Fretboard Roadmap Book ?

[Kbone]

I'm looking for a good book to expand my improv skills any feelings on the above mentioned or any other suggestions.

[avanti]

Hi Keith,

I have that book but haven't really had the time to check it out. I'll loan it to you if you want to stop by and pick it up.

Rob

[VaFrank]

Keith,

Look into attending Niles Hokkanen's workshops. Excellent way to learn improv.

[Kbone]

Sounds good Rob - time ?
k

[Kbone]

VaFrank
If I only lived in your neck of the woods..

[ira]

is the roadmap book only geared toward bluegrass?

[Jingles]

I have the roadmaps book, but I'm a mando-beginner so I'm not sure how much it helps with improv. It has a play along CD, which you can solo over. It doesn't get so detailed with explanations, so I think it helps to have a little theory under your belt before you tackle it. I like it, but I have enough books (bass, guitar, etc.) to hammer through as it is, so I don't spen enough time with it.

[Jingles]

No, the musical examples aren't just Blue Grass (though I assume the majority are). There are a couple of 12 bar blues excercises, a cowboy song, and a bunch of traditional/folk tunes.

[Coy Wylie]

Jingles is right on the mix of tunes.

I've played guitar for years and think of up the neck as a series of repetative patterns which helps me improv in any key. Obviously those guitar patterns don't work for mando but this book helped me to figure out some of the patterns like the "G chord pattern" and the "K pattern" that are similar. It really helped me to see these scale shapes in different keys.

[PCypert]

Someone PM me off list for a great deal on this book. I'll get back to you about it tomorrow. Thanks,
Paul

PS - It does cover a lot of styles. Bluegrass, Old Time, blues, etc.

[duuuude]

Yep, Roadmaps is great for learnin' the fretboard, and will help improv in that respect, but I've heard that Niles' book kinda takes you there rather than just showing the way. Though I must admit I've only just finished Fretboard Roadmaps and have yet to get my mitts on Niles' book yet.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Dru Lee Parsec]

I'll quote my review on Amazon since I think what I wrote there is a pretty accurate assessment of the Fretboard Roadmaps for Mandolin book:

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I assume that since you're interested in this book that you've bought similar book/CD combinations to study with. As you know, the first track on all of these kinds of CD's is a set of notes to tune to. Now, on mandolin you're tuning a pair of strings which are set to the same note. Would you say that it's a bad thing if the first note you hear is not only out of tune, but the two strings are out of tune to each other? Yes, it is.

Throughout the CD the person playing the demonstrations flubs notes (they buzz, they're accidentally muted and so on) and his high E strings are quite often out of tune to each other. His low G strings don't so much ring as "plunk". Several times throughout the CD his instrument is out of tune to itself.

In the chapters on "chop" chords he lets his chords ring way to long. The CD examples are NOT chops, they're short duration chords. A chop should sound like "Chunk Chunk Chunk", not "Bling Bling Bling"

If I was to place the playing on this CD in a mandolin contest I'd say that it's solidly intermediate level playing, but certainly not advanced. Listen to Chris Thile to hear how clearly played notes should sound.

The only reason I give the book 3 stars is because the actual content is pretty good. There are many places to get this information, but this is a good reference to have a bunch of scale and arpeggio information in the same place. His two note chop positions are really useful, he just doesn't play them as true chops on the CD.

So consider this book with a grain of salt. It's decent for a workout book, but it works best as a suppliment to a good teacher or to other books. I wouldn't take this book's CD as an example of the proper way to play.

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The books I DO like would be:

Homespun Tapes: David Grisman teaches Dawg Music 6cd and book set.
Excellent. There really is a lot of good information here if you like playing jazz and Dawg music. Intermediate to advanced.

Homespun Tapes: Sam Bush teaches Bluegrass mandolin 6cd and book set.
Decent but overpriced. Unlike the Grisman set, the CDs in this set don't really add much to the book. I pretty much just use the book now and ignore the CDs. I tend to play the first half dozen songs from this book as my warmup for practicing. Level: Beginning to Low Intermediate.

Designing mandolin solos for bluegrass songs, Paul Kramer: Very good. It actually discusses the theory of soloing and how to build a solo that is based upon the melody of the song. Book and 2 CDs. Intermediate.

Chris Thile's Essential Mandolin Techniques DVD or Video: Excellent. The content varies from very much beginning (how to hold the pick) to quite advanced. It's great to watch a few times but I find that like many of these CDs and Videos I gain a lot more by putting the dvd or CD away and just working with the book. For example, you won't learn the scales and arrpegios he discusses from the dvd unless you're a VERY quick study. So spend the time with the book and you'll pick up a lot of good technique. And you'll learn how to play "Ode to a Butterfly".