Amazon Best Sellers Best Ukuleles, Mandolins & Banjos
Essential Music Chords and Charts
For Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo
See All of our Music and Chord Book in our Book Store
Our newest book for left handed players, we have taken our Essential Chords book and converted all of the charts and chords over for left hand players.
Chords are based on instruments that are restrung for left hand players.
Learn How to Play a
2 Finger Mandolin A Chord in our New Chord Video
Also check out the new Two Finger Mandolin Chord Chart
Our newest line of products are these Chords, Notes and Fretboard posters. These make a great gift and resource for the beginning and intermediate player. Shows the essential fingerings for chords in first position and all the notes on the fretboard for guitar, mandolin and ukulele. Each comes in a handy 11"x17" and other sizes and on a variety of papers. Several of our posters also work with the Tahoe Music School curriculum.
Available at Zazzle. com
Our Site
AcousticMusicTV. com is the companion site for our books and offers essential chord charts for Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo for the beginning music player. The chords charts contain the fingering charts for guitar, mandolin, ukulele and banjo chords and a variety of other music charts for playing rock, folk, country and blues music. This is the perfect resource for every player.
Our simple, clean, easy to read fingering charts are for all players showing the 7 basic Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele and Banjo chords, A-G for Major, Minor and 7th chords. Includes the I, IV, V chord progressions for each key. Plus movable Guitar fingerings for barre chords, arpeggio scales, and soloing scales for folk, country, rock and blues, and movable Mandolin arpeggio scales. The charts are designed to be easy to read and follow.
We also include blank sheet music, chord box pages and now basic chord posters for each instrument.
The UK's largest banjo dealer
Andy Banjo's News and Information Pages
We are no longer able to ship banjos to the Republic of Ireland
It is with regret that we are no longer able to ship our banjos out side of the UK.
Carriage charges have risen to the point that we no longer can subsidise shipments to the republic of Ireland.
Northern Ireland will not be affected.
Christmas and new year.
We would like to remind customers that we will close for the Christmas holiday period at 5pm on Friday the 21st of December and will re open on Wednesday the 2nd of January 2019.
The web site will be open for orders over this period. All orders taken over the Christmas period will be despatched on Tuesday the 2nd of January.
We wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Sid Griffin Endorsement
The Banjo Works are proud to announce that American musician Sid Griffin from The Long Ryders, Coal Porters and various other musical projects is now endorsed by Grafton Banjos.
You can find Sid on:
Christmas holiday times
The banjo works will close for the Christmas period at the end of buisness on Friday the 22nd of December 2017 and will re open on Tuesday the 2nd of January 2018. All orders placed over this time period will be processed and dispatched when we return to work on the 2nd of January.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
The Banjo Works Team.
Gold Tone end of line clearout sale
Hi Everyone,
I would like to address the question i am often asked by customers regarding us not stocking Gold Tone banjos.
Gold Tone are now distributed in the UK by EMD who are setting up the banjos themselves before sale in the UK.
We have always prided ourselves on our setup skills and we would not be happy to sell a banjo setup by anybody else.
There price increase means that we no longer have any marging to touch the instruments ourselves so we have made the decision not to stock them.
We will always be happy to take old examples in P/X and are happy to carry out repair work and setups on customers banjos.
If you are looking for a Gold Tone banjo at a very attractive price compared to the new EMD prices please checkout our Gold Tone clearance sale appearing later this week.
Ben River band
We had Ben River, Mark Kennedy and Lee James in the shop yesterday to play a couple of their songs using some of our Grafton Banjos.
Mark Kennedy can be seen in these two videos using a Grafton Clipper #4 open-back old-time 5-string banjo followed by a Grafton Clipper #4 'Bacon FF' open-back old-time 5-string banjo
Mark later did a couple more original songs using our Grafton Clipper #3 bluegrass banjos.
Heres Mark playing "This" on a Grafton Clipper #3 Tubaphone bluegrass resnator 5-string banjo..
And here is "That" being played on a Grafton Clipper #3 Tubaphone bluegrass resonator 5-string banjo
These videos are great and show just how versitile our Grafton banjos are!
Also find Ben river on Facebook @
Autumn Sale
The prices of our Grafton Gem and Popular #2 banjos are falling like the autumn leaves this month.
We are offering all Grafton Gem #2 and Popular #2 banjos with a £30 discount in price.
As with all Grafton banjos they are setup for optimum playability and tone.
Have a look and grab yourself a bargain!
Delta blue uke banjos back in stock.
We are pleased to announce that the Delta blue DUB2 and DUB-2F uke banjos are back in stock.
The DUB-2 is priced at £195 and the DUB-2F is priced at £220.
Summer Sale
Robin and i have been chosen some banjos from the stock rooms for our summer sale offer.
If you check out the used and vintage banjos section of our site you will find all manner of banjo bargains on offer.
Benji Kirkpatrick at The Banjo Works.
Benji Kirkpatrick of Bellowhead and Faustus recently paid a visit to the shop to receive his Grafton Clipper #4 Tubaphone short-scale open-back tenor banjo.
You will be able to see Benji playing the Grafton Clipper #4 on the last leg of Bellowheads farewell tour and future Faustus and solo tours.
Benji is embarking on a new solo project, reinterpreting the songs of Jimi Hendrix; stripping back the layers of guitar, the psychedelia and the era, revealing the songs in their pure form. Remembered for his pioneering, exceptional ability as a guitarist, on (and off) stage antics, Hendrix’s legacy extends to a wealth of great songs. Leaving behind the guitar altogether (Hendrix did that rather well…), Benji tackles his material on bouzouki, banjo and mandolin, and will perform the songs of Hendrix like you’ve never heard them before.
The live show will incorporate a first half of Benji’s own material, with the second half entirely dedicated to the Hendrix material and set against a specially commissioned visual backdrop, to be created by Shropshire based artist, Esther Thorpe. The Hendrix songs will feature on a new album ‘Hendrix Songs’ due for national release on 18 September 2015, marking 45years since Hendrix’s death.
Benji Kirkpatrick - Hendrix Songs is available via the following sites:
ITunes, Amazon & Proper Music.
For Bellowhead and Faustus releases please visit the links below for information.
MI DISTRIBUTION | SALES & MARKETING
History in the Making
For over the past 90 years Davitt & Hanser has grown into one of the most trusted and respected MI distribution brands in the United States. Founded in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio in 1924, the company took root in retail sales and service, eventually evolving into wholesale distribution and manufacturing.
Today, some 9 decades later, Davitt & Hanser can still be found in downtown Cincinnati, now being located in the Historic Longworth Hall Building. We invite you to contact us today, and provide us the opportunity to show you how our history has allowed us to be prepared for the modern age of distribution.
Mandolin vs. Ukulele
Mandolin and Ukulele are both stringed musical instruments belonging to the lute family.
Comparison chart
| A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family (plucked, or strummed). It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. | A Ukulele is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute; it is a subset of the guitar family of instruments. |
| Modern mandolins commonly have four double courses (four pairs) of metal strings, which are plucked with a plectrum. | The Ukulele generally has four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings. |
| The hollow wooden body has a neck with a flat fretted fingerboard, a nut & floating bridge, a tailpiece or pinblock at the edge of the face where the strings are attached, and mechanical tuning machines, rather than friction pegs for metal strings. | Ukuleles are generally made of wood, although variants have been made composed partially or entirely of plastic. These instruments may have just four strings; or some strings may be paired in courses, giving the instrument a total of 6 or 8 strings. |
| The mandolin soundboard (the top) comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. | Typically ukuleles have a figure-8 body shape like that of a small acoustic guitar, but are often seen in non-std. shapes like an oval, called "pineapple" ukulele, or a boat-paddle shape, or square, often made out of an old wooden cigarette box. |
| Mandolin styles are the Neapolitan (bowl back) style, F-style (Folorentine), A-style, and Mandolinetto. | Ukuleles come in four types or sizes: Soprano, Concert, Tenor, and Baritone. There are also less common sopranino and bass ukuleles at the extreme ends of the size spectrum. |
| Mandolin is often played in bluegrass, classical, some forms of ragtime, or even folk rock. | Ukulele is best used for folk, novelty, and specialty music. |
| The Mandolin comes from the mandore, an instrument that evolved from the lute in the fourteenth century. Modern mandolins originated in Naples, Italy in the 3rd quarter of the 18th century. | The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian interpretation of a small guitar-like instrument brought by Portuguese immigrants. |
Mandolin Ukulele Contents: Mandolin vs Ukulele
The Mandolin is either plucked, or strummed. It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The Ukulele is a chordophone classified as a plucked lute, and is a subset of the guitar family of instruments.
Modern mandolins originated in Naples, Italy in the 3rd quarter of the 18th century. The original instrument was the mandore, which evolved in the fourteenth century from the lute. As time passed and the instrument spread around Europe, it took on many names and various structural characteristics.
The ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian interpretation of a small guitar-like instrument brought by Portuguese immigrants. It gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States during the early 20th century, and from there spread internationally.
Construction
A mandolin’s typically hollow wooden body has a neck with a flat (or slight radius) fretted fingerboard, a nut and floating bridge, a tailpiece or pinblock at the edge of the face to which the strings are attached, and mechanical tuning machines, rather than friction pegs, to accommodate metal strings.
Ukuleles are generally made of wood, although variants have been made composed partially or entirely of plastic. Cheaper ukuleles are generally made from ply or laminate woods, in some cases with a soundboard of an inexpensive but acoustically superior wood such as spruce. Other more expensive ukuleles are made of exotic hardwoods such as mahogany. Some of the most valuable ukuleles, which may cost thousands of dollars, are made from koa (Acacia koa), a Hawaiian wood known for its fine tone and attractive color and figure.
Modern mandolins commonly have four double courses (four pairs) of metal strings, which are plucked with a plectrum. Variants include Milanese, Lombard, Brescian and other 6-course types, as well as four-string (one string per course), twelve-string (three strings per course), and sixteen-string (four strings per course).
The Ukulele generally has four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings. Some strings may be paired in courses, giving the instrument a total of six or eight strings.
Mandolins come in several forms. The Neapolitan style, known as a round-back or bowl-back (or "tater-bug", colloquial American) has a vaulted back made of a number of strips of wood in a bowl formation, similar to a lute, and usually a canted, two-plane, uncarved top. Another form has a banjo-style body. At the end of the nineteenth century, a new style with a carved top and back construction inspired by violin family instruments began to supplant the European-style bowl-back instruments, especially in the USA. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan luthier, founder of the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd" in 1902. Gibson mandolins evolved into two basic styles: the Florentine or F-style, which has a decorative scroll near the neck, two points on the lower body, and usually a scroll carved into the headstock; and the A-style, which is pear shaped, has no points, and usually has a simpler headstock.
Four sizes of ukuleles are common: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. There are also less common sopranino and bass ukuleles at the extreme ends of the size spectrum. The soprano, often called "standard" in Hawaii, is the smallest, and the original size ukulele. The concert size was developed in the 1920s as an enhanced soprano, slightly larger and louder with a deeper tone. Shortly thereafter, the tenor was created, having more volume and deeper bass tone. The largest size is the baritone, created in the 1940s.
A variety of different tunings are used to tune a mandolin. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are doubled (tuned to the same pitch). The most common tuning by far (GDAE), is the same as violin tuning:
- fourth (lowest tone) course: G3 (196.00 Hz) third course: D4 (293.66 Hz) second course: A4 (440.00 Hz; A above middle C) first (highest tone) course: E5 (659.25 Hz)
The standard tuning for soprano, concert, and tenor ukuleles is C-tuning, G'C'E'A'. The g string is tuned an octave higher than might be expected. This is known as reentrant tuning. Some prefer "Low G" tuning, with the G in sequence an octave lower. The baritone is usually tuned to D G B E' (low to high).
Another common tuning for sopranos and concerts is D-tuning, A' D' F#' B', one step higher than the G'C'E'A' tuning. D tuning is said by some to bring out a sweeter tone in some ukuleles, generally smaller ones. This tuning was commonly used during the Hawaiian music boom of the early 20th century, and is often seen in sheet music from this period. D tuning with a low 4th, AD'F#'B' is sometimes called "Canadian tuning" after its use in the Canadian school system, mostly on concert or tenor ukes.
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