Designing Mandolin Solos for Country Bluegrass Songs (Book and CD Edition) [Plastic Comb]

Paul Kramer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1998

Don't under-estimate this course! It is far & above the most powerful, exciting & valuable instruction ever made for Mandolin! This course is much more than just learning licks that fit a chord progression. It's how to change a simple bluegrass melody into a fancy, tasteful, driving solo. A solo that sounds like the true melody of the song, while being hot at the same time. Paul analyzes & teaches 15 songs on these 2 (one hour) tapes. Each solo is broken down into its component parts, with Paul explaining why he played what he played every step of the way. By learning this approach you will be able to invent your own intelligent, melodic solo for any Bluegrass song.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Songs Include: I'm Goin' Back to Old Kentucky • Little Cabin Home on the Hill • Sunny Side of the Mountain • White Dove • Cabin In Caroline Banks of the Ohio • On And On • Think Of What You've Done • No Mother Or Dad • Little Maggie • Fox on the Run • Ocean of Diamonds Head over Heels • Why Don't You Tell Me So • My Walkin' Shoes Don't Fit Me Anymore Great for Fiddle Too!

From the Author

Customer Compliments

"I love these lessons. I ordered Designing Mandolin Solos a few months ago. These lessons have helped tremendously. Paul Kramer really knows what he’s doing and knows how to teach it to other people. I’ll be telling my friends about this company. Thanks for making them available." B Dier, Greenville TN

"I recently received Designing Mandolin Solos and was very impressed. This is some of the best instructional material I have seen and without a doubt the best for working out nice solos to vocal songs." L Swanson-Aurora, CO

"Just a note to say that I think Designing Mandolin Solos is the best I’ve seen yet" F Claybrook-Roanoke, VA

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Product Details

• Plastic Comb
• Publisher: Musician's Workshop (January 2, 1998)
• ISBN-10: 1584960388
• ISBN-13: 978-1584960386
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,544 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars depends on what you mean by "solo", March 3, 2011

By 

Caraculiambro (La Mancha and environs) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Designing Mandolin Solos for Country Bluegrass Songs (Book and CD Edition) (Plastic Comb)

I didn't find this to be of much use to me, but that's because there are two meanings of the word "solo" when you're talking about mandolin music.

DEFINITION #1: The "turn" the mandolin takes in bluegrass music. Bluegrass music is hard to define, but one thing that seems to characterize it is that all the instruments take a turn and playing a solo. This solo can be almost anything, as long as it's in keeping with the key, the rhythm, and the feel of the song.

DEFINITION #2. Most mandolin books are nothing more than cheat-sheets: i.e., single-note melodies. But to make them sound convincing when playing by oneself, you'll have to learn how to flesh out these bare melodies with double-stops, triple-stops, four note chords, etc., to "put some meat on the bones." In music theory this is known as "harmonizing."

Well, this book, of low quality physically (home-made, apparently), purports to help you with the first, mainly by teaching you about the cycle of fifths, arpeggios, and scales. It doesn't have much at all that will help you with definition #2 (for that, I'd recommend A Guide To Non-Jazz Improvisation - Mandolin Edition)

Heck, even for definition #1, it's not that great. The book limits itself with describing the parameters of a solo (i.e,. the confines it must work within), but has little to aid you with coming up with a solo creatively.

Worse, there's a lot of irrelevant information thrown into the book that isn't going to help with either kind of solo: chop chords, tuning the mandolin to itself, setting the bridge, etc. I'd go elsewhere for that sort of thing.