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title: 'How is the mandolin played?'
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summary: 'The Neapolitan mandolin is played with a pick and tuned like a violin; the older Milanese type was played with the fingertips.'
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  FAQ · Instruments & artforms

# How is the mandolin played?

 Updated 19 October 2026

 The Neapolitan **[mandolin](/instrument/mandolin)** is tuned like a violin and played with a pick, as the V&A describes its 1772 Vinaccia example. The older Milanese type was played with the fingertips instead. In Carnatic music U. Srinivas played a five-string electric mandolin, which Real World Records describes as resembling the Western mandolin but fitted with a contact microphone.



 

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