Curious About: Mandola / Mandolin / Bouzouki / Deering Old Time Banjo

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Upcoming Concerts

Four concerts are planned from June to December, with three events fully booked and ready for ticket purchase (click the highlighted name):

  • June 28: Americana Folk Group Susie Glaze at Knox Presbyterian Church
  • July 26: Americana Folk Tipps and Obermiller at Beckman Institute Auditorium
  • Oct 18: Irish Troubadour Andy Irvine at Beckman Institute Auditorium
  • Dec 6: Celtic & Early Music Trio Brocelïande

Two other concerts are in development and will be announced when details are finalized.

What’s That Instrument? Why Does It Seem Familiar?

Over the next few concerts, a variety of instruments will be played by our amazing artists. Some may be familiar, others may not.  To get ready to enjoy the music, here is an overview of some of these instruments.

The Irish bouzouki has gained popularity in Celtic, English, North American, Galician, Asturian, and Brittany folk music. It is a hybrid of a Greek bouzouki and a mandolin. A bouzouki is a member of the long-necked flute family with a fretted fingerboard. It was Andy Irvine (joining us Oct 18) along with Johnny Moynihan, Dónal Lunny, and luthier Peter Abnett, who developed a bouzouki specifically for Irish music.

The Mandola is a fretted, stringed musical instrument commonly used in folk music, including Irish traditional and Italian folk. It is an ancestor of the mandolin. Also included in this family is the octave mandola, with either a mandolin or guitar shaped body. The differences are in the narrower neck and the use of a mandolin string layout.

The Mandolin is a member of the lute family and generally plucked. Mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously (as a violin bowed note would do). Mandolin notes also decay faster than a guitar.  Players use the technique of tremolo (rapid picking of one or more pairs of strings) to create sustained notes or chords.

The Deering Old Time Banjo is a specific type of five-string banjo produced by the Deering Banjo Company designed to produce a traditional “old-time” sound, such as folk, bluegrass and early American music. The Deering has a warm, resonant sound characteristics of older styles of banjo playing.