I Can’t Sleep - Mandolins | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: July 4, 2020

Drift off with this calm bedtime reading on the mandolin, a peaceful way to ease insomnia and settle into rest. Benjamin’s soothing voice explores the history, design, and cultural role of the mandolin, from its origins in Europe to its place in folk, classical, and modern music. His gentle cadence transforms musical history into soft, fact-filled narration that relaxes the mind. This is not whispering or hypnosis—just calm storytelling and education designed to reduce stress, ease anxiety, and bring restful sleep. Press play, close your eyes, and let the story of the mandolin carry you into dreams. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Mandolin, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Mandolin. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. This episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Mandolin.

A mandolin, mandolino in Italian, literally small mandala, is a strained musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum. It commonly has four courses of double metal strings tuned in unison, eight strings, although five, ten strings, and six twelve strings, coarse versions also exist. The courses are typically tuned in a succession of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as violin, G3, D4, A4, E5. It is a soprano member of a family that includes the mandala, octave mandolin, mandicello, and mandibase. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or Roundbacked Mandolin, the carved top mandolin and the flatback mandolin. The roundback has a deep bottom constructed of strips of wood

glued together into a bowl. The carved top or arch top mandolin has a much shallower arched back and an arched top both carved out of wood. The flatbacked mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music. Carvedop instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music.

Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature an extra fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. Other mandolin varieties differ primarily in the number of strings and include four-string models tuned in fifths, such as the Breschen and Cremonese, six string types tuned in fourths, such as the Milanese, Lombard, and Sicilian,

and six course instruments of 12 strings, two strings per part, two strings per course, such as the Genoese. There has also been a 12-string, three-strings-per-course, type, and an instrument with 16 strings, four-strings per course.

Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, the top. Pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strong with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder, using four courses of metal strings, which exert more pressure than the gut strings. The modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments.

The soundboard comes in many shapes, but generally round or teardrop shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. There are usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a collage. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or boarded with decorative rosettes or purfling. History Mandelins evolved from lute family instruments in Europe. Predcessors include the Gittern and Mandore, or Mandela in Italy, during the 17th and 18th centuries. There were a variety of regional variants, but two most widespread ones were the Neapolitan mandolin and the Lombardic mandolin.

The Neapolitan style has spread worldwide. Construction. Mandolins have a body that acts as a resonator attached to a neck. A resonating body may be shaped as a bull, necked bull lutes. Or a box, necked box ludes. Traditional Italian mandolins such as the Neapolitan mandolin meet the Neckt bowl description. The necked box instruments

include the carved top mandolins and the flat-back mandolins. Strings run between mechanical tuning machines at the top of the neck to a tailpiece that anchors the other end of the strings. The strings are suspended over the neck and soundboard and pass over a floating bridge. The bridge is kept in contact with the soundboard by the downward pressure from the strings. The neck is either flat or has a slight radius

and is covered with a fingerboard with frets. The action of the strings on the bridge causes the soundboard to vibrate, producing sound. Like any plugged instrument, mandolin notes decay to silence rather than sound out continuously as with a bowed note on a violin. And mandolin notes decay faster than larger

stringed instruments like the guitar. This encourages the use of tremolo, rapid picking of one or more pairs of strings, to create sustained notes or chords. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique. The plectrum, pick, strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would. Various design variations and amplification techniques have been used

to make mandolins comparable in volume with louder instruments and orchestras, including the creation of mandolin banjo hybrid with the louder banjo, adding metal resonators, most notably by Dobro, and the National String Instrument Corporation, to make a resonator mandolin and amplifying electric mandolins through amplifiers. Tuning A variety of different tunings are used, usually courses of two adjacent strings are tuned in unison.

By far the most common tuning is the same as violin tuning In scientific pitch notation G3 D4A4E5 Or in Helmholt's pitch notation G D prime A prime E double prime Fourth lowest tone course G3 196 Hertz Third course D4 293.66 Hertz 2nd course

A4 440 Hertz A above middle C First highest tone course E5 659.255 Hertz Note that the number of

Hertz shown above assume a 440 Hertz A standard in most parts of the Western world Some players use an A up to 10 hertz above or below a 440, mainly outside the United States. Other tunings exist, including cross-tunings, in which the usually doubled string runs are tuned to different pitches.

Additionally, guitarists may sometimes tune a mandolin to mimic a portion of the intervals on a standard guitar, tuning to achieve familiar fretting patterns. Mandolin family. Soprano The mandolin is a soprano member of the mandolin family, as the violin is a soprano member of the violin family. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about 13 inches, 330 millimeters.

Modern American mandolins, modeled after Gibson's, have a longer scale, about 13 and 7.8 inches. The strings in each of its double-strung courses are tuned in unison, and the courses is used the same tuning as the violin, G3, D4, A4, E5. Piccolo The piccolo or sopranino mandolin is a rare member of the family tuned one octave above the mandala and one fourth above the mandolin, C4G4D5A5. The same relation as that of the piccolo or sopranino violin to the violin and viola.

One model was manufactured by the lion and the Healy Company under the Leland brand. A handful of contemporary luthiers build piccolo mandolins. Its scale length is typically about nine and a half inches. Alto. The mandala, U.S. and Canada, termed the tenor mandala in Britain and Ireland, and Leola, or Alto Mandolin, in continental Europe, which is tuned to a fifth below the mandolin. in the same relationship as that of the viola to the violin.

Some also call this instrument the alto mandala. Its scale length is typically about 16 and a half inches. It is normally tuned like a viola fifth below the mandolin, and tenor banjo. C3, G3, D4, A4. Tenor. The octave mandolin, U.S. and Canada, termed the octave mandala in Britain and Ireland, and mandala in continental Europe is tuned an octave below the mandolin

G2D3A3E4 Its relationship to the mandolin is that of the tenor violin to the violin octave mandolin's scale length is typically about 20 inches although instruments with scales as short as 17 inches or as long as 21 inches

are not unknown mandol The instrument has a variant off the coast of South America and Trinidad, where it is known as the Bandol, a flat-backed instrument with four courses, the lower two-strung with metal and nylon strings. The Irish Bozuki, although not strictly a member of the Mandolin family, has a resemblance and similar range to the octave mandolin. It was derived from the Greek bozuki, a long-necked lute, constructed like a flat-backed

mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings, most often G2D3A3E4, an octave below the mandolin, in which case it essentially functions as an octave mandolin. Common alternate tunings include G2D3A3D4, A2D3A3D4, or A2D3A3A3E4. Although the Irish buzuki's base course pairs are most often tuned in unison, and some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, in the fashion of the 12th string guitar. While occupying the same range as the octave mandolin, octave mandala, the Irish bozuki is theoretically distinguished from the former instrument by its longer scale length,

typically from 22 to 24 inches. All those scales as long as 26 inches, which is the usual Greek bozuki scale are not unknown. In modern usage, however, the terms octave mandolin and Irish bozuki are often used interchangeably to refer to the same instrument. The modern siturn may also be loosely included in an extended mandolin family, based on resemblance to the flat-backed mandolins which it predates. Its own lineage dates it back to the Renaissance.

It is typically a five-course ten-string instrument having a scale length between 20 and 22 inches. The instrument is most often tuned to either D2G2D3A3A3D4 or G2D3A4 and is essentially an octave mandala with a fifth course at either the top or the bottom of its range. Some luthiers such as Stefan Sobel

also refer to the octave mandala or a shorter-skilled Irish bazuki as a sittern. irrespective of whether it has four or five courses. Other relatives of the siturn, which might also be loosely linked to the mandolins, and are sometimes tuned and played as such, includes the six-course, 12-string Portuguese guitar, and the five-course nine-string waltzither. Baritone bass.

The mandocello, which is classically tuned to an octave plus a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin. C2G2 D3A3 Its scale length is typically about 25 inches A typical violin cell's scale is 27 inches The mandolone was a baroque member of the mandolin family And the base range that was surpassed by the mandicello Built as part of the Neapolitan mandolin family

The Greek laoto or laocto long-necked lute is similar to a mandicello ordinarily tuned C3C2, G3G2, D3D3A3, A3, with half of each pair of the lower two courses being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. The body is a staved bowl, the saddleless bridge glued to the flat face like most ouds and lutes, with mechanical tuners, steel strings, and tied cut frets. Modern Laotos, as played in Crete, the entire lowered course tuned to C-3, a reentrant octave above the expected low C. Its scale length is typically about 28 inches.

The Algerian mandalay was developed by an Italian luthier in the early 1930s, scaled up from a mandala until it reached a scale length of approximately 25 to 27 inches. It is a flatback instrument with a wide neck and four courses, eight strings. 5 courses, 10 strings, or 6 courses, 12 strings. Used to music in Algeria and Morocco. The instrument can be tuned as a guitar, Ode, or mandicello. Depending on the music, it will be used to play and player preference. When tuning it as a guitar, the strings will be tuned E2, A2, D3, G3, V3, E4. Strings and parentheses are dropped for a five or four-course instrument,

using a common Arabic ode tuning, D2, G2, A2, D3, G3C4. From mandicello tuning using fifths, C2G2, D3A3E4, contra bass. The Manda bass most frequently has four single strings rather than double courses. and is typically tuned in fourths like a double bass or a bass guitar. E1, A1, D2, G2. These were made by the Gibson Company in the early 20th century, but appear to have never been very common. A smaller scale four-string Manda bass usually tuned in fifths,

G1, D1, A2, E3. Two octaves below the mandolin. Though not as resident as the larger instrument was, often preferred by players as easier to handle and more portable. Reportedly, however, most mandolin orchestras preferred to use the ordinary double bass, rather than a specialized mandolin family instrument. Colace and other Italian makers predating Gibson also made mandolin bases. The relatively rare eight-string manda-base or tremolo bass also exists,

with double courses like the rest of the mandolin family, and is tuned either G1D2A2E3, two octaves lower than a mandolin, or C1G1, D2, A2, two octaves below the mandala. Variations Bullback Bullback mandolins, also known as roundbacks, are used worldwide.

They're most commonly manufactured in Europe where the long history of mandolin development as created local styles. However, Japanese luthiers also make them. Owing to the shape and to the common construction from wood strips of alternating colors, in the United States, these are sometimes colloquially referred to

as the potato bug, or potato beetle mandolin. Neapolitan and Roman styles. The Neapolitan style has an almond-shaped body, resembling a bowl, constructed from curved strips of, wood. It usually has a bent sound table, canted in two places with the design to take the tension of the eight metal strings arranged in four courses. A hardwood fingerboard sits on top of or is

flush with the sound table. Very old instruments may use wooden tuning pegs, while newer instruments tend to use geared metal tuners. The bridge is a movable length of hardwood. A pick guard is a glued below the sound hole under the strings. European roundbacks commonly use a 13-inch scale instead of the 13th and 7 eighths inches, common on archtop mandolins. Intertwine with the Neapolitan style is the Roman-style mandolin, which has influenced it.

The Roman-style mandolin had a fingerboard that was more curved and narrow. The fingerboard was lengthened over the sound hole for the e-strings, the high-pitched strings. The shape of the back of the neck was different, less rounded with an edge. The bridge was curved, making the G-strings higher. The Roman mandolin had mechanical tuning gears before the Neapolitan. Manufacturers of Neapolitan-style mandolins.

Prominent Italian manufacturers include Vinace, Naples, Mbegare, Rome, and Colace, Naples. Other modern manufacturers include Lorenzo Lippe, Milan, Hendrik Fandembroke, Netherlands, Brian Dean, Canada, Salvatore Mazzielo, and Michel Cajaza, La Botte de Mandelino, and Ferrara, Gabrielle Pondini. In the United States, when the bullback was being made in numbers, Lyon and Healy was a major manufacturer, especially under the Washburn brand. Other American manufacturers include Martin, Vega, and Larson Brothers. In Canada, Brian Dean has manufactured instruments in Neapolitan, Roman, German, and American styles, but is also known for his original Grand Concert Design, created for American virtuoso Joseph Brent. German manufacturers include Albert and Mueller, Dyshech, Klaus Knorr, Reinhold Seifert, and Alfred Vol. The German bullbacks use a style developed by ciphered with a larger and rounder body.

Japanese brands include Kunishima and Suzuki. Other Japanese manufacturers include Oona, Kawada, Naguchi, Toichiro Ishikara, Toichiro Ishikawa, Rokutaro Nakade, Utae Tadau, Yoshihiko Takusari, Nokutimakotipoko. Watanabe, Kanau Kadama, and Ochi. Other bullback styles, Lombardic, Milanese, Cremonese, Breschen, Genoese. Another family of bullback mandolins came from Milan and Lombardy. These mandolins are closer to the mandolino, or mandare, than other modern mandolins. They are shorter and wider than the standard Neapolit,

mandolin with a shallow back. The instruments have six strings, three wire treble strings, and three gut or wire-wrapped soak-based strings. The strings ran between the tuning pegs and a bridge that was glued to the soundboard as the guitars. The Lombardic mandolins were tuned G-B-E-Priam A-prime, D-D-D-D-D-D-Double-prime. A-D-D-D-Double-prime. A developer of the Milanese style was Antonio Monsino, Milan, and his family who made them for six generations. Samuel Adelstein described the Lombardi mandolin in 1893 as wider and shorter than the Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallower back and a shorter and wider neck, with six single strings to the regular mandolin set of four.

The Lombardi was tuned C, D-A-E-B-G. The strings were fastened to the bridge like a guitar's. There were 20 frets covering three octaves with an additional five notes. When Adelstein wrote, there were no nylon strings, and the gut and single strings do not vibrate so clearly and sweetly as the double steel string of the Neapolitan. Russian mandolin or cremenes mandolin. Russian mandolins, also known as cremenes, that have survived in museums

have four gut strings instead of six and a fixed bridge. The mandolin was tuned in fifths, like the Neapolitan mandolin. In his 1805 mandolin method,

Anvizung di Mandolin von Selps to Erleinen nebst einingen, Ubechststun von Bertilazzi, Bartolomeo Bortelazzi popularized the Creméz mandolin,

which had four single strings and a fixed bridge, to which the strings were attached. Bortilazzi said in this book that the new wire-strung mandolins were uncomfortable to play when compared to the gut-string instruments. Also, he felt they had a less pleasing, hard, zither-like tone, as compared to the gut-string's softer, full-singing tone. He favored the four single strings of the Cremonese instrument, which were tuned the same as the Neapolitan. Genoese mandolin, a blend of styles.

Like the Lombardy mandolin, the Genoese mandolin was not tuned in fifths. Its six gut strings, or six courses of strings, were tuned as a guitar but one octave higher. E, A, D, prime, G, prime, B natural, E double prime. Like the Neapolitan and unlike the Lombardy mandolin, the Genoese does not have the bridge glued to the soundboard, but holds the bridge on with downward tension, from strings that run between the bottom and neck of the instrument. The neck was wider than the Neapolitan mandolin's neck. The peghead is similar to the guitars.