Mel Bay Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide
by Phillip John Berthoud
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Book Summary Information
Author: Phillip John BerthoudEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-06
ISBN: 078667072X
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
Book Reviews of Mel Bay Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide
Book Review: excellent, but not well-known
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's how much I like this book:
I have a vast collection of mandolin anthologies and methods. Once I reached intermediate level, I had no shortage of books to graduate to. This was the one I picked, even though I have no interest in Irish music.
It's an impressive method. It is both a collection of songs (in standard and with TAB) and etudes designed to acclimatize the student to the Irish style. There's lots of discussion of tricky points, so at no point do you feel the book's ever abandoned you.
The CD has no accompaniment: it's just the guy playing the unadorned melody.
Some drawbacks:
1. The guy invites you to play along with the CD but never says "1 & 2 & . . . " on the recordings, so you're gonna miss the first couple of measures as your hand moves from your mouse to your mandolin.
2. I think it does a crummy job of actually teaching you how to read standard notation: there's an appendix, but a lot of stuff is covered as it comes up in the songs. It's a mess, in other words. You should probably learn how to do that before coming to this book as I imagine that if you were to come to this book looking to learn how to read standard notation, it would be quite frustrating. Thank God I learned that elsewhere.
3. To my amazement the book doesn't seem to be arranged in order of difficulty. There are some comparatively difficult pieces right out of the gate, and a slew of easy ones bringing up the rear. It presents itself as a book that progresses you along, but the songs actually seem to be decreasing in difficulty!
4. Not much variation in the actual songs: after a while they start sounding robotically like one another: just a simple treble line with nary a doublestop in sight, or much real variation. Is this just Irish music?
Summary of Mel Bay Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide
This is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Irish mandolin playing. As well as being a complete guide for the absolute beginner, this book also contains a mine of information, useful tips and ideas for the experienced player. The book takes the reader from the basics of the mandolin right through to more advanced topics such as creating variations, emphasis, improvisation, playing with other musicians, practicing effectively and much more. All the tunes and key exercises in the book are included on the accompanying 63 track CD. There is no need to read conventional music notation as all the music is written in easy-to-read mandolin tablature. However, for those interested in learning about music notation there is a handy section on this subject tailored specifically to the mandolinist as well as a chapter on modes.Instruments & Performers Books
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