Mozart and Bach sheet music for mandolin?

[rubydubyr]

"Oh, and don't forget the Classical Mandolin Society of America. We are always looking for new members. I see you are located in Texas so your timing is good. We will be having our annual convention next Fall in Austin. You should be ready to play in the en masse orchestra by then. Rehearsing with 150 other mandolin players (and mandolas, mandocellos, guitars and bass) is a great way to build confidence.

John G. "

OMG........ We shall see how ready I would be....... I am at the point of toiling mightily to do a simple melody, 1 note at a time, no chords, no embellisments, although, feeling quite proud that I am that far. LOL

[Petrus]

That's how Wolfgang would've done it.

[dj coffey]

I'm going to chime in re: John Goodin's Teleman collection...these tunes are very approachable even for beginners.

Lou Chouinard (the outgoing CMSA President) and I play a couple of John's Teleman transcriptions and like them a LOT! Oh...and John, what about your duets - I'm thinking about Halfway Home and Lost Summer as lovely duos!!!

Another composer to consider - Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan. Check thesession.org for music there!

And many people eventually discover Marlo Strauss. His music is available via Trekel.com (alas, site is in German, but they are VERY helpful for english speaking visitors, so don't hesitate to use the email contact option).

[dj coffey]

"Oh, and don't forget the Classical Mandolin Society of America. We are always looking for new members. I see you are located in Texas so your timing is good. We will be having our annual convention next Fall in Austin. You should be ready to play in the en masse orchestra by then. Rehearsing with 150 other mandolin players (and mandolas, mandocellos, guitars and bass) is a great way to build confidence.

John G. "

OMG........ We shall see how ready I would be....... I am at the point of toiling mightily to do a simple melody, 1 note at a time, no chords, no embellisments, although, feeling quite proud that I am that far. LOL

The CMSA convention is just awesome for all levels of mandolin players. There's the additional "master class" starting on Tuesday that really... you could be a complete beginner and get a huge amount of value from that....and many other workshops that help a lot and give tremendous incentive! And then the En Masse experience...what can I say...even if you play air mandolin 3/4's of the time, you'll come away inspired!

And then, in the evenings there are sight reading jams and other types of jams that give you a chance to play with others at all kinds of different levels. And feel supported no matter what your capabilities!

Don't let your perception of your current skills stop you from attending...I promise...you'll totally enjoy yourself and learn a lot!!!!

[dj coffey]

John Goodin...note for Austin...

Perhaps we should plan an easy classical sight reading jam? I'd be happy to be a part of that!!! The Teleman duets are good, but we might want to vary the tunes for that...

[crisscross]

Since the mandolin is tuned like a violin, classical tunebooks for the violin might be an option.
http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classical...sy+violin+bach

[rubydubyr]

I'm going to chime in re: John Goodin's Teleman collection...these tunes are very approachable even for beginners.

Lou Chouinard (the outgoing CMSA President) and I play a couple of John's Teleman transcriptions and like them a LOT! Oh...and John, what about your duets - I'm thinking about Halfway Home and Lost Summer as lovely duos!!!

Another composer to consider - Irish harpist Turlough O'Carolan. Check thesession.org for music there!

And many people eventually discover Marlo Strauss. His music is available via Trekel.com (alas, site is in German, but they are VERY helpful for english speaking visitors, so don't hesitate to use the email contact option).

How do I find the Teleman collection?

[rubydubyr]

"
The CMSA convention is just awesome for all levels of mandolin players. There's the additional "master class" starting on Tuesday that really... you could be a complete beginner and get a huge amount of value from that....and many other workshops that help a lot and give tremendous incentive! And then the En Masse experience...what can I say...even if you play air mandolin 3/4's of the time, you'll come away inspired!

And then, in the evenings there are sight reading jams and other types of jams that give you a chance to play with others at all kinds of different levels. And feel supported no matter what your capabilities!

Don't let your perception of your current skills stop you from attending...I promise...you'll totally enjoy yourself and learn a lot!!!!


Dotty"

Its really more of a monetary issue.......

[Martin Jonas]

How do I find the Teleman collection?

It comes in two forms: John has edited a book of Telemann music for mandolins, published by Mel Bay, and he has also put a considerable number of Telemann pieces for free on his website. I've posted the link in post #18 in this thread. The direct link to the Telemann pieces is:

Link

If you're looking for easy mandolin duets, I particularly recommend John's free PDF edition of 50 Telemann duets for two treble instruments (e.g. two mandolins):

PDF

These are very approachable. For a taster, my recording of three of these minuets (Nos. 30, 14 and 9) is here. All 50 of these minuets can be played solo, just using the first mandolin part (also available as separate PDF here).

Once you're ready to explore the original 18th century mandolin repertoire, I recommend the Fouchetti pieces: a collection of easy mandolin duets from a 1770s mandolin tutor, edited and published by Hofmeister in German and available from Trekel. In many ways, it's more rewarding to play pieces intended for mandolin, even if they're not from "big name" composers, as they tend to be more ideomatic to the instrument.

In a similar vein, Raffaele Calace was the most prominent mandolin composer of the early 20th century and while most of his compositions are very demanding, he has also written a collection of simple mandolin duets for beginner/intermediate players. These are available for free download from the Italian Mandolin Federation (Link). My recording of the first two (and easiest) duets is here: Link.

Finally, I also very highly recommend John Goodin's own compositions, which includes a considerable number of mandolin duets (some with and some without additional guitar chords). They are all listed in alphabetic order for free download (PDF and MP3) here. John has also published a selection of 29 these tunes in book form as "Mid-Western Mandolin Duos".

Martin

[rubydubyr]

thankyou VERY much, Martin!

[John Goodin]

Thanks Martin and Dotty for the kind words and links. Dotty, I like the idea of a semi-structured, easy classical jam. Sort of like the kind of slow jam that turns up at other mando camps focused more on Irish, bluegrass or swing music. I did something like this with the Telemann workshop I presented at the 2008 Montreal CMSA convention.

I've got a page at the Mandotopia site that includes the music handout for that session and recordings of several of the pieces that we all played that day.

http://www.contratopia.com/cmsa/cmsa2008.htm

They could be fun for someone who wants to play along with a group at home. I just went back and listened to a couple of those and it brings back all kinds of great memories of the convention. Of course the players in this workshop were mostly not beginners so they were capable of sight-reading these pieces at modest tempos. Most of these pieces ended up in the Mel Bay Telemann for Mandolin book later.

John G.

[fatt-dad]

to the OP. There are some classical Tabedit files at www.mandozine.com

The tabedit archive is sorted by genre, so you can just search for classical.

You will need the free, "Tabeditviewer" software to open these files and you can display tab or standard notation. The computer will also, "Play" the files to somewhat inform your ear.

There are many other genre sorted so you can explore Celtic, old-time or other such music in time. . .

f-d