Instruments..?

Question

Whats the difference between a banjo and a mandolin?

Answer 1

A mandolin has a complete body similar in size, shape and construction to an oversized violin, strung with four pairs of strings, with each pair of strings tuned either one octave apart (most times) or identically (rare, but it happens). The top, back and neck are all glued together, and the fingerboard is almost always fretted. The mandolin is almost always played with a flat pick, traditionally strummed very quickly to create a "shimmering" sound (this sound is a staple of Italian and Greek music) or playing single notes (this sound is mostly used for Country or Traditional/Roots music).
A banjo does not have a complete body; it's built more like a drum with only one head, with the neck attached to one side and the bridge mounted near the center of the "drum head" (this stretched skin, either natural or plastic, is the resonating surface of the banjo and serves the same purpose as the top or "face" of an accoustic guitar). A banjo has a distinctly crisp and percussive sound, as the skin adds its own tone to the tone of the strings themselves. Banjos are usually strung with four or five single strings, although six-string models have been built in recent years, tuned the same as a standard guitar (these banjos are designed with guitarists in mind, rather than for traditional banjo players). Many five-string banjos have a bass sting which is approximately half the length of the other strings, with the tuning peg set into the neck about halfway down; this is done to prolong the life of the skin by reducing the stress that the strings place on the skin (banjo skins tend to stretch out; while the skins can be tuned, eventually they go beyond the point of usability). Banjos are nearly always played with fingerpicks, and are used mostly for country and bluegrass music (they enjoyed a breif spurt of popularity among Ragtime and Jazz players at the beginning of the 20th century, but fell out of favor once the electric guitar was invented).

Answer 2

A mandolin has 8 strings& tuned the same way as a 12 string guitar the banjo has 5 strings.The Mandolin came from Italy the Banjo is the only insterment that origenated in America