Customer Reviews

Mel Bay Getting Into Bluegrass Mandolin (Mel Bay's Getting Into)

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Dix Bruce's easy-to-follow book/CD set will quickly get you playing bluegrass mandolin. After discussing the essentials of tuning and holding the instrument, Bruce delves into chords, rhythm, single note playing, double stops, fiddle tunes, playing in all keys, playing backup, transposing, kickoffs, turnarounds, and tremolo. Classic bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes are used to demonstrate the various techniques, and in the course of using the book you'll also increase your repertoire. Plenty of standard jamming fare is included such as Rolling in my Sweet Baby's Arms, John Hardy, East Virginia Blues, Nine Pound Hammer, Bank of the Ohio, In the Pines, Long Journey Home, and many others. It's a good format to present the song's basic version, followed by its solo at slow speed, then its solo up to speed. Fiddle tunes explored include Old Joe Clark, Ragtime Annie, and Liberty. When the fiddle tunes are introduced, Bruce also addresses eighth notes and the use of up and down strokes with the pick.

An example of one helpful lesson presented is the "Moveable Blues" in closed position. After learning some bluesy bluegrass licks in the key of G, you'll learn how to move the melody to any key. Because all the notes are fretted and recommended fingerings are shown, the melody is easily moved. It's a good exercise for mobilizing your pinkie, learning to use triplets, and developing skill for improvisation. Bruce even suggests, but doesn't demonstrate, how playing the blues with down strokes will get a Monroesque feeling. More along those lines of Monroe's style would've made this book exceptional. This book presents a clear, concise, well organized approach for beginners to learn bluegrass mandolin basics. (Joe Ross, staff writer, Bluegrass Now)

I've been playing guitar for quite a while, but just picked up the mandolin. Dix Bruce's book assumes a certain amount of knowledge of music and stringed instruments, but is not so advanced that it leaves you wondering whether to turn the page or not. The accompanying CD takes you through each unit, first at a slow speed, then at 'normal' (not Bill Monroe 'normal') speed. Some tracks have chop chords in one channel and single-note work in the other, so you can choose which one you want to work on. The lessons proceed with reasonable steps, and are well-presented. It never gets too simple, nor too complex (assuming you've been practicing). After a week or so, once I had the G chop chord reasonably well in hand, I was capable of playing along with others on simple tunes. Buy it!

A lot of courses, beginner or intermediate, tend to lead you to the up-down picking method aimed at playing fiddle tunes. Nothing wrong with that except that "Bluegrass mandolin" is much more than picking fiddle tunes. Double stops, tremolo,and chording are of equal importance. This course gives you some very good examples in all those areas. It is a great start no matter what direction you want to take once you become more versed. Also the vocal is the soul of Bluegrass and this course teaches you to play some vocals as well as instrumentals. It is presented very well also. A slow version followed by an up-to-speed version allows you ease into the lesson before playing the lesson up to speed. This is a perfect beginner/intermediate course. It covers everything you need to know to get you are started and leaves you in great shape as far as your next step goes. I think it's a fine value!