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MANDOLIN LESSON 1 - by Bradley Laird
HOW TO GET STARTED
These lessons are devised to get your off the ground with your mandolin
playing. It is just a bare-bones, get-you-started sort of introduction.
In them you will learn the basics. You will learn to read tablature.
You will learn to play some tunes. And you will learn to form some
chords.
WORDS OF CAUTION
If you work with these lessons for more than a few weeks on your own
it is possible that you could be doing everything wrong. Lack of
knowledge and experience might give you the impression that you are
progressing just fine but you might be acquiring some habits which
could strangle your ability to progress later.
Most beginning mandolin books, and most advanced ones for that
matter, don't do a very good job of explaining some MAJOR
concepts and practice methods that can help you progress to your
maximum potential. You
might say "I just want to learn to pick a little for my own enjoyment" and
you might later wish you had some things straightened out before
they became bad habits.
These
lessons will not explain everything. Please explore some of the other
materials that I have available. "Mandolin
Master Class" is
all about concepts, how to practice, and music theory ideas that
will help you learn to play. "Mandolin
Training Camp" expands on those ideas with detailed
discussions about the mental aspects of learning to play, the mechanics
of
finger and pick motion and presents a rigorous set of exercises to
get your fingers under control. If you work from these basic lessons
and do not have that other information you might pay for it later.
All that sounds pretty negative, and perhaps it sounds like a sales
pitch, but I have been where you are. I picked up a mandolin
(in the late 1970's) and taught myself. I did OK. But, over time
I began to regret that I didn't understand certain IMPORTANT CONCEPTS
early in my playing. I am suggesting all of this so that you can
avoid the frustrations
that I personally have experienced. In a nutshell, learning right from
the beginning is much easier than re-learning later. Incidentally,
those two books I mentioned as detailed as they are (something
like 160 pages total with
2 CDs) still won't answer every question and solve every riddle. Learning
to play a mandolin is an endless road of continuous learning.
NOW, LET'S HAVE SOME FUN WITH THIS THING...
Grab your mandolin. Go to Lesson
2 and we'll continue.
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