Classical mando resources

[bfloyd]

Hello all. Can someone point me in the direction of some classical mandolin resources? I would like to learn more about the mandolin in the classical world. Also, I am hoping to find some players in my area and a classical instructor would be great. Thanks.

[Jim Garber]

You might do a little searching of the archives here for various topics. I know that Eugene has posted a few exhaustive lists of method books and recordings. There also have been some posts on intruments, picks, strings, sheet music and the like.

Also check the CMSA site for instructors. If you tell us your geographic area, someone might recommend a teacher.

If you have specific questions, please feel free to ask them as well. Might be better to narrow it down to what you want to know.

[Neil Gladd]

Try here.

[violmando]

If you are close to a mandolin orchestra, try them for resources. Even if you don't join (because you don't feel ready, don't have time or whatever) there's a good chance that there is a teacher involved in the group or they can point you in the right direction. Most have websites and are VERY willing to help! I am entirely self-taught since I already have a college musical background, but just being around folks with the classical mandolin education made me research it on my own! Good luck!!! Yvonne

[bfloyd]

You might do a little searching of the archives here for various topics. I know that Eugene has posted a few exhaustive lists of method books and recordings. There also have been some posts on intruments, picks, strings, sheet music and the like.

Thanks for the replies and links all. Actually, if I could find an actual method for mandolin in the classical style, that would be great.

[Jim Garber]

You can get the ebook for volume 1 & 2 of the Bickford method here for cheap:

Bickford 1

Bickford 2

The Bickford Method is one of the best of the American methods for mandolin.

If you get through those, I have quality bound copies of volumes 3 and 4 for sale.

[bfloyd]

You can get the ebook for volume 1 & 2 of the Bickford method here for cheap:

Bickford 1

Bickford 2

The Bickford Method is one of the best of the American methods for mandolin.

If you get through those, I have quality bound copies of volumes 3 and 4 for sale.

Thank you.

[John Goodin]

You can also take a look at Louis Tocaben's Complete Method for Mandoline from 1885 at my site:
http://academic.luther.edu/~goodinjo...caben1/Tb1.htm

I certainly wouldn't recommend this as your primary method but it can be fun.

Also, Elderly instruments still has copies of the Cristofaro method at a bargain price:
http://www.elderly.com/books/items/06-27.htm

John G.

[Eugene]

A smallish list I posted a couple years back:

Methods
Bickford, Zarh Myron. 1920. The Bickford Mandolin Method, vols. 1-4. Carl Fischer Inc., New York.

Branzoli, Giuseppe. 1875. Metodo Teorico-Pratico per Mandolino Napolitano o Romano. Franchi/Venturini, Rome.
(This stayed in print via many publishers for a great long time.)

Calace, Raffaele. 1907-1910. Metodo per mandolino, vols. 1-6. Naples.

de Cristofaro, Ferdinando. 1884. Metodo. Lemoine, Paris.
(This stayed in print via many publishers for a great long time.)

Gladd, Neil (ed.). 1983. Sol Goichberg (1937) Thirty-five Progressive Mandolin Etudes, op. 6. Plucked String Inc. Arlington, VA.

Minkoff. 1983. Methodes de Mandoline including: Pietro Leoné (1768) Méthode Raisonnée pour Passer du Violon à la Mandoline et de l’Archet à la Plume, Giovanni Fouchetti (1771) Méthode pour Apprendre Facilement à Jouer de la Mandoline à Quatre et à Six Cordes, & Pietro Denis (1768, 1769, 1773) Méthode pour Apprendre à Jouer de la Mandoline sans Maitre, vols. 1-3. Minkoff Reprint, Geneva.

Minkoff. 1983. Corette, Michel (1772) Nouvelle Méthode pour Apprendre à Jouer en très Peu de Temps de la Mandoline. Minkoff Reprint, Geneva.

Munier, Carlo. 1895, 1909. Scuola del Mandolino: Metodo Completo per Mandolino. Florence.

Pettine, Giuseppe. 1901-1936. Pettine’s Modern Mandolin School, vols. 1-7. Rhode Island Music Co., Providence.

Ranieri, Silvio. 1910. L’Art de la Mandoline. Edition A. Cranz, Brussels.

Tröster, Gertrud. 1995. Technique on Eight Strings, vol. 1: Etüden für Mandoline. Vogt & Fritz, Schweinfurt.

Tröster, Gertrud. 1995. The Classical Mandolin, vol. I: Basic Techniques. VHS Cassette. Plucked String Inc. Kensington, MD.

Tröster, Gertrud. 1996. Technique on Eight Strings, vol. 2: Etüden für Mandoline. Vogt & Fritz, Schweinfurt.

Tröster, Gertrud. 1996. The Classical Mandolin, vol. II: Advancing to Higher Techniques. VHS Cassette. Plucked String Inc. Kensington, MD.

On mandolins, mandolinists, and mandolin music
Baines, Anthony. 1966. European and American Musical Instruments. Viking Press, New York.
(Baines is a good reference but a little problematic in cataloguing a number of 4th-tuned mandolins as "mandore:" see Morey 1993; Tyler 1981; and Tyler & Sparks 1989, 1992)

Bone, Philip J. 1914, 1971. The Guitar and Mandolin: Biographies of Celebrated Players and Composers. Schott & Co. Ltd., London.

Hambly, Scott. 1977. Mandolins in the United States since 1880: An Industrial and Sociocultural History of Form. PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.

Harris, Keith (trans.). 1984. Konrad Wölki (1939, 1974, 1979) History of the Mandolin: The Instrument, its Exponents and its Literature, from the Seventeenth until the Early Twentieth Century. Plucked String Inc. Arlington, VA.

Leenen, Ralf & Barry Pratt. 2004. The Embergher Mandolin. F&N Eigen Beheer, Amsterdam.

Morey, Stephen. 1993. Mandolins of the 18th Century. Editrice Turris, Cremona.

Ruppa, Paul. 1988. The Mandolin in America after 1880 and the History of Mandolin Orchestras in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. MM thesis, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Sparks, Paul. 1995. The Classical Mandolin. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Sparks, Paul. 1999. An Introduction to the Eighteenth Century Repertoire of the Neapolitan Mandolin. Plucked String Inc., Kensington, MD.

Timmerman, Alex. 1994. De Mandoline en de Gitaar door de Eeuwen Heen. AETii-Producties, Zwolle, Netherlands.
(In Dutch, but recent and worth pursuit even if only for the measurements and visual choronology alone.)

Tyler, James. 1981. The Mandore in the 16th and 17th Centuries. Early Music 9(1):22-31.

Tyler, James. 1981 The Italian Mandolin and Mandola 1589-1800. Early Music 9(4):438-446.

Tyler, James & Paul Sparks. 1989, 1992. The Early Mandolin. Clarendon Press, Oxford.