Cousins to Mandolins

The other members of the family make up an assortment of instruments which evolved by different routes.
Instruments evolve to satisfy the needs of players. If this didn't happen, the mandolin would never
have evolved from the lute. I'm aware that there are other cousins such as Laudes, Baduras,
Ouds and a whole host of others, but they don't tend to get used in traditional celtic music.

Since the Modern 4-course Greek Bouzouki was adapted in the 60's for Irish tunes, there has been
a growth in the number of instruments which can loosely be described as:
"Longer than a mandolin and deeper in pitch, with 4 or more courses"

At the end of the day of course, it doesn't matter at all - playing is what counts with whatever
instrument you're happy with.

Instrument	Tuning	Length
Traditional Greek Bouzouki	DAD	660mm
Modern Greek Bouzouki	CFAD	660mm
Irish Bouzouki	GDAD GDAE	630mm-660mm
Cittern	ADADA, ADGAD DGDAD	580mm-610mm