Mandolin Lessons

My mandolin lessons so far have been from several older books that I bought years ago and a couple of newer ones. I am currently learning the notes on the first and second strings and reacquainting myself with reading music. A lot of banjo music is written in Tab (tabulature) in which, instead of a regular musical staff, the staff represents the strings on the banjo and a number appears on each line representing the fret at which the string should be pressed. Tabulature is helpful when starting as it allows you to play without first translating the music into strings and frets, etc. It can become a crutch and it is best to use it sparingly until you can play without it.

Mandolin music is also available in Tab, for some genres, but the mandolin can play so many types of music that it is best, I believe, to start with regular music notation right in the beginning. It is probably easier to use music notation with the mandolin because the tuning of the mandolin remains constant, whereas the banjo can be tuned in a number of different ways and, of course, with each tuning the location of the notes change.

So far I am playing rather rudimentary songs: Bile Them Cabbage Down, Shoo Fly, Merrily We Pick Along and Skip to My Lou. These songs use notes on the first two strings. Soon I will learn the notes on the third and fourth strings. The Mandolin Cafe has a section offering free lessons, which are very basic, but then there are offers to buy more complete lessons. The prices seem reasonable, but maybe I will wait a little while and see how I do with the books that I already have.