Hey does anybody play mandolin i was thinking of picking it up but didnt know if it was a good crossover insturment

Sure, tune it just like the top 4 strings of your guitar so you can just play scales and chords from guitar.

Mando is a great crossover instrument to guitar. But, if you tune it like a guitar, you have neither a mandolin or a guitar.  Because the scale is so short, the mando can be tuned in fifths, like a violin, so you can have these great spans to play chords and it is also very easy to play very fast flat picking tunes and fiddle tunes.   Be prepared for a bit of finger tip conditioning; very high tension on a mandolin!

Learning a new stringed instrument is not that hard once you have some foundation in one. I play guitar, mandolin, dobro, lap steel, and sometimes banjo, and they are all tuned differently.  It's fun!  And, it makes you "stretch" a bit so your overall music skills improve.  Frankly, playing dobro has made my guitar playing far better, and they are really completely different instruments.  Dobro is open tuned, played "laying down" on your lap, with a steel bar.  Like playing guitar with one finger...

Have fun with the mando. 

Stoney

stoney wrote:

Mando is a great crossover instrument to guitar. But, if you tune it like a guitar, you have neither a mandolin or a guitar.  Because the scale is so short, the mando can be tuned in fifths, like a violin, so you can have these great spans to play chords and it is also very easy to play very fast flat picking tunes and fiddle tunes.   Be prepared for a bit of finger tip conditioning; very high tension on a mandolin!

Learning a new stringed instrument is not that hard once you have some foundation in one. I play guitar, mandolin, dobro, lap steel, and sometimes banjo, and they are all tuned differently.  It's fun!  And, it makes you "stretch" a bit so your overall music skills improve.  Frankly, playing dobro has made my guitar playing far better, and they are really completely different instruments.  Dobro is open tuned, played "laying down" on your lap, with a steel bar.  Like playing guitar with one finger...

Have fun with the mando. 

Stoney

Hey man thanks for the answer stoney that helps alot. dobro will be next on the list i at one time could play a lap steel but o so long ago

If a mando is tuned correctly it's the same as a fiddle. so theoritically,-if you can finger a mando- you can play a fiddle.All it takes is practice.