The mandola (in the US and Canada) or tenor mandola (in Ireland and the UK) is a musical instrument with strings and frets. It is similar to the mandolin, just as the viola is similar to the violin. The mandola has four pairs of strings, which are tuned to the same notes as the viola (C3-G3-D4-A4), but one fifth lower than a mandolin. The mandola is now less common but was an early version of the mandolin. The word "mandolin" means "small mandola."

Overview

The name "mandola" may have come from the ancient instrument called the pandura. It is also sometimes spelled "mandora," possibly because the word sounds similar to the Italian word for "almond." The mandola developed from the lute, but it was smaller and easier to build. However, the exact order of its development and the names it was given in different areas are now difficult to trace. Instruments closely related to the mandola include the mandore, mandole, vandola (Joan Carles Amat, 1596), bandola, bandora, bandurina, pandurina, and in 16th-century Germany, the quinterne or chiterna.

At different times and places, other instruments have shared the same or similar names as the mandola. The "true" mandola has been strung in various ways.

The mandola has four pairs of metal strings, all tuned to the same pitch. Its scale length is usually about 42 cm (16.5 inches). It is typically played with a plectrum, or pick. The double strings allow for a technique called tremolando, which involves quickly alternating the pick between the two strings of a single pair.

The mandola is often used in folk music, especially Italian folk music. It is sometimes played in Irish traditional music, but other instruments like the octave mandolin, Irish bouzouki, and modern cittern are more commonly used there. Some Irish musicians, like Andy Irvine, restring the tenor mandola with lighter, mandolin strings and tune it to F-C-G-C (two semitones lower than G-D-A-D, because the mandola's fretboard is two frets longer than the mandolin's). Others, such as Brian McDonagh of Dervish, use different tunings like D-A-E-A. Like the guitar, the mandola can be acoustic or electric. Attila the Stockbroker, a punk poet and frontman of Barnstormer, uses an electric mandola as his main instrument. Lief Sørbye of the band Tempest plays an electric, double-neck mandola/mandolin. Alex Lifeson, guitarist of Rush, has also used the mandola in his music.

Mandolas are sometimes played in mandolin orchestras, along with other instruments in the mandolin family: mandolin, mandocello, and mandobass. The octave mandolin (also called the octave mandola) is sometimes included in these ensembles as well.