Learning to play

[gnelson651]

At least here at the Cafe you can ask about a book or course before you buy it and get some honest opinions. I've learned something from (almost) every book I've bought, but there are some dogs out there I would be glad to steer folks away from.

The problem with that is you get conflicting opinions on whether something is good or not. Unless it is a real dog.
I too have learned something from every book I bought, but have yet to find a good definitive book or DVD that I felt really takes you through it.

It all depends on what the author thinks is important and may leave out or assume you know important information you don't have. Which is why a good teacher is probably the best thing out there. But I want to qualify "good teacher" because not all teachers can take you to that next level. Mandolins in my area are rare and a good mandolin teacher is even rarer. I have yet to meet anyone that plays mandolin I would like to teach me. They usually lack a mastery of the instrument. Most of the teachers here that I found so far are guitar or piano teachers who happened to pick up #the mandolin on the side and then try to teach it.

If you can find that good teacher, consider yourself very fortunate. If you have to teach yourself (which is what I have to do),look for books that will help you in your mando journey. It can be frustrating at times, but if you practice and work at it, you will be successful.

[billkilpatrick]

glenn's is the best advise yet - even by following a method or if you're lucky enough to have a good teacher, learning to play the mandolin is basically a DIY operation. it's not practical for me have a teacher either. what i do is focus on something i understand, work on it till i get it and then move on to the next point. i wish there was a standard road map i could follow that would give me a sense of learning things in their proper order - but there doesn't appear to be one. waiting for "THE" method is a bit like waiting for godot.

maybe we could ask the cafe.biggies for a check list of essentials ... items we could tick off as we progress.

... gold stars might be nice.

[Bluegrasstjej]

Honestly I don't think there is any book that is THE book. I have several mandolin books and I use them all for different things. They all have something that is useful, no book covers it all. That's the way it is, but to start somewhere, I always recommend Bert Casey. But lately I've also seen a book/CD set by Bruce Dix named Getting into bluegrass mandolin, and it seems very good. I'm actually going to buy it because it seems to cover a lot of the things I didn't get from other books (kickoffs, transposing to other keys, etc)

[John Flynn]

Wading in on the Tottle book discussion, I agree that it is a great book in general, but I also agree it is not for beginners, except for the first few pages. It was the first mando book I bought and even though I had 20 years experience playing the guitar, I gave up on it pretty quickly. Here is another reason I wouldn't buy it: It does not have a CD with it. Mine had a flimsy record with it, which I know you can get a bootleg of online, but it doesn't even have half the tunes on it! I think a beginner book without all the tunes on CD is next to useless. For a beginner, I much prefer Andy Statman's "Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin." Every tune has the following on CD: The basic version of the tune, a more advanced version of the tune, and a backup track you can play along with. The tunes are all standards that are likely to get called a jams.

[AlanN]

I didn't realize Andy's book now has an accompanying CD. When I bought that book (1977), it was sans recording. The book has some nifty moves, all tab, as I recall.

[lbracale]

As with any instrument, YOU have to be the one to make it happen, not the instructor. There is a LOT of great information on this post, thank you for posting it! I was reading on one of the other post someone asked about the beginning mandolin book and cd by Greg Horne. Has anyone seen this and it is any good?

[Chris "Bucket" Thomas]

I'll second the Dix Bruce book "Getting into BG Mandolin" being good for begineers.

I also agree about Tottle, not for the rank newbie.