Arecommendation for kid's instruction book ?

[om21ed]

A friend of my 10 year old son showed him the "Smoke on the water" lick on the guitar (just the E String)a couple weeks ago. So now he plays it unrelentingly on the guitar and lately on the mandolin (G string). I brought home my office mando and he happily packed it off to his room. So, I'm wondering if anyone knows/recommends a simple Mando book that might be appropriate for a ten year old. I'm thinking easy melody lines of familiar tunes. I don't think I've ever seen a kid specific mando book. He is no prodigy but does play percussion in band at school and takes piano lessons, so what with those activities,baseball, soccer, basketball, snowboarding, video games--he needs something to do

[gnelson651]

Probably Dix Bruce book First Lessons Mandolin might be right for a 10 year old.

[psann]

http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?ProductID=94884BCD

Beginning Mandolin Solos is a great one for a beginner. Simple melodies.

[Jonathan Peck]

I've never seen a mandolin instruction book made for kids...doesn't mean that there isn't one though. OTOH there are hundreds of fiddle books for kids. I also believe that Marcy Marxer has a kids series on Homespun that covers guitar and uke.

-jonathan

[mandosis]

What kind of music does your son like?

You might want to check out some of the violin books/CD sets if he likes to play along with music.

I like Brian Wicklund's American Fiddle Method (especially if you have software like Amazing Slow Downer to use with it). Brian uses standard notation along with "sort of" tab above each note - tells which finger to use, not that hard to use even if you don't know standard notation (but I bet your son does based on the piano lessons).

Another one is Essential Elements for Violins - Book 1. If he is already taking piano lessons, he may be familiar with that series. The latest copy of Book 1 has a CD and a DVD that comes with it - and it is cheap at $7.95. Lot of variety in the tunes that are included.

It is fun to have music to play along with when you practice.