Cristofaro method Russian/French edition & Branzoli method

[mandoisland]

I have recently found the mandolin methods by Cristofaro and Branzoli on the site of the Russian State Library.

I could download the methods, but this is not so easy if you don't speak Russian...

The Cristofaro method (Vol1 & Vol2) is in Russian / French, the Branzoli method in German.

The scans are in good quality. Both methods are complete methods which cover a great part of the classical mandolin technique.

I have just uploaded the methods to IMSLP so they are now available from there as free downloads.

Cristofaro method

Branzoli method

I will add the links to my collection of mandolin methods on my website www.mandoisland.de.

[crisscross]

I downloaded both volumes of the Cristofaro method. As in the Ranieri method, hints on how to exactly practice tremolo are rare.
It's just:"move the feather up and down as fast as possible".
But it has those nice recreational pieces at the end of each chapter.
I just started working on the second one, "Little Guitar".
But I suspect that similarly to Napoleon Costae's "La Récréation du guitariste", for me it'll be rather hard work than recreation.
But it looks like pleasant work, thanks for the upload, Mandoisland.

[crisscross]

As I said, I downloaded both volumes of the French/Russian version. The nice thing for my taste is, that it's heavy on music, not just scales and exercises. Almost all examples have a second mandolin to accompany the first one.
In that way, it's similar to the Ranieri Method.
As someone who is still considering himself kind of a beginner at classical mandolin playing, I started from the beginnng.
The first piece I practiced a little more seriously was No.13, "Allegro giusto". It alternates between tremolo and staccato.
I played an aproximation of the second mandoiln on my classical guitar, just broken chords.

BTW: The Russian text is a nice inspiration to brush up on my rusty Russian and learn some music-related words,
The word for Staccato in Russian is отрывистый, which means something like choppy.

Once again: спасибо мандо-остров! (thanks Mando Island)

[Beanzy]

That's great to hear. Very much appreciate how you go to the effort of sharing your progress as you explore. Bravo.