GDAE tuning

Mandolin

The mandolin shares GDAE tuning with the fiddle, so every tune in the tradition sits under the same fingers. Everything here is drawn for that tuning, and it all transfers to tenor banjo and octave mandola unchanged.

An A-style mandolin photographed from above on cream linen
Tune tabs2701 tunes as GDAE tablature, each on its own page with playback and the ABC source.TunerA microphone tuner in the page, reference tones for every string, and the tuning explained.ChordsEvery chord Irish music actually uses, worked out from the tuning, with the modal vocabulary.ScalesTwelve keys and modes as charts on one page, with the chords for each and pentatonic shapes.ABC converterPaste any ABC notation and get tab for this instrument. Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded.How to read tabEach number is a fret, each line a string. The whole system explained on one page.

Where to start

Get in tune first, then pick one easy tune and live with it for a week. The tuner runs in the page, the jigs are the friendliest place to begin, and when a tune fights back, the tab on every tune page slows down and plays along with you.