Sheet music with the letters inside the dots (for learning)

[r0gue]

A friend recommended I try these, but I'm not aware of any for mandolin. Thought I'd put up a post in case someone here has seen these. If you happen to have seen these and could point me toward where to get them, I'd appreciate it.

[Bob Buckingham]

Wayne Erbsen's Bluegrass Mandolin for the Ignoramus has the notes on one line and then the name of the note on the tab. So that might be similar to what you are looking for.

[EdHanrahan]

... but I'm not aware of any for mandolin.

The beauty of notation (vs. tablature) is that it defines the MUSIC rather than fingers on a given instrument. IMHO, there's no great difference between piano's treble cleff / right hand music and typical mandolin music. AND, most beginner sheet music (letters written in the notes) will likely be in the piano + mandolin-friendly key of C.

The possible downer, from my passing association, is that classical-oriented piano then tends to progress toward the "flat" keys, F, Bb, etc., while roots-oriented acoustic music tends to progress toward the sharps, G, D, A, which, conveniently, are also the mandolin's open strings.

[Pittsburgh Bill]

I have seen some very elementary notation written as you described.
An alternative approach I used just last year for my grandchildren: ALFREDS TEACH YOURSELF TO PLAY MANDOLIN. This book provides exercises one string at a time playing the notes on that string. Progresses to playing notes on multiple strings until you know all the notes.
Incidentally I used this same method 10 years ago when I decided to learn notation, now my preferred method for learning new music. I sight read easily in most common keys but still have to think about the names of the notes if asked. My fingers, however, require no thinking and automatically goes to the correct note upon sight.
Hope this helps for learning.

[mandocello8]

op, not sure which system you refer to, but i used to print the music and use a pencil to write the note names under each dot squiggle. after about a year of doing it, sufficient mechanical memory formed that i no longer need to do this. except in tunes where i think the dots are confusing or ambiguous i still sometimes do it. also i notice that professional musicians often add sharp and flat annotations to accidentals (off-scale notes, rules for accidentals are not consistent between modern and historic tune books). the main trick is to do all this in large print so you can read it after 2 guinnesses in a dark irish bar while drunk irishmen are dancing on the tables, including the musician's table.

[Louise NM]

Essential Elements, a beginning band/orchestra method, has what you're looking for. The violin version would fit mandolin just fine.

[r0gue]

Thanks all!

[EdHanrahan]

Sorry this took a while; I KNEW there was one around here somewhere!

There is good news and bad news...

My particular version, that I picked up at a going-out-of-business sale for $1 (ongoing at Robbie's Music, Rt. 46, Wayne, NJ), is apparently an older Volume 15 of Hal Leonard's "EZ PLAY TODAY" series that -hold on- is geared toward "organ, piano, and electric keyboard". The weird thing is that the book's copyright date is 1975, while some of the songs' copyright dates are several years after that. Huh?

The good news is that it has 25 mostly country songs from the '50s thru '70s (my era!), and several a fair bit older. It gives the melody in notation (yes, with the embedded note name) and shows the related chord names. So far, so good.

OTOH, only one song is in the key of G, the others split between the keys of C and F. (Enter the dreaded-to-some Bb chord!) But NOT ONE of them shows a key signature, being one b or one # for F & G! The few notes that would have to be played on black keys are shown as accidentals. In fact there are way more notes that must normally show as accidentals (say, over a major II chord in any of the three keys) than there are non-key-of-C notes (black keys) in those F & G tunes. Very strange!

Bottom line is that this book, at least, seems to be more of a "tablature for keyboard" thing than an actual MUSIC-learning tool. Playing songs without realizing that they are in different keys might guide some fingers on a keyboard (an okay thing in itself, I guess), but it sure misses the point on actually teaching MUSIC, or on learning a stringed instrument.

But if anyone really needs to dive in, here's a wiiiide selection to choose from:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...97f35a429d8e5b

[Jim Cariello]

Musescore can put note name on or above note.