Manuel Bernal Martinez is a professor of music at the Javeriana University and Fine Arts Faculty in Bogot, Colombia, specializing in regional and popular Colombian music and instruments. He began working with GAL member Luis Alberto Paredes in 1990 to develop a superior model of the Colombian Andean bandola, and in 2003 they began to develop a bandola family of instruments. Manuel performed at the 2008 GAL Convention as a member of the bandola quartet Perendengue.
▪ bio current as of 2008
2008
AL#96 p.34 read this article
Luis-Alberto Paredes-Rodriguez Manuel-Bernal Martinez
▪ The Andean bandola (isn’t that cool to say? Makes you want to have one) looks like a big 6-course flattop mandolin, though it stems just as much from the guitar. Bandola development went into over drive during the 1960s and continues today. In fact, the authors have developed a bandola family. One version owes a lot to the ever-influential Greg Smallman. With 25 photos, a string gauge chart, and a tuning chart. Includes reduced image of GAL Instrument Plan #59.