Books

[Rob Uker]

A couple of weeks ago I asked a few questions about inexpensive mandolins. Thanks to all of the responders.
I ended up purchasing an Epiphone "A" style I'm expecting it any day now.
My next question is about where I can find tabs on the net and what books you would recommend. While I'm new to mandolin I not completely new to playing stringed instruments. I play guitar, bass, ukulele... So I'm not looking for the most basic books. What I'm looking for is an intro to bluegrass. I'm partial to finger solos. I've played alot of rock and blues on other instruments but I've never really learned anything about Bluegrass.
Any suggestions?

[12 fret]

You might look for "Beginning Bluegrass Mandolin" by Andy Statman. Provides a pretty good starting point for the techniques used in the genre

[homeslice]

Hey Rob. Congrats on the new mandolin. You're in for some fun. I just started a few months ago myself after playing guitar for about 15 years. Im so addicted to it that Ive actually wounded myself by playing too much!

As far as tabs go...I've had a lot of fun with the "All Tabs" site. It has a lot of bluegrass content as well as celtic and old-time. There's a MIDI file with each set of tabs that you can control the tempo on. It has a bar that goes along with the tab as the song is playing so you know where your at as well. Lots of stuff on there. Theres a box at the top to designate that you want mandolin tab. Check it out.

As far as books go...I'm way too hyper to get much from them so I haven't got any info on that but....I would like to recommend a DVD (if you're open to that). It's the Sam Bush Mandolin Method. It's actually a two DVD set. There is a lot of great info on there and its extremely entertaining. The songs taught are a spectrum of difficulty degrees so as you progress you can take on different ones and Mr. Bush is an excellent instructor. It's highly motivating. The ONLY and I do mean only downside is that he is not tuned to 440 (slightly lower) so if you plan on jamming with others you'll have to re-tune. To me, its a small glitch to live with for as good as it is. I have a couple other DVD's from some other well known's but they dont hold a candle to that one and seem to only target one certain skill level.

Good luck with your searches!

[bennyb]

Howdy Rob,
Lots of mando specific tabs at mandozine.
But first go to tabledit (http://www.tabledit.com/tefview/index.shtml) and download the tefview free player. Then to mandozine (http://www.mandozine.com/music/zipfiles.php) to get the bluegrass(or old time, jazz, etc) zip files. Unzip them and play along. I believe there are several hundred tabs in bluegrass folder. It's all free, but i have nfi. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Best, bennyb

[fiddlingdan]

Great place to go for some beginner lessons and some great mandolin playing and some great teachers go to the following

www.musicmoose.org

They have online lessons and have taped lessons at the website
Dan