Ensemble pieces for beginners

[Dean Gray]

Hi folks, I have started a community mandolin orchestra and at the moment I have more beginners than experienced players. Does anyone have suggestions for pieces that work well for new players?
I have a couple of great players who can cover melodies/mandolin 1 parts but need charts that are simple and mainly open strings/1st position for the new players.

Any suggestions or links would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

[barbaram]

Try contacting Robert Schulz from the Western Australia Mandolin Orchestra. He has done a good deal of work in this area.

[Dean Gray]

Try contacting Robert Schulz from the Western Australia Mandolin Orchestra. He has done a good deal of work in this area.

Thanks Barbaram, I will do.

[Martin Jonas]

You may also want to look at the arrangements by the late (and much missed) Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, which cover a wide range of genres. All of them are arranged for three parts (two mandolins and either octave mandolin or mandocello), plus chord symbols for additional ad hoc accompaniment. They all fit onto one or two pages and make wonderful beginners' ensemble pieces.

There are three "Big Books" and multiple other collections of her arrangements available on Amazon (link). In addition, Evelyn herself generously posted a large number of her arrangements for free download here on the Cafe. See:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Martin

[Jim Imhoff]

John Goodin writes very fine music, and some pieces have quite accessible parts. You also might look at some early Mozart quartets, where most of the action is in the upper parts, with basic root movement, scale and arpeggio lines in the cello.

[btrott]

Hi, Dean,

I have a couple of arrangements of 18th c. country dances that I made for a local mandolin ensemble that I would be happy to send to you if you PM me an email address.

Barry

[August Watters]

In my view, Andy Boden has made a huge contribution to the mandolin ensemble world, with easily-accessible arrangements.

[Jim Imhoff]

In my view, Andy Boden has made a huge contribution to the mandolin ensemble world, with easily-accessible arrangements.

I used some of Andy's music (along with yours of course) for my solo Mandocello music workshop. I had not seen his ensemble stuff, guess I'll have to look again.
Thanks August.

[Dean Gray]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and sorry for the late reply. Barry I will pm you as soon as I figure out how to do that!

[Dean Gray]

You may also want to look at the arrangements by the late (and much missed) Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, which cover a wide range of genres. All of them are arranged for three parts (two mandolins and either octave mandolin or mandocello), plus chord symbols for additional ad hoc accompaniment. They all fit onto one or two pages and make wonderful beginners' ensemble pieces.

There are three "Big Books" and multiple other collections of her arrangements available on Amazon (link). In addition, Evelyn herself generously posted a large number of her arrangements for free download here on the Cafe. See:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

Martin

Thanks Martin, I just had a look at Evelyn's music - what a great resource she shared with us!

[btrott]

Hi, Dean, I sent you a message with my email address. If you click the Settings link at the top of the Forum page in the black bar you should see your inbox there.

Best,

Barry