What is Tremolo?

Series Summary

The mandolin belongs to the guitar family of musical instruments. Considerably smaller, the mandolin has eight strings which are paired together in four courses that are strummed or plucked to produce sound. Mandolins are typically tuned the same as a violin, but can be tuned to produce the same fretting patterns as the standard guitar. Additionally, mandolins can be used to play tremolos like the guitar. Learn how to play tremolo on the mandolin in this video series featuring musician Levin Schwartz. Levin will show you how to play tremolo with mandolin chords such as D Major, G Major, and G Minor. Additionally, he will demonstrate how to play mandolin tremolo on one string, two strings, three strings, and four strings.

Video Transcript

"Hi. So in this series we're going to talk about tremolo. And, tremolo is the act of repeating notes in quick sequention, or sequential order. And, it's characteristic of the Mandolin, it's one of those aesthetic things that's unique to the Mandolin. It's a, (demonstration) I'm sure you've heard it before from Mandolin music, but. (demo) It's kind of this act of sub-dividing the beat in a way that slows down or speeds up. (Demo) And it's a really nice aesthetic with playing with other people. It can sound really full just alone, too, you know? (Demo) So it's another bag of tricks inside the Mandolin, as opposed to single notes you can also use tremolo."