Dan, As Jon W said violin and mandolin are the same tunings The octave mandola and irish tenor banjo are the same notes only one octave lower so the left hand fingering is similar in all four instruments. The problem comes with the right hand. I play mandolin ,tenor and mandola but I can't get the hang of bowing a fiddle, I think it is possably because with fiddle the right wrist should be loose and flexable but with the others it should be more rigid. Cheers Bill