Mandolin

A mandolin is a small, plucked, stringed musical instrument, descended from the mandora< How is this different from a "mandola"? Some explanation below, but more details and/or pictures would be great -->. It is characterized by:

• Eight strings in four pairs (courses), normally tuned to the tones g, d', a', and e" (like the violin), that are plucked with a plectrum,
• A body with a teardrop-shaped soundtable (i.e. face), or one that is essentially oval in shape,
• A neck with a flat (or slightly radiused) fretted fingerboard, and a flat nut and bridge,
• Tuning pegs inserted through the back of the neck's head, or machined metal gears and pins in lieu of the pegs,
• A soundtable with a soundhole, or f-shaped soundholes, that are open and not latticed.

In Indian classical music and Indian light music, the mandolin is likely to be tuned to E-B-E-B. As there is no concept of absolute pitch in Indian Classical music, any convenient tuning maintaining the relative pitch between the strings to E-B-E-B can be used. Another prevalent tuning is C-G-C-G which corresponds to Sa-Pa-Sa-Pa in t...