Bluegrass up the neck

[Peter123]

Who has worked with this book. Seems like alot to take in

[Andy B]

I found it the most useful and practical way to learn basic bluegrass mandolin other than lessons with a good teacher. There is a lot of material. Take it slow and don’t worry if you do not want to memorize all the tunes. You can use what you learn on many other tunes. Highly recommended.

[Skip Kelley]

Peter, It's just like Andy said, take it slow! There is so much that you can apply to all your playing. It is a great way to learn to play out of closed positions, chop chord shapes, etc. The examples are demonstrated in different keys, so you can apply them elsewhere. Niles is a great teacher! Good luck on your journey!

[Cheryl Watson]

I've used it for myself and for a few my students. Skip is right, I think, take it slow. The goal is learning these up the neck closed positions in such a way that you can apply the closed positions to tunes for which you already know. Playing out of chop chord shapes provides more variety in your playing and the patterns, if learned to automaticity, virtually eliminates crashing and burning in jams.

[MikeEdgerton]

Here is a link to Elderly's listing for Cafe member Niles Hokkanen's book. The actual name is "Bluegrass/Up the neck".

[AlanN]

As all have said, great book, with real-life examples. That and his little chord book are way cool and will enhance your playing. He also did 3 books of solos by Skaggs, Lawson, Jimmy Gaudreau (pictured). These bad boys are tremendous...and tough to find.

[MikeEdgerton]

Here is every book Niles wrote that Elderly has in stock.

[Peter123]

Should I work on memorization of those licks so I can carry them over to when I do a break or is it more meant to learn the theory behind what we should do in a jam

[jswag]

I think all of Niles books are great!!
I used them when they first came out, (and I was just learning...seems so long ago!)
After Bluegrass/Up the neck, The Pentatonic Mandolin was a great help to start soloing and improvising!
And when I got my first mandola, I bought his Mandola Sampler book too.
Just fine, fine books!
Jeff

[Andy B]

There is theory in the examples which you can learn, and it never hurts to know what you are doing and why it works. But once you play the patterns for a while, you’ll discover ways to incorporate them into your playing without having to know all the theory. The patterns repeat all over the neck in all the keys. There is a lot of information in the book/CD and you don’t have to master all of it to get a lot out of the book and CD.

[Peter123]

I just ordered 2 of his other books to work on as well. The chord use book and pentatonic mandolin

[wildpikr]

I just ordered 2 of his other books to work on as well. The chord use book and pentatonic mandolin

If you want to learn to play harmonies, his Twin Mandolin Method is a good reference also.

[Skip Kelley]

Should I work on memorization of those licks so I can carry them over to when I do a break or is it more meant to learn the theory behind what we should do in a jam

Peter, I learned the licks so I could use them in all different keys. The theory will come with time.