As some of you know, I took up the mandolin last fall. A number of other Fiddlerman.com members also play the mandolin, which is not surprising; since the mandolin is tuned the same as a violin it's very easy to make the transition from one to the other.

For me, the mando is turning out to be a great tool in learning fiddle tunes and learning to play the fiddle in general. Here's why:

I'm pretty comfortable playing the mandolin as I've played the guitar for many years and the right hand techniques are similar. I think that's why I'm finding it easy to learn a tune by ear by picking it out on the mando first, then once I have it down, I can transfer it to the fiddle. At that point, I can focus on bowing and intonation and not on learning the tune, since I already know it.

I've discovered that when I know a tune well and feel confident playing it, problems like bow bounce and hitting adjacent strings decrease significantly. So, playing the mando is expediting improvement in those areas.

Just putting this out there as something that might help other guitar players, at least. Don't know if would help non-guitarists. I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone else has found playing the mandolin helpful, guitarist or not.