This comprehensive, user-friendly mandolin method takes you from bare-bone basics to solidly intermediate material in a single two-hour lesson. Butch Baldassari has distilled his popular teaching workshops into one jam-packed DVD, providing detailed instruction in all aspects of mandolin playing. Butch gives you exercises to build your technique and teaches you how to master fiddle tunes, take solos, and play the famous Bill Monroe licks that make up “the language of bluegrass.” He shares advice about fingering, pick control, alternate chord forms, playing scales in a variety of keys and imparts other invaluable information that will help you develop style, flair and a deep knowledge of your instrument.
Best of all, you’ll learn to play twenty songs that should be in the repertoire of every mandolinist: Little Rabbit, Arkansas Traveler, Leather Britches, Patty on the Turnpike, Honky Tonk Swing, Bluegrass Stomp, Evening Prayer Blues, I’ll Fly Away, I’m Going Back to Old Kentucky, Rebecca, Little Georgia Rose, Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior, Bile Them Cabbage Down, Sally Goodin, Angeline the Baker, Chinquapin Hunting, Big Mon, Waltz for Bill Monroe, Blackberry Blossom, Whiskey Before Breakfast.
Review:
"This video is PERFECT for the person who has a very basic knowledge of the mandolin (tuning, basic open chords) and is interested in advancing to performing some competent chops and leads as well as learning how and why certain bluegrass mandolin personalities approach the instrument to create his/her own style.... Baldassari's intelligent yet relaxed approach to teaching the mandolin makes this probably the best video to come out on learning the instrument in a long time." - The Bluegrass Journal