Banjo/mandolin

[playfor]

Can anybody reccomend a couple of good starter tabs for a banjo/mandolin that I have just acquired. I am a low grade banjo picker primarily!

[John Flynn]

There are lots of tabs here on the Cafe', as well as on AllTabs.com. My suggestion is that the best place to start is with the less complicated arrangements of tunes you already know on the banjo. The fact that those tunes are already in your head will make learning those first few tunes much easier. I started on mando after playing guitar and cut my teeth on tunes like "Boil'em Cabbage Down," "Old Joe Clark," " Cluck Old Hen" and "Shortnin' Bread," until I got a feel for the instument.

BTW, I heard recently that the mando banjo was a major instrument in early blues. Blues mando players started out playing round backs, but those instruments did have enough punch for playing with large groups, so players migrated to mando banjos, presumably until modern arch top mandolins became avaiable. So you might try some blues!

[playfor]

Thank you squire,
That sounds very sensible advice!