View Full Version : Getting started
Thomaston
Nov-08-2005, 6:15am
I'll be getting my first mando soon, and I'm interested in playing bluegrass, old-time, celtic, and dawg styles. Anyone got any recommendations for a book or book/cd set to get started on? I'm already familiar with guitar and banjo, so something that is aimed towards those with fretted instrument experience already would be preferable.
groveland
Nov-08-2005, 6:29am
Some have found my page on chords helpful (here (http://www.grovelandsoftwarelabs.com/modeexplorerweb/home/lessons/mandolin/chords.aspx)) to see how things work. With your experience this should be helpful regardless of style.
Check out the tab on the 'cafe' and mandozine.com. You'll need the free version of Tabledit for the mandozine files. There is enough material in these two locations to last a life time.
cumin
Nov-08-2005, 11:42am
I am using this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0739034715/104-0418338-7275124?v=glance&n=283155&%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance)
as my anchor supplemented with PDFs as noted above.
I like the book a lot; it's definitely not a "page a day" plan for me, but unlike the jethro method it seems doable and I do get to turn pages with enough frequency that I don't feel like a total amusical moron.
It includes and encourages music reading, and has tab if you really don't want to bother reading notes. It has a little 4-5 measure Bach selection early on as a change-of-pace that really caught my fancy.
I didn't want to spend the money on a book, but I am glad I did. I also got the Hal Leonard method for mandolin, and I like the Greg Horne book a lot more. There are three books in the series, so there is room to grow. Also, I can connect to bringing a mandolin to a railroad switching yard, as seen on the front cover. :-)
HTH
Thomaston
Nov-10-2005, 2:45am
Well, I was near a Guitar Center today, so I decided to stop in and take a book at books. I found the Greg Horne book, and it looks like it'll be perfect. I especially like that it has both standard notation and tab. I would like to eventually be familiar eough with the neck to play standard notation, but it's nice to have tab also so I'm not searching to every individual note. The other books I saw didn't have tab, so it was a no-brainer for me.
cumin
Nov-10-2005, 11:27am
I wish you lived near DC so we could jam together http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.