Recommended Beginner Resources

[Luwafer]

Hello classical mandolinists,

I am a complete beginner mandolinist and just purchased my first instrument yesterday. Exploring the various genres this versatile instrument can play, I've been most enamoured by classical music, which has always been my favourite genre anyway. In the past, I've played super beginner guitar, not venturing much further than basic chords, and used to play violin for three years back when I was a kid, but those skills have more or less disappeared. I can read sheet music, although I'm quite rusty, and certainly have no idea how to translate reading music to playing the mandolin.

With those skills in mind, what are some resources you fine folks would recommend? Books or videos that are particularly useful that I could use for the next decent amount of time to form a foundation for my skills? I reckon they wouldn't have to be for classical music in particular if a more general resource is better to learn the instrument, but I'd prefer to keep the number of purchases to a minimum if possible.

This thread had some interesting recommendations, although I wasn't sure if they were targeted towards the OP directly since he seems to have some experience already with other mandolin genres, namely having experience with tabs (I lack even that).

"The Complete Mandolinist" by Marilynn Mair seems pretty highly-recommended on that thread, so I'm considering that, but based on this thread, it sounds like it might be a more supplementary piece for practice.

"The Bickford Mandolin Method" has also received some praise by the looks of it. Perhaps this, along with Mair's book, would suffice?

Homespun's "Basic Techniques of the Classical Mandolin" is a DVD I stumbled upon that features Caterina Lichtenberg, which of course is tempting if only for the skill of the teacher. She has a second DVD on the tremolo which is sold in a pack with the first, so I've considered those as well, although I'm not sure if I'd benefit more from video or book lessons.

Anybody have experience with these resources or have other recommended ones that will last a decent while for a complete beginner? I live in Canada so shipping can get pretty absurdly expensive, so ebooks or amazon.ca are preferable...

[JeffD]

I strongly recommend The Complete Mandolinist. If you go through it seriously and really work at it, you will get a lot out of it. Its really well done and I really benefited.

Here is practical advice - I had my copy re-bound with a spiral binding, so that it lies flat. Makes a huge difference.

There is not a single topic discussed on this forum that has unanimous agreement, so take it all in but keep in mind there are lots of different and often opposing opinions expressed for every good idea posted.

[Luwafer]

I strongly recommend The Complete Mandolinist. If you go through it seriously and really work at it, you will get a lot out of it. Its really well done and I really benefited.

Here is practical advice - I had my copy re-bound with a spiral binding, so that it lies flat. Makes a huge difference.

There is not a single topic discussed on this forum that has unanimous agreement, so take it all in but keep in mind there are lots of different and often opposing opinions expressed for every good idea posted.

Thank you for the response! Do you think The Complete Mandolinist is sufficient even for a complete novice to learn the ropes, or would you recommend another resource as well on the side to learn some more basics? As for rebinding with a spiral binding, I was thinking of doing that in order to let it lie flat on the table. Seems extremely beneficial.

[David Lewis]

I'm not sure the complete mandolinist is the place to start. It's certainly a good place to go. Bick fords was written in the 1920s.

I'd start with mandolin for dummies. Or Hal Leonard's fretboard roadmaps. Or jim richter s book. I'd then go to ted Eschlimans getting into jazz mandolin and mair.

[fernando.f]

I had (have) the same problem. Try this thread! http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ting-some-help

Fernando

[Bruce Clausen]

Glad to hear you have an instrument now, Luwafer.

Another old method you might enjoy is the one by Cristofaro, from the late 19th century. Starts at the beginning and has some excellent exercises and lovely simple pieces. Our friend Michael Reichenbach has an edition of it available for free download on his mandoisland site.

(Later) I see Michael now has 55 mandolin methods for download, plus links to other download sources! Happy hunting.

[crisscross]

I'm not sure the complete mandolinist is the place to start. It's certainly a good place to go.

Depends on how much time you want to invest in your new hobby. The Mair method advances quite fast, it explores techniques like position changes after a short introduction of the first position. But there's a wealth of pieces you can play on the first 7 frets of the mandolin.
So maybe to start your mandolin career a basic beginner method and some sheet music of pieces you like would also be an option.
Amazon.ca has the Mandolin Tutor by Simon Mayor. I don't know this book, but I have some other books by Simon Mayor and I really like them.http://www.amazon.ca/Mandolin-Tutor-...ds=simon+mayor

[Martin Jonas]

So maybe to start your mandolin career a basic beginner method and some sheet music of pieces you like would also be an option.
Amazon.ca has the Mandolin Tutor by Simon Mayor. I don't know this book, but I have some other books by Simon Mayor and I really like them.http://www.amazon.ca/Mandolin-Tutor-...ds=simon+mayor

Simon Mayor's "The Mandolin Tutor" was the book with which I learned to play the mandolin a decade or so ago, with no prior musical experience and no teacher. Obviously this means I'm biased towards it, but I can vouch from personal experience that it's a great book and that it is possible to teach yourself mandolin with it. The pieces are from a range of different styles, mostly Celtic but with some classical and others thrown in, and it comes with a CD. One thing I would say is that it concentrates on melody playing and there is very little on chording or accompaniment, but the writing is very clear, the examples are interesting and accessible and it advances at just the right speed for the motivated absolute beginner. For the very first steps, I also found Nigel Gatherer's web site tutorial here very useful.

Martin

[DavidKOS]

I suggest the Munier and the Calace series of method books:

http://imslp.org/wiki/Scuola_del_Man...Munier,_Carlo)

http://www.federmandolino.it/htm/spartiti_calace.htm

other older methods:

http://www.mandoisland.de/eng_schulen.html#.VY6dR-1VhHw

http://www.mandoisland.de/eng_kosten...l#.VY6gd-1VhHw

The new books are great too, but I like looking at the instruction methods that were printed during the golden age of classical and Italian mandolin.

[crisscross]

I suggest the Munier and the Calace series of method books

Just had a quick glance at the second part of the Munier method. To me, the pick directions he gives seem arbitrary. He advises to play 4 eight notes in a row with DDDU. I see no logic in this. For a beginner, it seems to be helpful to cling to strict alternate picking first, and then to include sweep techniques if need be.

[Beanzy]

Just had a quick glance at the second part of the Munier method. To me, the pick directions he gives seem arbitrary. He advises to play 4 eight notes in a row with DDDU. I see no logic in this. For a beginner, it seems to be helpful to cling to strict alternate picking first, and then to include sweep techniques if need be.

I wonder if the penny will drop once you play through the exercises a few times?

[DavidKOS]

Just had a quick glance at the second part of the Munier method. To me, the pick directions he gives seem arbitrary. He advises to play 4 eight notes in a row with DDDU. I see no logic in this. For a beginner, it seems to be helpful to cling to strict alternate picking first, and then to include sweep techniques if need be.

I'm not sure which exercise you mean, in Scuola_del_Mandolino_part 2.

Can you tell me which exercise you are referring? Many of the exercises were designed to be played with various pick strokes:

"Daily exercise for the preparation of the tremolo, to be played with 2, 4 and 8 pennata (strokes) for each note"

"Daily exercise for the preparation of the staccato, to be played with a whole pennata for each quaver, etc."

"Not to be able to give a fixed rule for the staccato it is sufficient for the moment to observe: to alternate the movement downwards and upwards for the notes that are on the same string and strike the plectrum downwards playing on other strings.

In other words, alternate up-down picking on the same string, use another downstroke when changing strings, which is common in many styles of plectrum playing including Gypsy jazz, not exactly rock shredder "sweep picking" but much the same.

Most of this book is made up of preparatory exercises for tremolo or staccato, and is a stepping stone to further development.

Believe me, nothing in Munier is arbitary and it has a good deal of logic when the whole series of books is taken into consideration.

BTW, DDDU is a standard Choro cavaquinho rhythm pattern and may be used in Choro mandolin.

[bigskygirl]

I think you should take some in-person or Skype lessons and learn proper techniques from the beginning.

[crisscross]

Can you tell me which exercise you are referring?

I'm referring to "Development of tremolo and staccato" exercise 6. In the first full measure d-f#-e-g is played DDDU. I would play that DUDU no matter which strings are involved.
BTW.Never got the hang of Django-style picking.

[Beanzy]

Normally exercises like this will aim at teaching evenness and transitioning between different, pick strokes. This one with DDDU does just that. The basic strokes for eight notes will be all down strokes adding the alternating strokes for sixteenths. If you want to mark the end of a group like that without going heavy on the first note ( no good in tremolo) you can do it by softening the note at the end. The main thing is the down notes are constant so you don't emphasise one note too much. In the exercise in question he also uses fourth finger and open string, again the aim there is to develop the discipline in being able to make everything even and seamless, even with string changes and transitioning in and out of alternate picking and the other patterns also in that exercise. If you can master the evenness there then you can control where the emphasis is placed while maintaining even tremolo.

[mandoisland]

Just had a quick glance at the second part of the Munier method. To me, the pick directions he gives seem arbitrary. He advises to play 4 eight notes in a row with DDDU. I see no logic in this. For a beginner, it seems to be helpful to cling to strict alternate picking first, and then to include sweep techniques if need be.

Great thread, and I am happy that I can help with many mandolin methods as free downloads from my website www.mandoisland.de.

More free sheet music for the mandolin can be found at www.musicaneo.com and in the Petrucci library (IMSLP).

The Down Down sequence is usually used when moving from a lower string to the higher string like it is in this case.
This is also used in the same way in the Calace method. The movement of the pick is more fluently as when a regular down up sequence would be used.

Most of the classical method start with tremolo playing, single note playing comes later. In my opinion that's not a bad method when you want to learn tremolo style.

Most of the methods are using the typical repertoir that was popular 100 years ago. If you check the American methods you can also find some fiddle tunes etc.

You can learn a lot about mandolin technique if you read the descriptions in the methods. Fiddle tunes are great to learn the basic technique with tunes that sound great.

Hope that helps.

[crisscross]

In the exercise in question he also uses fourth finger and open string, again the aim there is to develop the discipline in being able to make everything even and seamless, even with string changes and transitioning in and out of alternate picking and the other patterns also in that exercise. If you can master the evenness there then you can control where the emphasis is placed while maintaining even tremolo.

The Down Down sequence is usually used when moving from a lower string to the higher string like it is in this case.

OK-I surely agree, that if you study with a good teacher to guide you through such intricacies and your aim is to become a classical mandolin virtuoso, than to begin studying your new instrument with something like the Munier method surely makes sense.
But on your own and with limited time on your hands, I would stick to folksy strict alternate picking and apply this to pieces from Anna Magdalena's Notebook, for example.http://cantorionnoten.de/music/421/M...iginal-version
D DUDU D D D for the first two measures of the upper voice.

Would be interesting to know, what the interests of the OP are.

[Bill Clements]

I think you should take some in-person or Skype lessons and learn proper techniques from the beginning.

Bravo. It's so easy to learn bad habits/technique even with the best method book on your stand.
May I suggest Chris Acquavella or Keith Harris as outstanding classical teachers-both available on Skype.

Great thread, and I am happy that I can help with many mandolin methods as free downloads from my website www.mandoisland.de.

Michael, thank you for your many generous contributions to the art of mandolin playing.

[Martin Jonas]

OK-I surely agree, that if you study with a good teacher to guide you through such intricacies and your aim is to become a classical mandolin virtuoso, than to begin studying your new instrument with something like the Munier method surely makes sense.
But on your own and with limited time on your hands, I would stick to folksy strict alternate picking and apply this to pieces from Anna Magdalena's Notebook, for example.http://cantorionnoten.de/music/421/M...iginal-version
D DUDU D D D for the first two measures of the upper voice.

Would be interesting to know, what the interests of the OP are.

This is an interesting discussion on pick direction in the light of the brand new book on classical mandolin technique by our own August Watters (Link). I have been looking through August's treatment of pick direction and I was struck by the fact that unlike just about any other tutorial I've seen, he does not say that one way is right and all others wrong, but has included a clear and concise description of a variety of different approaches to pick direction with its respective strong and weak points.

I wouldn't say this is a good choice as the first book for an absolute beginner (it does require some basics of mandolin playing and music reading), but it's a good follow-on book from a beginners' method for a balanced and well-grounded overview of classical technique.

Martin

[crisscross]

Maybe this discussion boils down to the question, what exactly you understand by the term "classical mandolin".
I see two possible answers:

1) You want to revive the golden age of classical mandolin and play something like this:
Then you absolutely need a bowlback, a quill as a pick, and a teacher who knows the ins and outs of the Italian method book he uses

2) You use the mandolin as a tool to play technically rather simple, but musically convincing classical melodies from different eras, even eras in which the mandolin didn't yet exist, such as renaissance. That you can do on any mandolin, with any pick, and with a basic knowledge of alternate picking and the notes in the first position

As much as I admire the technical abilities of the guy in the first video, musically I prefer the second option. I'd rather practice few pieces, that I find musically rewarding, than hundreds of exercises in Italian virtuoso methods.
Yesterday, I did a quick research on whether one-hit-wonder Pachelbel has composed anything apart from his famous canon. What I found was this: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mGrqPiELcLs/maxresdefault.jpg
I tried to play both hands with mandolins
Well, I guess I'll try the left hand an octave lower with a guitar.
But what I wanted to show is, that you don't need to become a virtuoso to play decent classical music. The internet is full of arrangements for various instruments, that also work on mandolin family instruments, as Martin continues to demonstrate us.

[August Watters]

This is an interesting discussion on pick direction in the light of the brand new book on classical mandolin technique by our own August Watters (Link). I have been looking through August's treatment of pick direction and I was struck by the fact that unlike just about any other tutorial I've seen, he does not say that one way is right and all others wrong, but has included a clear and concise description of a variety of different approaches to pick direction with its respective strong and weak points.

Thanks, Martin -- I agree with the thoughts above that for most of us it's best to begin with alternate picking, and internalize that completely before going on to other possibilities. I love the old Munier and Calace methods -- there are lots of basic technical studies there that relate directly to mandolin players today, whether in the classical world or elsewhere.

There's a lot of beautiful music being composed for mandolin today, that uses those other approaches to picking. If you're interested in exploring that literature you might go back and work through 18th-century methods like those by Denis and Leone. The purpose is not to recreate some distant glory of the past, but to join a living tradition that has a lot to offer today!

[JeffD]

The right classical piece played with enthusiasm, on bowlback or not, can be just wonderful. I love the bowlback sound, but I also like classical on the F5. My favorite (if I have to decide) mandolin for classical is the Kerman.

But the player highly influences how much I like the instrument.

Do I think Marilynn Mair's book is everything you need. Of course not. There is not any resource that can be everything you need. But the Complete Mandolinist is a whole lot of what you need, what any beginner needs. That and all the videos on line, and any and all opportunities to sit with an instructor.

[crisscross]

But the Complete Mandolinist is a whole lot of what you need, what any beginner needs.

Just have the Mair book in front of me, and I have to say, I would definitely not recommend it as the main resource for a beginner with very little experience in learning a musical instrument, who wants to learn playing the mandolin on his own.
It's probably the right book for a mandolin player, who already has his fiddle tunes down, and now wants to enter the realm of classical music with focus on playing in all keys, all positions and learning new ways to direct the pick.
But for the complete beginner it seems to me much to heavy on lengthy exercises and to light on actual music.
If you buy this book to intensively work on your technique, that might be OK, but as a beginner you want to sit back once in a while, listen to the music you play, give yourself a pat on the back and say:"Not too bad after all".
With exercises by Branzoli, Wohlfart or Sponer you rarely get the chance to do so. They instill a feeling, that you're an incomplete musician unless you master the given scale exercises, especially without a teacher recommending appropriate pieces of music to just play, listen and relax.
I have the book and the CD "Cantabile" by Butch Baldassari and John Mock. It has 17 pieces ranging from the renaissance to the romantic era, mostly transcriptions. The pieces sound nice on the CD, although most of them are played in the first position and there's only one virtuoso burst in the title track by Paganini.
A basic mandolin method and a book like this seems to me more appropriate for the more inexperienced learner.http://www.melbay.com/Products/95734M/cantabile.aspx

[JeffD]

But for the complete beginner it seems to me much to heavy on lengthy exercises and to light on actual music.
If you buy this book to intensively work on your technique, that might be OK,

Crisscross I agree with you on your observation. Its a taste thing I guess. I separate in my mind method book from tune book, and I don't like tunes in my exercises. I have a tendency to learn the tune, and so from then on I am not working on it as an exercise, just playing the tune.

And, there are many many tune books at all levels of play.

In any case its not a lot of money, and certainly not a waste of money. But Criss is right, to get some stuff that gives you more feeling of accomplishment having played real tunes, you might need to supplement with something else, or see Mair as the supplement to that something else.

[JeffD]

And here is that Kerman mandolin, in the amazing hands of Avi Avital.