Hi there
What are the first songs to learn on mandolin? I'm looking for easy songs for beginners.
TIA
Hi there
What are the first songs to learn on mandolin? I'm looking for easy songs for beginners.
TIA
Here is a link to some great lessons - note the beginner stuff at the top
https://www.mandolessons.com/lessons/all-lessons/
Amazing Grace is something everyone knows and is pretty easy, also Wildwood Flower is a great song
I taught my wife Angeline the Baker as her first tune. She had a few banjo lessons but is not very strong musically and picked it up in a couple of days. It was also the first tune I picked out on mandolin but I already knew it on guitar.
Rhythm. Blow’n in the Wind (chord changes very recognizable)
Most Hank Williams tunes are easy play for melody or rhythm.
Melody : Beatles “Yesterday” (don’t try this for rhythm)
When I first started many people recommended a book by Bruce Dix. I bought the book but found almost nothing I had ever heard. Just my humble opinion. Hopefully you will get many recommendations more suitable than mine. These are just what worked for me.
Big Muddy EM8 solid body (Mike Dulak's final EM8 build)
Kentucky KM-950
Weber Gallatin A Mandola "D hole"
Rogue 100A (current campfire tool & emergency canoe paddle)
One you can sing ?
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
This question depends entirely on what sort of music you want to play. I learned simple Italian tunes first.
Most other mandolin players in the USA seem to play other musical styles first.
A simple tune, but one appropriate for these last several months, would be the first tune I learned from my father over 60 years ago: The Chinese Breakdown.
If you're an absolute beginner and want something really simple, a standard first tune for violin and fiddle (tuned the same as a mandolin) students is "Twinkle, Twinkle." Undoubtedly, you know the tune. Start by picking twice on the G string then pick twice on the D string. It's easy to work out from there without written music or tabs, just by finding the right sounds. When you've got it, repeat, starting on D and moving to A this time. It won't be your show-off piece five years from now, but it'll give you a sense of accomplishment, and familiarize you with the mandolin's tuning, in fifths.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Thank you very much for your answers!
To recap (and note to myself):
- Amazing Grace
- Angeline the Baker
- Rhythm: Blow’n in the Wind
- Most Hank Williams tunes
- Melody: Beatles “Yesterday”
- The Chinese Breakdown
- Twinkle, Twinkle.
Soldier’s Joy in the key of D was my first tune.
Dan Scullin
Louisville, KY
"The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
--Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."
Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos
Eruption
Giant Steps
Ornithology
Peaches in Regalia
The Claw
Limerock
Wild Thing
(just goofin' on you!)
I will print it and put it on the wall in my bedroom :-))
Yeah, that's the same one I started out with. Piece of cake.
I am mainly working on playing fiddle these days, but I was thinking about this from that perspective recently, and I would recommend someone learn songs that will easily translate to picking up other tunes. From that perspective I think Angeline is a great choice as is Amazing Grace. You can play them in A, then move them to another key fairly easily by moving over a string and then learn them in G, also fairly easily. I think if you get those two songs in A, you can transition to a ton of other songs. Also, you can sing along with either one, so there is another skill you can work on with your two base foundational songs. Just my thought.
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