Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin

Rating:
Summary: Good material, but it's not Andy on the CD
Review: I had the privilege to study mandolin with Andy Statman back in the early 80's. His phrasing and harmonic sense was/is unlike anyone I'd ever heard play the instrument and owes as much to Coltrane and Albert Ayler as it does to Bill Monroe. To his credit as a teacher, Andy never erected walls between genres and always emphasized the blues as the "common thread" linking bluegrass, jazz and most American music. The tunes in the book are all bluegrass chestnuts you'll want to know to jam with others. If you're interested in improvisation, examine closely the solos printed below the melody lines. While sticking fairly close to the melody there's a subtle chromatic spice in there that will stretch your ears and encourage you to take chances.
My only gripe: The original edition of this book had no recording - this revised edition does but, unfortunately, the band doesn't include Andy. The player is competent but I'd encourage anyone interested in great mandolin playing to seek out Statman on record.

Rating:
Summary: A good book I got for my birthday! The Author Andy Statman!.
Review: I like this book Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin because of the F Style Mandolin with the fancier scroll on the cover and I like it.

This is A good book I got for my birthday yesterday Fri. Dec. 7th, 2001 but my birthday is December 6th, 2001 an I like it!

The Author was Andy Statman who wrote the book.

Theres a CD inside the book that goes with it!

The songs I would play in the book are:

Cripple Creek,
Soldiers Joy,
Little Maggie,
John Hardy,
Turkey in the Straw,
John Henry &
Boil Them Cabbage Down.

The song I would mostly play on my mandolin is Little Maggie.

The books on the back cover page are other series you can get including Teach Yourself Bluegrass Banjo, Teach Yourself Bluegrass Guitar, Teach Yourself Bluegrass Fiddle & Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin and on the back it says among them are "Roll in My Sweet Babys Arms," "Arkansa Traveller," "Salt Creek," "Soldiers Joy," "Fire on the Mountain," "Little Maggie," and "Old Joe Clark to name only a few.

It is like The Tennesse Riders and also The Mountain Cowboys.

This is together this way to make them have CDs for songs.

The Tennesse Riders: 1, 3, 4 & 5 and also 12.
The Mountain Cowboys: 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11.

It also reminds me of Rodeo Roping the book by author Tex McLeese.

Rating:
Summary: Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin
Review: Nice book, great music. The music on the CD is great. But if you are a beginner, this is not the place to begin. Although it is fun to listen to, it is way too fast and way too difficult for a beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Great songs to learn, not the best teaching
Review: THe songs in this book are a great collection of things that are great to learn. Each song has two ways to play it: the melody and a solo-type version. I have found that you can go through it and learn the melody parts then probably go back and be ready for the harder solo version. The reference CD has great playing on it, but it is a bit fast, and could be discouraging for the true beginner. Buy this book to learn with. Hold off on using the CD until you are really getting the stuff under your fingers.

Rating:
Summary: Great songs to learn, not the best teaching
Review: THe songs in this book are a great collection of things that are great to learn. Each song has two ways to play it: the melody and a solo-type version. I have found that you can go through it and learn the melody parts then probably go back and be ready for the harder solo version. The reference CD has great playing on it, but it is a bit fast, and could be discouraging for the true beginner. Buy this book to learn with. Hold off on using the CD until you are really getting the stuff under your fingers.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the beginner mandolin player
Review: This is a great book for anyone trying to learn how to play the mandolin. It contains several good songs, tons of good advice on technique, and a cd to refer to when written descriptions just won't get the job done (just try to describe "chunking" to someone who has never heard it before).

The best part of this book is how it describes a technique and then immediately teaches you a song or two that use that technique. I find this helps to keep the learning process fun and exciting. It also give you a lot of material to show off to your friends.

Rating:
Summary: Great book for the beginner mandolin player
Review: This is a great book for anyone trying to learn how to play the mandolin. It contains several good songs, tons of good advice on technique, and a cd to refer to when written descriptions just won't get the job done (just try to describe "chunking" to someone who has never heard it before).

The best part of this book is how it describes a technique and then immediately teaches you a song or two that use that technique. I find this helps to keep the learning process fun and exciting. It also give you a lot of material to show off to your friends.