I am trying to figure out if I should get an octive mandolin or a bouzouki. I really like bouzouki, but I would assume it is not very good for playing melodies. I work at a music store and have had a chance to play both quite a bit, and still can’t decide. Any suggestions?
For playing Melodies an Octave will be easier as the finger spacing is not as large. One is not better, Octave is just quicker for melodies. My suggestion, get something with a scale length in teh middle (around 22 or 23 in) and that should be good for melodies and have a more Zouk like sound.
I am going to take a guess that you are Ted from Andy’s music? I am just putting two and two together.
Tis me, Ted. Hmmm… I will have to give both of them a try again today, but even though I like the bouzouki sound better, the octive mandolin is definately much easier. Although I thought of one more advantage to bouzouki, you can tune it like Bulgarian tambura, which I already play.
With a bit more work you could play the tunes on a Zouk. If the sound is that important it may be worth it to spend the extra time. Although, you must be pretty busy with all that you already play so Octave may be worth the ease. Each has their own advantage, I think you have to decide if you want to sacrafice tone for ease or ease for tone.
I am sure someone else will have something to say.
I personally think that Zouk’s and octave mandolins/mandolas would be more suited for chordal accompaniement. Donal Lunny does both. You can see him play bits of a tune and then run off into chords and counter melody. To play just melody on a zouk or even an octave mandolin would be preety difficult and I don’t think you would be playing it to its fullest. Mandolins and banjos are, in my opinion, more for simply playing tunes.
However, I do have a short octave mandola. It’s not as big as the nearly zouk sized ones (sorry, I don’t have measurements). But it would be (very generally) the necklenght between a mandolin and a 17-fret banjo. I know that all banjos and mandolins come in slightly different sizes but I hope that is some indication. It sounds really nice and has a soft tone to it. The maker is Emmanuel Egildo who, I think, was in some way associated to the Italian mandolin maker, Luigi Embherger. Try searching for some of Egildo’s stuff. It’s not easy to come by but I’ve found a few instruments on ebay.
I would go along with Paddy here, they are both better suited to accompaniment than melody. Either a banjo or a (good) mandolin will punch through better as a melodic instrument. If you plan to play some melody then the octave mandolin would be slightly better than the bouzouki, but the bouzouki will have a bigger sound for backing if that’s your focus.
Did you play your tambura as a melodic or back-up instrument? How did you tune it GDAE?
can anyone give an indication of relative difficulty of playing melody on a guitar compared to bouzouki or mandola?
is it similar?
Depends on your background, if you play Guitar than it will be easier. If you don’t play any of them, the Mando family will IMO be easier. The reason being that tunes based on arpeggios are easier to play on instruments tuned in 5ths.
I’d go along with Unseen122 on that. The main benefit would be the fact that with ITM the tunes are generally written with a small melodic range and the intervals are generally also small (5ths are common though). This means that the requirement to jump between strings and over strings will be less with an instrument tuned in 5ths. Also the necks of mandolas and bouzoukis are generally narrower and shorter and easier to wrap your thumb around than a standard acoustic guitar neck and therefore IMO better suited to playing melody.
I prefer the sound of 'zouk to octave mandolin so that’s what I play. I don’t find the scale a big hindrance to playing melody although it is noticeable.
It helps if you tune a 'zouk GDAD rather than GDAE and play melody mainly on the top two strings. The tuning in fourth (between those strings) reduces the number of difficult stretches you have to perform although the lower D string will need to be employed and will keep you busy.
The Zouk does have a better sound for backing than OM. I play OM just because that’s what I was able to afford at the time. I agree about banjos or regular mandos being better for tunes.