Skeptical Guitarist

Author: Bruce Emery

What every beginning mandolin aspirant should know to get up and playing as soon as possible, whether you are interested in bluegrass, old-time or Celtic styles, or want to get started on the blues. Of course, at the start you'll be shown how to tune the thing, and move right along to learning how to strum some simple chords, G, C and D. There are twelve different keys in music, but the focus will be on five of them (C-A-G-E-D), so you'll learn how to play the most important chords to these, using plenty of familiar song examples. Bluegrassers will see how to play the all-important Chop Chord, as well as other chord forms around the neck.
Next comes single-string playing, arguably the most important thing a mandolin can do. You'll get some practice with simple tunes and scales, and then move on to the heart of the book: playing classic fiddle tunes in the North American and European traditions. You'll get two versions for most of these, a Plainer and a Fancier. After that comes some chord-melody playing, where you'll apply chords and harmonies to some popular folk and classical pieces.
Finally, you'll get an introduction to both rhythm and lead playing for Twelve Bar Blues.

It'll be fun, you'll see.