And this provides the very best tone.
Likewise the [C#] back is domed.
_ And some very innovative artistry was involved [F#] also from the Gibson Company with the fancy
woodworking of the scrolls and the mother of pearl inlays.
So this is a very popular instrument and it was made popular by Bill Monroe who was the father of bluegrass. _
And so this is particularly popular with [C#m] the bluegrass fans.
[D] _ _ [B] _ _ [E] _ [F#m] _ _
[E] The Gibson Company also came up with another style of mandolin called the A-type mandolin.
[G] And this also incorporates the features we've been discussing.
But this is a simpler instrument without all the fine woodwork and time involved in that.
So oftentimes _ this will give you a similar sound to the F
but can be more economical because it's easier to make, not as much labor involved.
This is also quite a popular instrument, perhaps more so with
_ Celtic and folk [D] music.
_ _ _ _ _ [F#] _ _ _
This is an example of an older _ octave
mandolin.
And this you can see has a longer scale.
It's a longer, bigger instrument and it's tuned one octave lower
than the standard mandolin.
So this gives you a different type of sound, a more bassy type of sound.
But this is an example of the variety of [Bm] instruments that you can see within [E] the mandolin family.
[E] _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _