Search - Ultimate Beginner Bluegrass Mandolin Basics & Beyond (DVD) on DVD

Great book for beginners

Nick | Vancouver, BC, Canada | 06/12/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am new to the mandolin so I was looking for something to start me off on the right foot. I have several years of guitar behind me (as well as some violin) so I was not sure whether to start on a beginner book.

The book starts you off with the real basics (how to hold a pick, read music and tab etc). It starts you off with really slow and simple songs and introduces the bluegrass backbeat and the simple chords.

For a guitar player the first half of the book goes very quickly, but the second has held my attention for some time. It describes a good set of left and right hand practice session and slowly builds to what I would think of as more intermediate level tunes.

The tunes are all played on the CD for demonstration, but at the end of the CD there are full band arrangements of the tunes. I am not a bluegrass player, but I think one of the really neat features of the book is that you can buy corresponding versions for guitar and banjo with the same tunes and put a fun little group together.

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Ultimat Beginner Bluegrass Mandolin Basic's and Beyond

James L. Boggess Sr. | 09/15/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is by far the best DVD for beginning the Mandolin and playing bluegrss. The
instuction and instrutor moved at a very good pace. Very Good."

Excellent introduction

Tacfarinas | Swarthmore, PA USA | 03/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I tried two other introduction to the mandolin DVDs and found both of them hard to learn from (though I'm sure they have much to teach someone with more basics). This one starts with very basic instruction and moves quickly to songs and techniques that are challenging for a beginner and quite impressive. Everything is explained very clearly, and there are some nice performances (with other instruments) that are inspiring enough to push you forward. I'm actually taking private lessons as well, but we're using this disk as a starting point, which makes me even more confident that it teaches you the important stuff in the right way.

All in all, a very well thought out and helpful introduction; it uses the advantages of DVD (along with PDF files for the sheet music and tabs) to get you off (I hope) to a good start. The instructor is Dennis Caplinger, and I am very grateful to him and his colleagues."