An instrument with a longer distance between the bridge and the nut (scale) is harder to play using the mandolin method because of the stretches needed. The main reason for this is the scale (the distance between the bridge and the nut - another term that is confusing the issue) which is too short to be played with the finger assignment method as your fingers will interfere with each other.
To answer the original question, Marilyn Mair was saying that the mandolin is played by assigning several frets to one finger. Guitar fingering At least that way most of us know what we are talking about. Maybe we ought to go back to Mandolin fingering vs. I think what really confused me is that the original post said "diatonic" and then someone else called it "diachronic" (does that mean it happens "two often" ? ) and it appears it should be "dichromatic". This causes a difference in technique and a different sound to tunes at times.Ĭello fingering requires using second and third position whenever the tune rises above an A on the E string but by using fiddle fingering you can reach the B or even the C note on the E string without giving up the first position with your first finger. In fiddle fingering (also known as mandolin fingering or dichromatic fingering) the little finger is used on the seventh fret which means that the second and third fingers may be used on several frets. Thus if your first finger is on the second fret (the usual for the keys of D, G, and A) then the second finger is on the thirdfret, etc. Just so we are straight on the terminology, cello fingering (also known as guitar and chromatic fingering) means that each finger is assigned a fret to play. I thought I would share in case it helped others: Anyway, I searched around and found another discussion where someone described it in a way that I did understand. I wasn't really getting it from this discussion myself, being confused by my understanding of what chromatic versus diatonic fretting is when building a mandolin or dulcimer. #If you want to argue whether one fingering style is superior to another when you play the TB or OM, it is best to start with these terms because otherwise the discussion tends to get bogged down trying to separate the tunings and the preferences for instruments when terms other than Chromatic/diatonic are used. #It is easier to use these terms once everyone agrees on the meanings because you don't confuse guitar tuning with guitar fingering. The chromatic/diatonic terms are not "fancy", they are descriptive and probably the most neutral terms that can be used even if they are the most obscure. #It has nothing to do with scales.Īs a practical matter, the mandolin scale allows most players to easily span seven frets without moving your hand to another position and most players can play the entire fingerboard with only one shift playing mandolin/diatonic fingering. #One finger per fret is the chromatic/cello/guitar fingering, more than one fret per finger is the diatonic/violin/mandolin. #If you take the same tuning (GDAE) on a tenor banjo or an Octave mandolin which has a 19 in-23 in scale, you will see that one finger per fret (in this case the first finger on the second fret, second finger on the third fret, etc.) is more natural as the fingers fall that way.
#On the mandolin it is inconvenient to play only one fret per finger because the scale is so short (13 in-14 in)that the frets are crowded together. With stringed instruments diatonic fingering refers to playing more than one fret per finger.
#A chromatic accordion plays the same note when you push a key whether you pull or push the bellows while a diatonic accordion plays a different note if you pull or push. TThe terms diatonic and chromatic fingering are taken from other instruments such as the harmonica and accordion.