Beginning Celtic Mandolin

[mr1979]

I play mandolin in italian mandolin orchestra Mandolinisti Bustesi. Now i would like to better understand mandolin celtic (irish ,etc) playing style : can anyone suggest resources to study ? I mean not only tunes score but also video or audio of playes that well rapresent this partucular style. Thank you. Marco

[James Rankine]

I'm impressed by this bloke - he's a cafe member. This is a good introduction to jig rhythm. I think his advice is spot on: feel the rhythm and get your right hand into the groove before concentrating on the notes. Notes are just notes, the rhythm is everything and the jig rhythm is far removed from what most folks are used to with playing in 4/4 time. Once you get the rhythm the notes will follow.

[Loretta Callahan]

I'll second the Zak Borden as a great teacher. He rescued me from terrible technique and inspired me to go very deep with my music. If we had not bought a 115 year old fixer upper, I'd be taking lessons now. Looking forward to returning to lessons this summer.

[ptritz]

Jill McCauley has a number of videos of her playing on YouTube. I think her YouTube channel is called bike mutt. She's a fine player, with a great feel for what Irish tunes should sound like.

[mr1979]

Thank you ! You gave me really good ideas!

[JeffD]

While listening to Irish mandolin is good, listen to a lot of Irish fiddle playing, and whistle playing, and button box playing, as well as bouzouki playing to get a comprehensive feeling for the music.

[John Kelly]

Remember the huge repertoire of Scottish material that's here too - all part of the Celtic culture. Have a listen to David "Dagger" Gordon (who has an instructional book and CD available, The Scottish Mandolin Tutor) and Kevin MacLeod (has a few excellent CDs on offer) or look for my own offerings of Scottish music over on SoundCloud - I am there as "Mandosounds" - and there are loads more of us playing this kind of music.

[crisscross]

Though he is surely no traditionalist, I like Simon Mayor's "New Celtic Mandolin". http://www.amazon.com/Simon-Mayor-Ce...BN85QNN7F1BSQ2

[Manfred Hacker]

I learned a lot from Phillip Berthoud's Irish Mandolin Playing. It teaches both technique and repertoire. Also gets good critiques here:

http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bay-Irish-.../dp/078667072X

The only thing I don't like is that the pieces on the CD are not counted in, so you have to be quick on your feet, or fingers, if you want to start playing along.

[foldedpath]

While listening to Irish mandolin is good, listen to a lot of Irish fiddle playing, and whistle playing, and button box playing, as well as bouzouki playing to get a comprehensive feeling for the music.

This, very much. I play mostly Irish/Scottish/Cape Breton and related music these days, and I hardly ever listen to mandolin players to learn new techniques or tunes.

That's partly due to the dominance of the older instruments in the music, at least on recordings.... pipes, flutes, fiddles, and such. But also because mandolin is still something of an "outsider" instrument in this music, and all of us are still sort of finding our way into the music. It's not like Bluegrass where you can start with what's been established on mandolin, and work your way out from there.

Listen to other mandolin players if you're just getting started in this music, for a baseline on the technique. And by all means, listen to the great mandolin players mentioned in this thread like Dagger Gordon, Kevin MacLeod, and Simon Mayor. After that, it's about listening to the music as expressed by anyone who is skilled at playing it. And inevitably, that means listening to players on other instruments as well as mandolin.

[Annette Siegel]

Here's a great little tune with breakdown from Marla Fibish!