Mandolin: What the Numbers Turn Into

The chord reference for this reader. Pick a root, then any of 54 qualities, and get the shapes plus the thing a chord chart never prints: which digit stands for this chord once somebody counts off in a key.

A mandolin player reads a number and the two and the four — the chop lands on the backbeat whatever the digit is, so the chart tells this player where to put a chord, never when. The digit decides which four courses get stopped; the count-off already decided when, and no mark on the page argues with it.

Every shape below is drawn for GDAE, 4 courses, open shapes first and movable ones after them, and each one plays back — because the fastest way to check that a number was read right is to hear it.