Octave mandolin in unison. Alternate tunings exist in which the strings in some courses are tuned to octaves, rather than unisons, but this is more typical of the Irish Bouzouki. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are doubled (tuned to the same pitch). The standard octave mandolin tuning is G2 G2 • D3 D3 • A3 A3 • E4 E4, so the lowest open strings are tuned to the lowest 'G' on the guitar, and the highest strings are tuned to the same 'E' as the highest string of the guitar. This tuning is one octave below the mandolin (or a fourth
Violin technique possible, the amount of adjustment needed may be greatly reduced by training the fingers to fall properly in the first place. That said, a quote widely attributed to Jascha Heifetz goes something like: "I play as many wrong notes as anyone, but I fix them before most people can hear them." The fingers are conventionally numbered 1 (index finger) to 4 (little finger). Especially in instructional editions of violin music, numbers over the notes may indicate which finger to use, with "0" above the note indicating "open" string, or playing on a string without manipulating the pitch using the left