Lessons and playing techniques
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Bell Mountain Music sells beginner instruction materials in a range of formats for bluegrass instruments including mandolin http://bellmountainmusic.com/
Helpful page on musicians' injuries, with lots of links http://eeshop.unl.edu/music.html
Neat on-line mandolin tuner at Mandozine http://www.mandozine.com/resources/mandotuner.php
Pics of Mike Shellans' mandolin lesson with Becky Smith - thanks for sharing these, Mike! http://www.mikeshellans.com/Becky.htm
Free manuscript paper and some useful learning materials for music theory (e.g. circle of fifths) at MusicTeach http://www.musicteach.org.uk/Freestuff.asp
And check out their neat guitar chord machine http://www.musicteach.org.uk/CoolTools.htm
Absolute Fretboard for mandolin - you can "reach the point where you know every position and every note on the fretboard instantly and effortlessly" http://www.absolutefretboard.com/aft/mandolin.asp Also for other fretted instruments - see home page http://www.absolutefretboard.com/
Free fiddle lessons from the Fiddle Guru at http://fiddleguru.com/Free_Fiddle_Instruction/index.html Home page http://www.fiddleguru.com/
Mandolin books + CDs and videos listed at Brough's Books http://www.dropbears.com/b/broughsbooks/music/mandolin.htm
Chord voicing program finds chord shapes for you (free!), really for guitar but can be adapted to mandolin tuning http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/pm/chord/chord
Holding the pick - good clear pics(!) plus useful stuff on Celtic picking patterns and a video clip, courtesy Dan Beimborn http://www.celticmusic.com/dan/technique.html
A great site for jazz mandolin players - lots of learning materials, recommended listening and other goodies courtesy Ted Eschliman http://www.jazzmando.com/
New instruction video for mandolin beginners at Folk of the Wood http://www.folkofthewood.com/page2295.htm
The Murphy Method Beginning Mandolin now on DVD http://www.murphymethod.com/mandolin.html
Mandola resources links courtesy Daniel Nestlerode http://home.mindspring.com/~dnestler/mandolastuff.htm
Dan Huckabee's Musician's Workshop site offers lots of instructional material for mandolin and other instruments http://workshoprecords.com/
Mandolin Sessions at Mel Bay include some help with technique from Joe Carr - a promising site! http://www.mandolinsessions.com/
John McGann's Mandolinistics page has helpful hints on technique http://www.johnmcgann.com/mando.html And lots of useful links http://www.johnmcgann.com/surf.html
Stacy Phillips' dobro and fiddle page includes some sample lessons and tunes http://www.stacyphillips.com/
John's Bluegrass Guitar Page - "a complete guide to the best bluegrass flatpickin' resources on the Internet" http://members.aol.com/jpickii/blugrspg.html
Learn to play a bluegrass instrument at http://www.projectsandhobbies.com/
Mandola/mandocello chords in DAda tuning http://www.musicaviva.com/mandolin/dadachords.tpl
Exercises to develop flatpicking technique courtesy Chris Smith http://www.geocities.com/coyotebanjo/instruction/picking.txt Also some comments on playing speed http://www.geocities.com/coyotebanjo/instruction/speed.txt Some other musical pages at http://www.geocities.com/coyotebanjo/instruction/
Lots of mandolin lessons at Mandolin Cafe! http://www.mandolincafe.com/lessons.html
Page at Mandolin Cafe about building speed http://www.mandolincafe.com/speed.html
Chord maps for fretted instruments (including mandolin) - this one is probably for eggheads http://www.dna.fi/~aitwise/
Norton Music's User Styles for Band-in-a-Box http://www.nortonmusic.com/ More Band-in-a-Box stuff at http://biab.8m.com/ http://www.m3c-berlin.de/html/body_65527.html and http://www.pgmusic.com/solosets.htm
Some useful practice material including MP3s courtesy Berklee, and more here
Windows To Virtuosity "Master All Strings" visual learning system http://www.windows-to-virtuosity.com/
Music theory for the short attention span, courtesy FolkBlues.com http://www.folkblues.com/theory/default.htm Lots of other helpful pages and links for aspiring musicians and singers at this site http://www.folkblues.com/index.htm
Alexander Technique and musicians - lots of useful links for this method of playing with less stress http://www.alexandertechnique.com/musicians2/ And here is a case history.
Introduction to chords and scales by Mike Perry, includes MP3 files http://mikeperryweb.com/chords/index2.html
How to play blues harmonica (well, getting started!)
Very useful techniques pages at CoMando http://www.co-mando.com/techniques/
All you will ever want to know about music theory on line! Thanks to Dr Brian Blood http://www.dolmetsch.com/introduction.htm
Groove Camp 3rd-10th July 2003 includes mandolin classes with John McGann http://www.dhebert.com/groovecamp/
John McGann offers free flatpick and fingerstyle technique and practice tips for guitar and mandolin players http://www.johnmcgann.com/techtips.html
The art of practice at Guitar Noise - but useful also for mandolin players http://www.guitarnoise.com/guitar/classical/20000718.html
A beginning bluegrass lesson at Mandolin Cafe http://www.mandolincafe.com/bluegrass.html
Help with your mandolin playing from Jack Tuttle (not Tottle) at Gryphon Instruments http://www.gryphon.us/jacktuttle/mandohelp.html Some useful pages and links here, including Top Ten ways to become a better musician
How to play bluegrass mandolin at http://www.projectsandhobbies.com/bluegrassmandolin.htm
Play mandolin with instruments and instruction from Play Bluegrass Music http://playbluegrassmusic.com/play_mandolin.htm And an interesting home page http://playbluegrassmusic.com/index.htm
Donna Hébert has a large website with pages about fiddling, fiddling workshops and music camps http://www.dhebert.com/publications/oldtimeherald.html
Fretboard Roadmaps for mandolin book/CD by Fred Sokolow and Bob Applebaum - "the essential patterns that all the pros know and use" http://www.elderly.com/books/items/49-695357.htm
How to play Carter-style guitar http://www.silcom.com/~peterf/ideas/sti-105.htm
The Musicians' Zone (at the Bluegrass Zone) has tips on how to play better http://www.thebluegrasszone.com/musicians'zone.html
Bell Mountain Music sells beginner instruction materials in a range of formats for bluegrass instruments including mandolin http://bellmountainmusic.com/
Wintergrass instrumental workshops http://www.wintergrass.com/workshops.htm
Camp Bluegrass offers mandolin instruction http://www.campbluegrass.com/home.html
Mandolin tuition resources at Janet Davis Music http://www.janetdavismusic.com/manbks.html
First Lessons on Mandolin by Dix Bruce (Mel Bay) teaches the absolute basics of learning to play mandolin - lots of well known tunes plus CD http://www.musixnow.com/First%20Lessons.html
Frank Wakefield now teaches mandolin on DVD!
http://www.candlewater.com/BlueberryRecords/FWDVDSeries/
Thoughts on playing together, staying together
Ideas for three-finger picking on a four-string instrument (transferable to mandolin!) http://www.geocities.com/patekstylebanjo/
Up-and-coming mandolin courses at Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center - includes courses by Niles Hokkanen. And visit Niles and Debbie Hokkanen's home page at http://www.shenandoahmusic.com/hokkanen.htm
Mandolin Magazine have some useful material on line, eg article on stage fright by Donn Marshall at http://www.mandolinmagazine.com/articles/stagefright.html
PraxAx portable practice device for improving your right hand skills - mandolin model available http://www.twanger.com/
How to transcribe - OK, it's about jazz solos but lots of helpful ideas! http://faculty.adams.edu/~dmwilken/transcribe.html And see Dr Wilkens' Jazz Resources home page for a ton of other useful stuff http://faculty.adams.edu/~dmwilken/jazzresources.html
Improvise.com.au has lots of ideas on - guess what - improvisation http://www.improvise.com.au/
The Aebersold Jazz Handbook available for free download at http://www.jazzbooks.com/jazzhandbook/
Free jazz/blues practice material with charts and sound files at Music Students http://www.musicstudents.com/jazz.html They also sell lots of teaching material http://www.musicstudents.com/
Whew! Lots more Jethro sound files (MP3) to download, thanks to Robin Sutliff http://c2t.mde.k12.ms.us/jethro/
Mandolin instruction course by Mike Holmes, old time, country & fiddle tunes , book plus CD http://www.mugwumps.com/AdPics/holmesmando.html
Maximum Musician offers help for guitarists and others - learn about improvising, playing by ear, how to stay motivated, and more http://www.maximummusician.com/ Good links page at http://www.maximummusician.com/mmlinks.htm
Jay Buckey's page on playing mandolin tremolo plus links to chords http://www.jaybuckey.com/Mandolin%20Tremolo.htm, teaching materials for mandolin http://www.jaybuckey.com/mandolin.htm, and a useful page on instruments http://www.jaybuckey.com/instruments.htm
MP3 files of lessons with Jethro Burns, with many thanks to Jim Nikora, Mike Stangeland and Rob Coleman - not to mention Jethro! http://www.robcoleman.com/jethro/default.htm
Printable jewel case inserts for Jethro lessons CDs (see previous item) - requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Thanks to Rick Jones for these! http://www.robandcat.com/jethro/JewelCase.pdf
Excellent series of articles on understanding music and musicianship at http://halgalper.com/13_arti/_0_arti.htm And Hal Galper's home page http://www.halgalper.com/
Dugain handmade guitar picks
http://www.gtrs4u.com/Inventory/Dugain/Dugain.htm
The Wirething pick has a wire point
http://www.wirething.com/
Wegen's Guitar Picks - interesting pick designs at
http://www.wegenpicks.com/
Dan Mozell's music pages include a flatpick survey http://www.danmozell.com/d-mozell.htm
Interesting post to Comando on right hand technique as used by Django style guitarists
AcuTab's Alan Bibey, Master Mandolinist course - page includes pics and video
clips of Alan's playing
http://www.acutab.com/bibeyvideo/
How to play Django style guitar (!)
http://www.hotclub.co.uk/experience.html
And home page - The
Django Reinhardt Swing Page - at
http://www.hotclub.co.uk/
Right hand techniques for the Irish bouzouki (may also be relevant for
guitarists, mandolin and cittern players) by Han Speek
http://home.hccnet.nl/h.speek/bouzouki/right.html
Medical page on
hand cramp (focal dystonia) in musicians
How to modify picks, by Mike Stangeland (from the CoMando archives)
Interesting page on picks and how to customise them http://home.pacbell.net/torkes/
Hundreds of flatpicks (plectra) at Elderly Instruments http://www.elderly.com/accessories/Flatpicks.html
Pic-Dic dictionary of flat picks! http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Plaza/5566/dic.htm
Shaping picks - some ideas from Alan Bond http://home.attbi.com/~ukecat/mando.html
Playing lefthanded http://mckenziemusic.com/Lefthanded.htm
Flatpick and finger style technique (for guitar) http://www.tuckandpatti.com/pick-finger_tech.html
About.com has lots of guitar tuition material (which can be adapted to mando!) http://guitar.about.com/mbody.htm e.g. learn to play guitar like B B King at http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa052901a.htm Also try a search on "mandolin" at About.com - there are lots of links, though no separate mandolin pages.
Jesse McReynolds Classic Bluegrass Mandolin video course
The Bluegrass Mandolin of Ronnie McCoury video course
Practice tips by John Bird http://www.co-mando.com/techniques/practice/index.htm
John Bird's practice tips at Mandozine http://www.mandozine.com/workshop/practice/practice.html
Some comments on the stresses and strains of playing fretted instruments
Chris Thile's popular instruction video Essential Techniques for Mandolin
Thoughts from Chris Thile about mandolin playing http://www.nickelcreek.com/scatterbrained.html
Lessons at Mandolin Cafe at http://www.mandolincafe.com/lessons.html or download them from http://www.mandolincafe.com/download.html
Guitar Principles - some useful ideas about learning to play, which are also applicable to mandolin http://www.guitarprinciples.com/index.html
Orrin Star offers lessons on guitar, mandolin and banjo http://flatpick.com/ostar/index2.html#Lessons
Effective Learning techniques from Paul Hawthorne - OK, it's for banjo, but the principles apply to any instrument http://www.paulhawthorne.com/effectivelearning.html
The Murphy Method home page http://www.murphymethod.com/ with links to teaching videos. Includes mandolin videos by David McLaughlin and Murphy Henry at http://www.murphymethod.com/mandolin.html ) and Red Henry's mandolin CD http://www.murphymethod.com/red.html
Good techniques page at CoMando http://www.co-mando.com/techniques/index.htm
Major site for musicians' injuries, lots of links http://www.engr.unl.edu/ee/eeshop/music.html. And another one http://www.musicianshealth.com/. There are lots of pages on this subject! Do a search, e.g with WebFerret from http://www.ferretsoft.com/netferret/index.html and use a Boolean query such as "musician"AND"injury"
Right hand position in mandolin playing http://www.co-mando.com/techniques/righthand/righthand.htm
Electric mandolin resource page and portal site. Lots of links to electric mandolin players http://www.emando.com/
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