New to the mandolin

[Gunner]

I have always had a love for Bluegrass and Gospel music and just bought a Mandolin. I have tried finding a good place online to learn chords and the correct way to play but have not had a lot of luck. Thought I might try here and see if anyone can give me any good sources for a beginner as I cant seem to find anyone local in my area that teaches the Mandolin.

[Br1ck]

Try Mandolessons.com

[gtani7]

Welcome to the Cafe!

I started with scales, arpeggios and 2 or 3 finger chord sequences from mandozine.com. I especially like Tim O'Brien's arpeggio exercise: http://www.mandozine.com/techniques/.

There's lots of threads here about Skype lessons, instructional books, DVDs and videos, including youtube and how to progress. I also spent lots of time reading in the "Theory, Technique, Tips and Tricks" subforum. You might get information overload tho.

Also recommend instructional DVD's by Chris Thile, Sam Bush, Sierra Hull, Ronnie McCoury, and the "Mandolin of Bill Monroe Vol. 1" and Pete Martin's youtube vids and PDFs.

Books etc: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?119940-Learning-Resources-Advice

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?98714-Best-Mandolin-Method-Books

If you want to peruse a few hundred books: http://www.elderly.com/books/fiddle-banjo-mandolin-other-stringed/mandolin-books

[Mark Gunter]

like gtani7 wrote, there are hundreds of resources . . . and we all know that can be more confusing than helpful sometimes. I put up a page with my own advice for beginners (I'm a beginner, too), and there's a link to it in my signature. It's here: http://www.markgunter.net/cool_stuff/12/advice-for-mandolin-beginners

Basically, it points to a handful of beginner lessons by Baron Collins-Hill, Pete Martin and Bradley Laird, all three of whom are members here at MandolinCafe.

Welcome to the forum and to the world of mandolin! Take your shoes off, sit a spell! And don't be a stranger.

[Torpedotom]

I too am just starting and found lots of good stuff on you tube. One especially that I use a lot is mandolin basics mpg. I go to it quiet a bit. There is a wealth of tutorials all over the internet. Good luck.

[Gunner]

Thank you so much I will check these out

[Denny Gies]

Welcome to our wild, wacky world. As you progress try to learn chords using four fingers. For bluegrass it seems essential and you will get a good sense of the fingerboard. Have fun and the fingers will get less sore as you play more. Good luck.

[Johnny60]

Banjo Ben also offers a lot of very good mandolin videos. Some people don't fully get his sense of humour, but I have no problem with him and have learned a lot.

Have to say that I recently had the privilege of grabbing a lesson from Jordan Ramsey while he was over here in the UK, and having a hands-on lesson with him was fantastic. Got some really useful hints and tips on ergonomics, as well very useful info on licks, etc. He's based in Colorado, but I have no idea where the OP is from.

[johngdon]

I started playing earlier this year and have really enjoyed the beginning mandolin course at PegHead Nation. They have a series of mandolin courses. I think there has been some value in working through a course over selecting YouTube videos in a more random fashion.