Beginning Classical Mandolin

[M D SMITH]

Hey guys. I've been playing mandolin on and off for about a year. I was initally trying to learn bluegrass, but as much as I've grown to love the mandolin, I'm loosing interest in bluegrass, and through listening to fusion guy like Marshall and Thile, I'm becoming more interested in the classical style. Any advice for a beginner? Good books, videos or websites? Also is playing classical mandolin a totally different technique( like classical vs. acoustic guitar)? Thanks

[Jim Garber]

Some judicious lurking in the classical section would be in order. Above all, I would also suggest listening to some classical players: Carlo Aonzo, Ralf Leenen, Alison Stephens, Caterina Lichtenberg, Gertrud Weyhofen (Troester), Ugo Orlandi, Richard Walz, Sebastiaan de Grebber, Joe Brent and others ans well as various mandolin orchestras in the US and Europe (many can be found here). In fact check out the CMSA Getting Started on Classical mandolin page.

I would also suggest that you hone your notation-reading skills. There is much music out there but not a lot in TAB. In addition, it will also open you up to the larger world of violin and flute music which can also be played on the mandolin.

[Simen Kjaersdalen]

Well, I guess there is no one way to play classical mandolin. So listen to other players - find out what style you are attracted to. The best thing to do if you wish to really go for it, is to find yourself a teacher - to get the technique right. Try out the Vivaldi concertos (both for mandolin and violin) and the short pieces by Beethoven. Bachs sonatas and partitas for violin solo is a real challenge - much go really well on the mandolin. (Wait a year or two...) Or why not try out some Gregorian chants? Get yourself a songbook, and make your own arrangements - a fine way to get to know the instrument. I would also advice you to improvise a lot - to find your own inner "voice". Improvise ten minutes or so every time you pick up the instrument, for warming up fingers and "soul". And finally - compose! The challenge is not to get "stiff" when you are moving into the classical music.

Good luck!

[mando.player]

All good advice so far. The only thing I can add is that Marilynn Mair has a very comprehensive book called "The Complete Mandolinist". It's notation only. If you can't read yet and you think classical is the way to go, you should start there. Debora Chen has a nice book that get you started learning to read.

[SincereCorgi]

Hey, what has been working very well for me is the Suzuki violin series. I would suggest starting with a more standard mandolin method that has instructions on hand position and striking the strings (I like Bickford*), but for your left hand the Suzuki books are great. They have a manageable learning curve and after a few initial 'Go Tell Aunt Rhody' sorts of exercise they get you playing some very nice little classical melodies. Concepts are introduced one at a time with appropriate preparatory exercises. I'm into Book 3 now, which concerns itself mainly with getting comfortable shifting between the first three positions, a topic it treats better than any other method I've seen.** I like the New International Edition of the books (bigger pages), without the CD. Should be $6.95 a pop.

As a qualifier, I should say that using the Suzuki books requires some music sense to figure out how to mandolin-ize certain violin concepts (like trills and whether to distinguish arco and pizzicato somehow). If this is your first instrument, you might get confused occasionally.

Other violin books I like a lot right now are the Dancla, Exercises of the Mechanism, the Wohlfahrt Op. 45 etudes. A violin teacher pointed me to the First Etude Album for Violin, First Position (printed by Rubank) as a good place to start, and I liked working through it.

-Trevor

*Which you can get for free here: http://ia341013.us.archive.org/1/ite...olin01bick.pdf and later volumes from djangobooks.com

**I work in a sheet music store right now, so I get to look at more method books than is healthy, if that's worth anything.

[demotlj]

If by "classical" you mean period, non-bluegrass type music, you might also want to try Allen Alexander's books. He has a lot of very accessible Renaissance and Medieval mandolin books with tabulature that can satisfy your desire for a different type of mandolin while you are honing your skills. I agree with the other posts that advise you to start learning to read notation because there is a huge amount of material of varying degrees of difficulty available on the Internet for free but it's not in tab. (Check out http://icking-music-archive.org/ for example.) I bought Deborah Chen's book to teach myself to read music, and am now working through Marilyn Mair's and Bickford's books, but when I am too tired to "work" at playing, I pull out some Allen Alexander books. He also just came out with a really nice Balkan mandolin book for something a little different.

Laurie

[Steven Scott]

You might try the Mel Bay publication: Bach for Mandolin by Robert Bancalari.
It has tab as well as notation plus a CD.
I just started using it this morning and found it pretty enjoyable. There are a couple of minuets that are not too challenging. A slow down software is helpful.