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Thread: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

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    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Post Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Hey guys, I'm new to the cafe (and new to the mandolin. only been playing for about a month).

    Can anyone suggest some good listening and maybe some traditional bluegrass/fiddle tunes that can help boost my phrasing, vocabulary etc.


    I can play a bunch of Thile tunes up to speed (but obviously mando cannot live on Thile alone ) so feel free to hit me with some harder stuff.

    Thanks for your help, just looking to become well versed.

    I've found plenty of scales and picking exercises for the more structured practice, but here I'm just looking for quality music to get into.


    P.S.- Sheet music or tablature will both work.
    Classical pieces welcome
    - Jack

    Breedlove Quartz FF
    Fender Custom Shop '57 relic Stratocaster
    Rosewood Taylor


    "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Sam Bush - Brilliancy

  3. #3
    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Thanks so much!

    Do you know where I can get the music for it?
    - Jack

    Breedlove Quartz FF
    Fender Custom Shop '57 relic Stratocaster
    Rosewood Taylor


    "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

  4. #4

    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    No, I learned it off a cd of his - I know it's out there in tab, but I can't think of it. It's a great tune. It's on "Glamour and Grits".

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Anything by, Jethro Burns, Don Stiernberg, John Reischman, Emory Lester,Mike Compton, Radim Zenkel, David Grisman, Andy Statman, for a single book Check out Mel Bays Mandolin 2000 ...... or Dave Peters book of Transcriptions available through Elderly Music...... for the more "mundane' Sixty Songs every Parking Lot Picker should or Twenty Jazz Tunes by Steve Kaufman.... R/
    I love hanging out with mandolin nerds . . . . . Thanks peeps ...

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Just about anything written for violin is worth taking a run at. Bach especially.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
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    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Ah thanks guys!
    Yeah any songbooks I can find will be great.

    And as far as Bach goes, I'm sure I kind find plenty of free music online right?

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by jackmalonis View Post
    And as far as Bach goes, I'm sure I kind find plenty of free music online right?
    Tons. The problem with on line is that its harder to "poke" around if you don't know what you are looking for. Any music shop where they give violin lessons will have a real good selection of violin music, classical, pop, jazz, show tunes, fakebooks, everything. At all levels from out and out beginner to fairly advanced. Any of those books are perfect for mandolin.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Perfect!

    Does anyone have any experience with Mel Bay's "Bach for mandolin" songbook?

    The reviews online weren't great but that almost seemed to be more of a reaction to the difficulty of the pieces overall...

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Pick up Ray Legere's Common Denominator, available on his website. He plays all the instruments on a set of mostly fiddle tunes. A better, cleaner, hipper picker you won't find, plus he tabbed out all his mandolin breaks in an easy-to-read format.

    Ray is the man.

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by jackmalonis View Post
    Perfect!

    Does anyone have any experience with Mel Bay's "Bach for mandolin" songbook?

    The reviews online weren't great but that almost seemed to be more of a reaction to the difficulty of the pieces overall...
    Personally I wouldn't bother with it. There is so much Bach out there for violin already, at all levels of difficulty, that I can't see what making it "for mandolin" would add. Someone with more experience with it let me know, but there would be no necessary difference between how something is written for mandolin or for violin.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    jackmalonis
    Did you get any links yet or pdf tabs, etc?

    I was hoping that folks would share something that we could view.

    AL

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    Gilchrist (pick) Owner! jasona's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Go here.

    Download and install TablEdit.

    Download and install the files.

    Now you have an amazing practice tool and simply scads of transcribed tunes of all genres in both tab and standard. You can speed up or slow down files to your heart's content. You can turn off the lead or rhythm (of the files are correctly written).

    Enjoy!
    Jason Anderson

    "...while a great mandolin is a wonderful treat, I would venture to say that there is always more each of us can do with the tools we have available at hand. The biggest limiting factors belong to us not the instruments." Paul Glasse

    Stumbling Towards Competence

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    Gilchrist (pick) Owner! jasona's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    just note: the TablEdit files are not transcriptions from song books, but from particular recordings most often, of a particular artist's arrangement of tunes or their own breaks for the study of even the most advanced students. For basic tunes you will frequently want to refer back to one of those still.
    Jason Anderson

    "...while a great mandolin is a wonderful treat, I would venture to say that there is always more each of us can do with the tools we have available at hand. The biggest limiting factors belong to us not the instruments." Paul Glasse

    Stumbling Towards Competence

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    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    On awesome, I've been using TabIEdit for Thile, Sam Bush and other stuff but haven't even thought to use it for jazz or classical.
    Where's the best place to find the music, mandozine, or here at the cafe?

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Cool

    al

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by albeham View Post
    jackmalonis
    Did you get any links yet or pdf tabs, etc?

    I was hoping that folks would share something that we could view.

    AL
    If you're talking about the Bach, I found plenty of standard notation sheet music for the violin concertos, and I can link them If you want.

    But for everything else I've been using TabIEdit.

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Bach could be very cool yes please .
    AL

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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Wow. Most Impressive!

    Cheers,

    Rob


    Quote Originally Posted by jackmalonis View Post
    Hey guys, I'm new to the cafe (and new to the mandolin. only been playing for about a month).


    I can play a bunch of Thile tunes up to speed (but obviously mando cannot live on Thile alone ) so feel free to hit me with some harder stuff.

    Thanks for your help, just looking to become well versed.

    I've found plenty of scales and picking exercises for the more structured practice, but here I'm just looking for quality music to get into.


    P.S.- Sheet music or tablature will both work.
    Classical pieces welcome
    Follow the Flatt Stanley Incident on Facebook

    Listen to original tune "When You Fly" by my old band The Kindreds

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    Gilchrist (pick) Owner! jasona's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by jackmalonis View Post
    On awesome, I've been using TabIEdit for Thile, Sam Bush and other stuff but haven't even thought to use it for jazz or classical.
    Where's the best place to find the music, mandozine, or here at the cafe?
    I downloaded the entire zip with all song styles from Mandozine. They download fast since they are just text files. Doing a search there reveals 92 classical files. Its not a large amount by any means but should help get you going.
    Jason Anderson

    "...while a great mandolin is a wonderful treat, I would venture to say that there is always more each of us can do with the tools we have available at hand. The biggest limiting factors belong to us not the instruments." Paul Glasse

    Stumbling Towards Competence

  23. #21
    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Does anyone know of some of the better Bach (on mandolin) performances/recordings?

    And what about some good bluegrass/new grass listening?

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    Registered User sarai's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Someone on another thread gave me this link which has been really helpful
    http://www.drbanjo.com/pdf/bluegrass-jam-favorites.pdf

    Some of my favorite tunes right now are...
    Footprints In The Snow - IIIrd Tyme Out version
    Lonesome Moonlight Waltz - Bill Monroe & DOc Watson Live Version
    LIttle Maggie - Ricky Skaggs
    Love, Please Come Home - Bill Monroe
    Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs
    Teardrops in My Eyes - The Grascals

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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by jackmalonis View Post
    Does anyone know of some of the better Bach (on mandolin) performances/recordings?
    Just about every great classical mandolinist has recorded some Bach, either solo or with a duet partner. Lots available through Amazon
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  27. #24
    Registered User Scott Holt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    You should create a video of you playing some of the Thile tunes up to speed, I personally would enjoy to see it. Best of luck in your pursuits...

  28. #25
    Registered User jackmalonis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Good Listening and Practice Tunes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Scott Holt View Post
    You should create a video of you playing some of the Thile tunes up to speed, I personally would enjoy to see it. Best of luck in your pursuits...
    Will do as soon as I buy the new mando! the epiphone won't do them justice...
    - Jack

    Breedlove Quartz FF
    Fender Custom Shop '57 relic Stratocaster
    Rosewood Taylor


    "After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

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