> Sometimes it's good to shake up the foundation and see what new patterns emerge. In this vein, I'm a lifelong guitarist and someone lent me a mandolin... I'v

> Sometimes it's good to shake up the foundation and see what new patterns emerge. In this vein, I'm a lifelong guitarist and someone lent me a mandolin... I've learned a lot from playing it! It's tuned to straight fifths, but since it's much smaller than a guitar, you can actually reach all the notes of the scale without moving your hand up and down the neck. (I assume this wouldn't be true of a full-sized guitar tuned to fifths, although I haven't actually tried it.) You can pretty quickly intuit how things work, and it will give you new insights into theory. The scales show up more simply and symmetrically than on a guitar. (e.g. the western major scale in the open position is 0-2-4-5, 0-2-4-5, 0-2-3-5, 0-2-3-5)