Foreword
I would like for this book to serve as an introduction to the mandolin, as I approach it. If you are a beginner and you work your way through and follow my instructions, you’ll learn to play mandolin in a natural way without straining, develop a basic understanding of the instrument, and learn musical-sounding versions of the tunes. From this foundation you can go on to develop your own way of expressing your musical ideas. Even if you consider yourself an intermediate or advanced player, I think working your way through this book and listening carefully to the recorded examples will be very useful to you. If you can already play many of these tunes, you should listen carefully to my touch, tone and left hand techniques. I think you’ll find some more challenging material toward the end of the book. Focus on learning the nuances of expression.
I hear many players who consider themselves advanced, who rapidly reel off lengthy but musically meaningless strings of notes. I hear players who haven’t really learned the melody of a tune, but play just anything that fits the chord, thinking that if it’s fast, it’s impressive and therefore good. Not so. Check out the way I play these simple tunes and see if you can pick up on the subtleties of articulation, attack and rhythm. These make the soul of the music, not the speed or number of notes played. If you can hear and understand these things you can learn to say something with your music and express your own personality. I also see many players who really care about the music, who have listened to their predecessors carefully and are earnestly creating something of their own. I love to play with these musicians and love to see them go on and make a career of it and share their talent with others.
On the included CDs there are slow and medium tempo versions of most of the tunes (except the ones that are normally played slowly). I hope that you can initially learn a tune from the slow version, which corresponds to the tablature, and then when you are comfortable with it, you can practice it along with the medium tempo track. I don’t usually play things the same twice in a row, so on the medium tempo tracks you’ll hear a lot of variations. The guitar and mandolin are in separate stereo channels so you can use the balance control to hear only the mandolin or guitar. Don’t forget to practice your rhythm playing along with the CD too. Find some other bluegrass players as soon as you can and start playing with them. Don’t wait till you’re perfect, or you’ll never do it! There are mandolin and bluegrass email discussion lists where you can share your questions, opinions and resources with other mandolin players. For links see www.rolandwhite.com.
An essential part of learning to play bluegrass mandolin (or any instrument in any genre) is listening to the classics. I strongly urge you to buy Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, Stanley Brothers, and Osborne Brothers recordings from the early days and listen to them carefully, and repeatedly. I could list more but that’s the best place to start. There’s no substitute for learning from these sources. Explore as much as you can, go to all the performances and jams that you can, listen to all the instruments, listen to how they support the vocals and listen to how a band works together. As your musical hearing grows so will your playing.
-Roland