Baldassari or Bush? Which is the better DVD? [Archive]

mandough

Mar-30-2004, 6:33pm

Hi,
I'm new to the message board and to the mandolin for that matter. #I just bought my first mandolin (a Washburn M3SW) and was wondering which one of these instruction videos is better. #I play guitar (fairly decent), so it doesn't need to be too basic.
Is the Baldassari or the Bush one better? #I like Bluegrass music and would like to learn some tunes.

J. Mark Lane

Mar-30-2004, 7:00pm

What Mav said. This is an apples and oranges thing. I was half-decent at guitar when I switched to mandolin 18 months ago. The Sam Bush video series is a bit over my head at this point. I could do anything on there with enough work, but it is far enough ahead of me that I don't think it would be productive to try to work through the thing at this point. The Baldassari set, on the other hand, I recently sold, as it was a bit too elementary for me.

One thing. I started out thinking videos would be the best educational method for me. I had gained from the Homespun guitar videos. But I soon realized that the best sets, for me, for mando, happen to be in cd/book form. In many ways, just listening and studying the written music works better, for me, for this instrument. The visual is less important. I found the Roland White set great for getting started, then switched to the Steve Kaufmann "Parking Lot Pickers" set. The latter gives three arrangements of 20 different tunes, with instructional commentary on the cd. The arrangements are pretty cool. I think I could spend a couple of years with this set and still be working on it. John McGann also makes a very good cd/book set (do a search on this site for him, I recently reviewed this set).

I would get at least one video, so you can get some of the visualization, how to hold the instrument, etc. (although there is more than one way of doing everything). The Bush set is nice, and inspirational. Also very good is the Ronnie McCoury video, although way beyond my skill level. You might also consider the Simon Mayor videos, although it helps if you like his music (and you're crazy if you don't <g>). I recently sold off all my vids (including Baldassari) except Bush, McCoury and Mayor. I will keep those, regardless, as they are great to just watch.

Mark