A wealth of beautiful and joyous music has been written for the Christmas season. Some of the most enchanting melodies can be found in this solo mandolin edition of the Early American holiday repertoire. For this collection, Tommy Norris has selected eighteen lesser and better-known carols and songs from the folk, shape-note, sacred, Native American, African American spiritual, and European hymnody traditions, and arranged them for solo mandolin. Each intermediate to moderately advanced arrangement is shown in standard notation and mandolin tablature. As a learning aid, a downloadable recording of the author's performance of each piece is available online. We hope these arrangements bring the joy of the Christmas spirit to your holiday season.

Mandolin Picking Tunes: Early Music Gems by Dix Bruce is a collection of 34 wonderful songs from the 1200s to the 1600s especially arranged for intermediate and advanced mandolinists. The titles span the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras and the sounds of the individual songs reflect those years. The music includes standard notation, accompaniment chords, and tablature. Includes access to online audio recordings of each piece for listening and playing along.

26 historic and well-loved American melodies arranged for intermediate and advanced mandolinists. These beautiful airs and ballads in many different major and minor keys have been taught and performed since the very beginnings of the American experience, expressing good times and bad, joy, sorrow, and everything in between. The printed music includes standard notation, accompaniment chords, and tablature. The arrangements use several different playing techniques including double stops, crosspicking, chord melody, up-and-down eighth note picking, and tremolo. Includes access to online audio.

This collection includes intermediate to advanced arrangements of 17 Early American carols for the 5-string banjo in 3-finger style. These melody/chord arrangements are in tablature only in gDGBD tuning using common chord shapes for the most part. The author’s experience with the classic guitar shines through in these tasteful settings, which include imaginative introductions, occasional key modulations and even a carol attributed to the Huron tribe. Fingering and interpretation are left up to the player’s discretion, trusting that along with the author’s online audio recordings, you will make some meaningful discoveries of your own. Includes access to online audio.

Written in standard notation and tablature for the intermediate to advanced mandolinist, “Angeline the Baker,” “Darlin’ Corey,” and 16 other classic old-time tunes never sounded so good as in these solo arrangements by Tommy Norris. The author himself performs each tune flawlessly on the companion online audio tracks. Suggested chords are provided for optional accompaniment. Care has been taken to select the most popular tunes of this genre for inclusion in this book. “Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down” without it!

This collection presents intermediate to advanced settings of 16 traditional gospel tunes arranged for solo mandolin in standard notation and tablature. With the mandolin tuned in perfect fifths and frequent drones, the harmony in these arrangements is often reminiscent of shape note singing, disarmingly followed by fluid, modern sounds. The table of contents reads like an album of greatest gospel hits with songs like Angel Band, I Am a Pilgrim, In the Sweet By and By and Walk in Jerusalem Just Like John. Will the Circle Be Unbroken and Keep on the Sunny Side round out a repertoire of joyful gospel. For ease of learning, the author has provided online recordings of each selection.

Thirty-four well-loved gospel tunes especially arranged for intermediate and advanced mandolinists. These beautiful, meditative melodies have been played and cherished for generations. The music is written in standard notation, with accompaniment chords, tablature and performance notes on the techniques used in each arrangement. Includes access to online recordings of each piece for playing along and listening. You will enjoy playing these historic and engaging melodies which lend themselves especially well to the mandolin.