Image: Wikimedia Commons

mandolin

Musical instrument in the lute family

Also known as Brescian mandolin · Cremonese mandolin · flat-backed mandolin · Genoese mandolin · Lombardian mandolin · Milanese mandolin

Instance of: type of musical instrument
Subclass of: necked bowl lute sounded by plectrum
Country: Sri Lanka

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of eight strings. A variety of string types are used, with steel strings being the most common and usually the least expensive. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin. Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.

Overview

All data

64 statements · 19% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Hornbostel-Sachs classification: 321.321-6
Depicted by: The Mandolin Player
Lady Playing a Mandolin
Pierrot playing the mandolin
Different from: bandolin
bandolina
mandola
Tachirean bandolin
Used by: mandolinist
Awards: Instrument of the Year(2023)
1
Sources
1.“Instrument des Jahres 2023 – Caterina Lichtenberg im Gespräch über die Mandoline”deutschlandfunk.de/instrument-des-jahres-2023-caterina-lichtenberg-im-gespraech-ueber-die-mandoline-dlf-6429675e-100.htmlRetrieved 2023-01-05
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On other databases

49 identifiers linking mandolin across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

19%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 5, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). mandolin (Q302497). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/mandolin-Q302497