Emma Borders is a solo multi-instrumentalist who loves to create music, teach others, and glorify God with her music. Being classically trained from a young age, Emma enjoys incorporating hints of her classical roots in her playing and using the mandolin in all sorts of non-traditional styles. She seeks to create music that is original, compelling, and most importantly, God-honoring.
I will use your video we hile excersising with guitar and keyboard ☺️ I dont have a mandolin, but I wpuld love to get one later. It is a mandolin in my childhood home, but its over 100 years old, have a small and not correctly glued crack, (we checked in a guitar workshop, they couldnt restore it) and its a tiny bowl shaped italian one. Unfortunately a cheap model, so it has only affectionate value. Its too hard for me to learn on, its tiny so the space between frets are short, and stiff strings.
Your music is beautiful! If you are so talented already, you must newer stop producing music. And your talent with filming it is super! Your looks (hair, face, personality) is heartmelting too. (Greetings from Norway)
I used to think that mandalas were an octave lower but that means it would correspond to octave mandolins... I'm a bit lost cuz I bought these instruments in UK (Paul Hathway is an amazing instrument maker) i.e. picolo mandolin, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, cittern and mandocello. . The tiny mandolin is tuned like a cello and one of my mandocellos as well, all the others are tuned like a mandolin (also I have a violin with fret but that's somethings else). I have to confess I 've never practiced enough ay of these instruments so I'm a very bad player... I mostly play guitar, and piano. Your channel is very interesting and the way you explain everything is great. I just don't know if my mandola sounds like an octave mandolin... :) Thanks anyway.
Em, I think this is one of your best videos. I particularly love the violin, and I think it always wins hahaha, but I was impressed with your performance. I'm not sure if it was the G major Ionian scale, I'm terrible at music theory, but I was really impressed. I admit that watching your videos is almost convincing me to buy a Mandolin to play around with a bit. Can you recommend a model to start with? I saw one similar to yours, and another one shaped like a guitar, smaller. Oh, and congratulations, your videos have been getting better and better.
Thank you!! It was the G major Ionian scale! David Benedict has a great video over on his channel called “What is the BEST budget beginner mandolin?” It is a great video that compares a bunch of beginner mandolins!
Great stuff Emma , I’m sure many folks will take the nudge to either instrument after watching this. lol I thought something went wrong about 5 min into the Video😮 then realised my thumb had touched the iPad screen and sped up the Video. Sorry Emma I had You talking like Alvin the chipmunk for a while. Cheers 👏🏻🙏🏽🇦🇺👴🏼
I play both and agree with your assessment. I started on violin and played 4 years. Then a mandolin part was needed in an orchestra and my dad had one so i played the part... Fast forward 45 years during the pandemic inspired by the Petersen's, i pulled out my mandolin and started to learn fiddle tunes. After a couple of years, i pulled out my violin and already had a bunch of tunes under my fingers... I like the fiddle better but divide my time between the two and guitar. My ADD allows me to bounce around 😂 I found you from mandolin Monday and have learned a lot from Mandolessons. Baron has a massive library that works for all three instruments. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. All instruments are difficult to master... Of these three, violin is the most difficult even to get a pleasant sound from.
Yes!! That is the great thing about violin and mandolin, if you learn a tune on one, you can normally play it on the other as well! Mandolessons is great!
10 years playing Celtic fiddle (New England Contra, Scottish & Irish, Cape Breton) - just bought a Loar mandolin from Musicians Friend in July, and already have 2 dozen tunes under my belt! 😊 That being said, I also play guitar, flute, whistle, bodhran, dulcimer, etc. But, yes! the transfer happened within the week... Now, I have to learn off beats, timing, chops, chords other than D,A,G C...😅 ... GET A MANDOLIN PEOPLE!!😂❤
Not really a musician, just self-trained guy on both instruments, but here are some other differences from my time learning them: - After building some calluses, you can practice the mandolin for a way longer time than you can ever play the violin. My neck and arm never like it when I go over 3-4 hrs on the fiddle for consecutive days. Mandolin? you can go all day long, all week even (or I guess until your fingertips last). Play both? you can switch if you get tired on either. I'd even say that if you play the violin you owe it to yourself to pick up the mando just so that you can continue practicing in a more relaxed position, and put that complex piece under muscle memory. - While both are tuned the "same" and in fifths, more traditionally the violin is tuned with just-intonation (I believe this is specially done in classical music) using A as the "base" and playing it together with the adjacent E and D until the "beating" is gone. This usually means very very slightly lowering D and sharpening E from what the tuner says, and then doing the same with D and G. You get a very "pure" and clean sound when the adjacent open strings play together. But on the other hand, due to the frets, the mandolin is almost always tuned in equal-temperament, so you match to what the tuner / piano / other instruments say. This basically means that: if you only learned violin via classical tradition, but you also play the mando, you will have a way easier time playing and "fitting" with other musicians, as everything else but the violin family tunes to equal temperament (Basically you will understand why your sharp-eared guitarist keeps insisting your violin is "out of tune" and why he says "but that's not how my G sounds" 🙄). - The mandolin not only gives you a way to learn harmony and accompaniment: with chops you can very easily learn the percussion or rhythm line. Pick three or four chop chords, and match them to the high/mid/low beats in any backing track. Learn this and, if you are ever in a situation where the melody and harmony are covered, you can pull up "back-up percussionist" card. That's essentially the role of the mandolin in a lot of bluegrass tunes. As Emma mentioned in the video, not saying that you cannot learn harmony/chords or rhythm lines with the violin...but traditionally you are never encouraged to do that on it, since the violin's main strength will always be on the lead melody due to the powerful dynamics. - The electrical variants of both the mandolin and violin both tend to add range and a low C (basically taking the range of the viola and mandola) and also the mandolin specifically when it goes electric, tends to ditch the courses for single strings, basically almost becoming a portable / easier to play electric guitar. This is done for a number of reasons, but basically means that both instruments get one step closer in similarities and if you ever go electric and play with effects, you can save a buck and reuse a lot of the setup / pedals and keep the signal chains for both instruments. Just put an AB switch at the input, and keep the same pedalboard setup for both! (although...you will most likely miss the original sound of the courses of the mando, and always put a chorus effect specifically for it somewhere in the chain. But hey, violin sounds great with chorus as well!). Anyway just my two cents, hope I added something.
I never considered the violin because I heard it was the hardest instrument. I've been practicing the mandolin for three years and I don't think it's easier than the guitar. I have been with the guitar for a longer time. I have several books for mandolin and I do a lot of repetition. I didn't think reading music was important for mandolin. I read music on guitar and I never found it hard.
Really interesting perspective :-) I always enjoy your videos. I actually got into mandolin playing via playing chords (full triads) in a band on three string Transylvanian viola (tuned G-D-A with the A and G both G strings just one tone apart and the bridge cut flat so all 3 strings were the same level). In Transylvanian folk music this viola (brácsa) functions as a harmony and rhythm instrument like this : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZtYlHYG9Io8.html. My viola chord fingerings translated directly to G-D-A strings on the mandolin and Mandola so it was great for playing chords to music traditionally played on tamburica. More recently I have started trying to learn mandolin single note playing (I read music) from a variety of publications, notably "The Complete Mandolinist" by Marylin Mair and assorted bluegrass and Irish methods mostly from Mel Bay. I have yet to find a book comparable to The Complete Mandolinist for Mandola. Based on your comments in the video, I am wondering if perhaps if graded violin and viola methods may be useful for me in terms of learning material, especially in terms of left hand technique. What resources did you use to learn mandolin coming from violin ?
Oh wow that is really cool!! I have never used The Complete Mandolinist, but it sounds like a very useful book. I had a teacher that helped me learn all of the technique for mandolin, so I didn’t go straight from a particular book for that. Mainly I just used Mel Bay books as well for learning bluegrass tunes, and I had a couple of classical music books also. Sorry that my answer isn’t too helpful!
Understanding four-fingered chords on the mandolin really expanded my musical brain as a violinist. It made finding chords on the fingerboard a lot easier.
Emma! I just got home from work... 9 hrs in the factory, and ready to hit some mando, but 1st a beer...then some E.B. ❤ ! This info is SO AWESOME!!!!!! TY 😊 I'm a 10 yr Irish Fiddler (Liz Faella is awesome!), flute, pennywhistle, bodhran, dulcimer, djembe, tar, 😂, N.A. flutes...and now mandolin! I have a Loar F Style. No, not an original at $15k...😂..Thanks for the lesson, I'll re-watch!! Liked!
The better you get, the better I get! Thank you for all that you do Emma! So awesome to hear the octave in there with the mando and fiddle. Makes this ole' man smile.
Say "to the next level" again and I'll send you a box of cock roaches. So tired of that stupid expression. Doesn't anyone speak without parroting overused expressions?
The way I remember the major scale is using: do re mifa so la sido. Mifa en sido are half steps, that is why there is no space in the middle. The same can actually be used to remember other scales (modes) such as the minor scale. Start at another place, for the minor scale start at la. We get: la sido re mifa so la. Super easy, super fast (I think).
@@emmabordersmusic Thank you! Incidentally, it is also very useful for singing. If you want to sing the Dorian scale for example, start singing "do re mifa so la sido re" . Everybody can do that since the Sound of Music came out. Then start at "re" and sing "re mifa so la sido re". Everybody can do that too. But not many people seem to know they can. No need to memorise all these modes separately. My compliments for your channel! I think you are both a superb player AND a superb teacher, and that combination is rare.
Your videos have become my lunch companion. I think it's incredible how you make something transparent and have the sensitivity to explain a possible doubt that we who watch it may have. It shows mastery and, without a doubt, professionalism. Always a charming video, Em.
Oh that’s awesome! The nice thing about the octave mandolin is that it is tuned in 5ths which is different from guitar. I think you will enjoy the instrument!
