In this book, Ray Valla shares the insights of a veteran bluegrass mandolinist. This method would best be appreciated by a student with some previous musical experience, as fundamentals of note-reading on the mandolin are not addressed. This is, however, the ideal book for the intermediate to advanced player. It is filled with practical hints to improve your general musicianship and increase the speed of your progress. for example, Ray suggests learning a new tune by mastering its individual licks before attempting to assemble the whole. the book's 27 well-known bluegrass tunes are shown in standard notation and tablature with arrows indicating picking direction. Illustrated with photographs, charts and diagrams.

Comprehensive instruction for the serious mandolinist. One of America's leading schools for contemporary music-The National Guitar Workshop-teaches you the concepts, techniques and theory you need to become a virtuoso performer. 96 pages each.

The Mandolin Primer Book For Beginners Deluxe Edition with DVD & 2 Jam CDs by Bert Casey is designed for the beginning mandolin student who desires an easy to follow, step by step instruction method for getting started on the mandolin. Starting with the basics, the student will learn the parts of the mandolin, left & right hand technique and playing scales. Later you will learn how to play 12 popular bluegrass songs using techniques such as hammer-ons, slides, pull-offs, and double stops. The course also includes a section on how to play rhythm on the mandolin (the famous mandolin "chop"). All exercises and songs and demonstrated at three speeds on the DVD. In addition, this course includes 2 Jam CDs where each of the songs is played along with a bluegrass band at 5 different speeds.

The final book in this power-packed mandolin method continues with a study of advanced harmonies and provides mandolin chord forms in all twelve keys. In-depth studies of important forms such as the 12-bar blues and "rhythm changes" are included as well as chord/melody playing and chord substitution. The book also takes an exhaustive approach to melodic studies, covering the modes of the major scale, the pentatonic scales, the chromatic scale, the whole-tone scale and improvisation.

With the thoroughness of a book by Mel Bay, this method presents mandolin technique and note-reading in a progressive, step-by-step fashion. Given the diverse applications of this versatile instrument, this method was carefully written to build the musicianship and technique needed to play both classical and contemporary mandolin styles. Music theory concepts and additional playing techniques are introduced as needed. Exercises and tunes are presented in all keys, many in duet format to be played by teacher and student. In notation only.

This book establishes a foundation for complete mandolin musicianship, both in terms of music literacy as well as having the ability to jam with other musicians without reading music. The student logically begins by learning the “basic” fingering pattern used for the mandolin-friendly keys of A and D as shown in diagram form and standard notation. Tablature reading is lightly addressed, but not at the same time as note reading so the student avoids using tab as a crutch. A generous repertoire of progressively arranged exercises, fiddle tunes, a Bach bourrée, and folk and blues songs is included, often with online recordings and rarely seen complete lyrics. At this point, the book begins to diverge from its didactic approach to pure fun! As each new major key is introduced (G, C, F and E), the student learns the remaining principal scale finger patterns as well as a considerable amount of practical music theory covering pentatonic and modal scales and much more. Fittingly, the book closes with a dictionary of essential chords and a glossary to aid in further development as a versatile mandolinist.