I have chosen the Hal Leonard - Play Mandolin Today! - Level 1 A Complete Guide to the Basics The Ultimate Self-Teaching Method as my entry level book with the mandolin. I'm enjoying it and working my way through it. I think I'm doing just fine but I'm wondering what resources the rest of the Newbies are using. I'm guess the meaning of this post is to get a use of helpful resources for the new mandolin player. Hopefully your be able to contribute with your favorite print resource and (why not) your favorite internet resource.
Have a look at "Instructional materials" (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/gr...282&do=discuss) or the online/DVD threads in this group. Maybe we can revive those. I'd like to provide a review of my (currently) favourite book, Padraig Carroll's "A complete guide to learning the Irish mandolin". The problem is that I can't judge on its effectiveness yet because I'm only in chapter 2! :D
thanks Gelsenbury I'll take a look through these resources. I find the books quite interesting. I also like to look at the old instructional booklets. I hunt down used bookstores and rummage through their piles of discarded books in the hopes of finding mandolin books. another fun pastime for the would-be mandolin player.
I've been using O'Neill's Music of Ireland, 30 Fiddle Tunes for the Mandolin (Butch Baldassari), and Bluegrass Mandolin (Jack Tottle). I just bought Pete Seeger's Bells of Rhymney, and the Old Town School of Folk Music Songbook, and am looking forward to playing around with some of those tunes. So much music, so little time!
Bruce Dix's Back Up Trax: Old Time and Fiddle Tunes. Video's: Butch Baldasari's Bluegrass Mandolin Workshop and Mike Marshall's Mandolin Essentials for all players. Just picked up Janet Davis's Ultimate Mandolin Songbook which while a little advanced is a great book. It gives you a song in multiple versions: first the basis tune then it shows other versions and improvisions on the tune. It has tunes in various genres .
I found Mel Bray's Irish music made easy really good - some lovely tunes with a play along cd. zoe
I started with Mel Bay, You can Teach Yourself Mandolin which is great. I picked up Mandolin Song Book by Bradley Laird but haven't gotten far enough along yet to get much done in it. Also, today I just picked up Play Mandolin Today, by Hal Leonard. Between the Mel Bay and the Leonard I think it's a fairly rounded out way to learn - one with tab and notation the other mainly notation. Of course I think you can't have too many books......
The best one I've found is Bert Casey's Mandolin Primer.
Another thread I feel that needs a bump. I realize that many of us are using computer tutorials or online lessons. Yet for some, myself included, books are the way to learn. Not the only way of course, it's what works for me at this point in my life. So here is my list of books. Some I use for techniques, others are songbooks and the last is for inspiration or down the road. 1. Hal Leonard - Play Mandolin Today! - Level 1 A Complete Guide to the Basics The Ultimate Self-Teaching Method# 2. Greg Horne Beginning Mandolin 3. Andy Statman Teach yourself bluegrass mandolin 4. Wicklund & Winship American Mandolin Method 5. Ray Valla Bluegrass mandolin method. Songbooks 1. Doc Rossi ASAP Irish mandolin 2. Folk songs for mandolin. Hal-Leonard. 3. British invasion mandolin. Alfred. 4. Rock and pop mandolin. Alfred 5. The Beatles for mandolin. Hal-Leonard. 6. Dix Bruce. Parking lot pickers songbook. Reference/Inspiration 1. Fretboard roadmaps mandolin. Hal-Leonard 2. Bud Orr. Anthology of mandolin music. 3. Mickey Cochran. Mandolin crosspicking technique. 4. Sam Bush. Mandolin repertoire & technique. 5. 101 Mandolin Tips. Hal-Leonard. That's my list of books. Some I use weekly. Songs I know or are learning end up in a binder. Larry
'The Mandolin Tutor' by Simon Mayor gave me a really good start. I also got 'Mastering the Mandolin' (followup book by the same author) but I haven't worked my way through the first book yet. Bought (but not really started with) 'Easy Music Theory for Fiddle and Mandolin' by Pete Martin. Tried working through 'Mandolin for Dummies' but it didn't catch on for me. May try going through that again.
Mandolin For Dummies & Mandolin Exercises For Dummies by Don Julin are indispensable in my opinion. Marilynn Mair's Complete Mandolinist is great too, but you must learn to read music to use it. For that, I would recommend Debra Chen's Standard Notation for the Tab-Addicted Mandolinist. Also great for practicing sight reading is The Fiddler's Fakebook. It has tons of tunes. Now there is a similar book for mandolin, but from what I've read, it doesn't have as many tunes, and there is tab included. So, if you want to use the book to practice sight reading standard notation, it defeats that specific purpose. I know if I have a sheet in front of me with tabs on it, that's what I use. Another I would recommend for music theory is Music Theory for Modern Mandolin by Thomas Ohmsen. Although a lot of the same information is covered in Mandolin Exercises for Dummies, I think this one covers more, and is more in depth. The book's appearance is type-written, and hand written, but once you get used to that it's not a big deal. it has lots of chord charts, scales, it goes through modes and improvisation, and has lots of exercises to illustrate the subject matter. Another book I've found helpful for theory is Music Theory for Dummies. It has a brief history of music, and explains how we arrived at the system we have now. Also great is Brad Laird's Mandolin Master Class. It covers a lot of theory too. I think looking at the same material from lots of different sources always helps internalize the information. One source may put something in terms that another might make to seem confusing.
Tommcgtx, I really like the reviews you gave. This is one of the reasons why I bumped the thread. Thanks. I have read many good reviews for Brad Laird ' s books. Might have to order so I can pick it up when I get home next.
Brad Laird - Mandolin Master Class Songs: Bill LaFleur - The Beatles For Solo Mandolin Brad Laird - Mandolin Song Book That's the extent of my purchased mandolin book library to date, Trav'linmando, you've already got a big leg up on me. I have found each of those three books to be great resources. I have other printed material, but I've printed it myself from online resources including Homespun Videos and other courses. Most helpful in that regard has been Sam Bush - Lead Mandolin and Sam Bush - Rhythm Mandolin . . . but I know this is not what you're asking about Edited to say that I agree, printed material is the best (maybe just because I'm an old-timer) so I print the materials from online courses and put them in binders.
Mark, I found the thread interesting due to my lack of online capabilities. If and when I am able to have unlimited Internet access I will definitely be using it. I love the fact I can find much useful information here on the forum. Wanted to give a little bit back to the Cafe. Btw, just for insight, I am not a computer phobe, have been working on/with them since 1978. However, I also have a very large library. But don't own a tv.
No probs, I prefer written material + CDs or DVDs. I still work with computers and have a decent connection, so I haven't purchased many mando books though there are several I have my eyes on. The Brad Laird Mandolin Songbook comes with a CD with tracks to practice with. And as has been mentioned already, his Master Class is heavy on music theory as applied to mandolin, can be pretty helpful. But you have what seems to be a good start on a library. Would be interesting to know which are your favorites, if any. No TV here either, I use a laptop for DVDs and Netflix though.
Mark , my favorite textbook at this time is Greg Horne book followed up by W.& W. for beginners songs. Then Dix Bruce for sheer amount of material. All tab written to be playable for us newbies. If you recall, I am a trucker and on the road for 2-3 months. I can look at book anytime, which fits my schedule. And let's not even talk about data usage bandwidth or access. I just keep picking and making improvements. Of yeah , and having fun.
This is a great resource- thanks everyone. I've been reminded about books I have that have just gotten buried and need to be put back into rotation. I'm trying to develop my technical skill and found "The Mandolin Player's Practical Guide to Scales & Arpeggios." By Dan Miller & Tim May a great help. It's written in notation and tabs and comes with 2 CDs. They discuss really useful tips about practice. They encourage me, I want to practice more and I'm seeing serious improvement. Hope this helps someone in the same place
Kathy, thanks so much for resurrecting this thread!
Kathy-a wrote, "Hope this helps someone in the same place" Yes indeed, Kathy, thanks for the recommendation
As a collector of books I always have my eyes open for a new and helpful recommendation. Thanks Kathy I will be looking for this book. Reading back thru this thread I realize that I have quite a few more books in my library today.
My first book, which arrived night before last was an original 1975 copy (with floppy record) of "Bluegrass Mandolin by Jack Tottle". If I had never played an instrument I think it may have proved to be too much and still may be too much for me but so far after two nights it's been fun.
That’s a nice score!
Mike, that Jack Tottle book is a jewel. Very well written with quality instructions. Plus neat photos. My copy doesn't have any recording though. Wow, vinyl old school cool! Now you need a turntable.
Judging from Mike’s avatar he’d have something to play it on. If not, I could digitize it!
Thanks. I've already made a CD from files I found online. Someone did a lot of work on them.
I'm working with the Horne book and Tottle's book. Both good. I find that most books go from super easy to pretty hard fairly quickly. Some techniques like h.o., p.o., tremolos are introduced early on and are hard to incorporate when your just trying to get the fretboard in your head and in your fingers, hit the right strings, and try to follow standard notation. I'm proceeding verrrrry slowly and not moving on until I get each piece down cold. I may be working on these books for a very long time.
I was thinking about ordering the Horne Books. I saw in another thread where they sell his Complete Mandolin Method (all three editions, beginner, intermediate & mastering together now) on Amazon.
I have the complete mandolin method of hornes, all 3 volumes are in one binding. I worked studiously through the first 2 volumes. Volume 3 appears to be mostly about developing bluegrass improv skills. I'm not currently interested so I stopped. Still really good book
