Search - Mandolin Lessons: Learn how to play Bluegrass Mandolin, instructional lesson video on DVD

Pretty good fundamentals video

traderje | Through the Window | 03/13/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Good overview of some of the fundamentals of mandolin playing. Tuning technique is the old fashioned reference pitch way. He then goes over chord structures, strumming techniques, and rhythm.

It's a fundamentals disk. It's a good running start for playing, but it is agonizingly slow paced in the begining considering it's only about an hour long. The DVD is broken into chapters but it takes him a while to get to the good stuff. You will find yourself saying "Get on with it!" But don't worry, he does get to the instruction.

A nice feature is that the short chord book and song guide is on the DVD in a PDF file for your computer or as a chapter for your DVD player. Good for people who loose things. But there wasn't a lot of substance. Three chords were fretted out for you. There was no tablature explanation or descriptions. A handful of simple songs was it. A little more to this feature could have been the package shine.

All in all it's not a bad choice for beginners at a fairly low price.
"

Beginning Mandolin-Tom Bekeny

Tammie Snyder | 04/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I really enjoyed how Tom Bekeny takes his time to explain how to really
get a solid start into Mandolin playing. Best of all, I liked the
reference library in the bonus section of the DVD. This allows you to
learn the steps at your own pace without having to try to keep up with
an instructor. There is a .pdf file in the dvd that you can access that
also contains the tablature to the lessons in the DVD. you are also
given a password to go online and download and print the lessons. Tom
covers Bluegrass "chop" chords, McReynolds Crosspicking techniques,
various scales and some Bluegrass songs like Old Joe Clark, Bile Them
Cabbage Down, On and On and others."