The nordic mandola: it’s not a banjo

Whenever I’m travelling people assume that my instrument (when in it’s case) is a banjo. It’s not. While explaining could be a great conversation starter, things tend to get complicated. At “well, to be precise it’s a theorbed 5-chorus octave mandolin” I usually will have lost them. There was a time when I considered just making a sticker to put on my gigbag that says “No, this is not a banjo”. Now I can just give people the link to this post.

So, what is it?

To be nerdy, it is a theorbed 5-chorus octave mandolin. It looks like this:

Terminology
Since calling something a theorbed 5-chorus octave mandolin is, to say the least,  lenghty it goes by many different names: nordisk mandola (nordic mandola), låtmandola (fiddletune-mandola), bas-cister, swedish bouzouki. I usually just call it mandola or, as the title suggests, nordic mandola.

According to english wikipedia, the mandola is the ancestor of the mandolin (which name simply means “little mandola”).  The mandola/mandolin distinction has a potential to mess with peoples heads because of the similarity with the viola/violin terminology. A viola is tuned a fifth below the violin. An octave violin is tuned an octave below a violin. So if a mandola is tuned a fifth below a mandolin, why do we at all use the term “mandola” for these instruments when it’s tuned an octave below a mandolin? I’m not sure, but it probably has something to do with the  fact that what in the US is called “octave mandolin” usually has been called “octave mandola” in europe. The viola-tuned mandola is called tenor mandola.

So the term mandola can describe any fretted string instrument with pear-shaped body and flat back which is bigger than a mandolin. But, as wikipedia states: “The confusion will continue to reign for some time to come as the terms continue to be used interchangeably.”

History
I won’t go in to the history of fretted instruments, flat-backed instruments or even the mandolin family. There’s lots of info about that if you head over to google.

The history of the nordic mandola is rather short – it was developed by swedish multi-musician Ale Möller and luthiers Christer Ådin and Helge Ekvall in the 80s. Möller had been living in Greece playing bouzoki when he decided to return home and find the music of his own culture. He went to Dalarna to learn the traditional folk music which primarily is played by fiddlers. But he didn’t want to play the fiddle.

“I knew from all the other kinds of music I played that the instrument is just a voice. The music, the style, is the language. I tried to translate it into my instrument, the bouzouki. I found that it could be done. “But to do so required changing the instrument. The notes and tunings were obviously not the same, and he had a long series of instruments built, trying to find not only an instrument that could play the same scales as the music of Sweden, but also, as he put it, “an instrument that would have the right sound, the right feel.” He finally settled upon a mandola, an octave mandolin, that with frets added could play the quarter notes he needed to truly play the fiddle tunes properly. (quote from RootsWorld)

So that’s the story. Since Ale is a famous and influential musician the instrument found it’s way to more builders and musicians – among them myself. I still remember finding the cd with Ale’s band Enteli at the local record shop when I was in 9th grade. The album cover was a stage with tons of weird instruments, and in the middle was one which my eyes was drawn towards – the nordic mandola.

 

 

Tuning, pin point capos and theorbed base
The common tuning of the nordic mandola is, from the base string at zero-fret:

C G D A E

Most nordic mandolas has 5 choruses, with octaves on the C and G string.

But here’s the little peculiarity with this instrument. As Ale and Ådin/Ekvall developed the instrument, they found a need to be able to have different drones in the base. This led to the invention of something called “pin point capos”. The pin point capo is a little screw with a rubber packing on it which goes into holes drilled in the fretboard. This allows for shortening of single strings, and thus being able to change the base notes – without changing the tuning.  The base strings are usually elongated/theorbed so the lowest string goes down to A, and the second goes to F.

The point (hehe) with the pin point capos is that they can be put on any of the strings which allows for very cool open tunings – without changing the fingering. In example, if a tune goes in A I usually put a pinpoint capo on A on the second lowest string, and on e on the third. My open tuning then is A A E A E.  If I play in D I’d put the capos on D and a giving me a tuning of D A D A E . Pretty convenient and it can be a good source for inspiration to just make up weird tunings and play around.

This is an instrument that evolves and changes over time – people try different approaches to the capos and theorbed bases. In example, in Ådins latest creations he has theorbed the top string as well, going down to D.

Quarter note frets
As RootsWorld writes in the above quote, the nordic mandola usually has frets added to be able to “play the quarter notes […]  needed to truly play the fiddle tunes properly.” . Yepp, swedish fiddle players has this annoying habit of not conforming to the tempered western scale. So to be able to play tunes together with these stubborn fiddlers, we use quarter tone frets. This is of course totally optional – if you’d order one you would get to decide if, how many and where these should go.

How to get one
There’s no factory made versions of this instrument – so if you want one you need to get a used one or get in touch with a luthier.

Christer Ådin is a magnificent luthier who lives in Grebbestad. He was the one who developed the instrument together with Ale Möller.  He makes fantastic instruments. He has a long waiting list, so if you are interested you might want to get in touch as soon as possible.

Ola Söderström (OS Instrument) lives in Upplands Väsby and is an equally fantastic luthier.  My instrument is built by Ola, and I am very happy with it. Ola makes awesome and very reasonably priced instruments.

If you are interested in getting a nordic mandola of your own, I’d advice you to contact both of these builders – they are nice people, if occasionally a bit hard to get hold of. Before you decide to buy one I really think you should visit your chosen builder and try out some instruments.  For contact with Christer and Ola, click the links by their names above.

Here are three more builders who make mandola-like instruments. I don’t know these personally though:

Mats Nordwall – http://www.nordwallinstrument.com/
Tyko Runesson (nedan) – www.runessonguitars.com
Heikki Rousu – www.gitarrmakare.se

Video

My friend Bob Mills made nice demo vids of his instrument, enjoy them here:

 

Pictures

Finally, enjoy these pictures of the nordic mandola, courtesy of José Higuera, Christer Ådin and Paulina Holmgren. And whoever took the group-photo from the mandola camp at Hovra -03…

References

http://www.christeradin.se/SWE/Kontakt.html
http://osinstrument.se/
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandola
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ale_Möller
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cister
http://www.rootsworld.com/rw/feature/moller2.html
http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives/briefhistory.html
http://www.piping.se/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=4197&sid=80829aaf46bc1a1d0f28a8ce58c2b807