Celebrated young mandolin player, composer, and instructor Tristan Scroggins has a new release from Troy Nelson Music.
Called How to Play Mandolin in 14 Days: Daily Lessons for Absolute Beginners, the book offers a quick start method for those completely new to mandolin. Rather than try to compile everything you would ever need to know about learning an instrument into a single volume, this publisher specializes in these 14-day editions to get you making music right away through their ‘read it, hear it, play it’ format.
You could feasibly borrow a mandolin from a friend and, with this book, be playing tunes and rhythm accompaniment at the end of two weeks. That is a small enough investment of time to see if the mandolin appeals to you, with the added benefit of possibly developing a new passion and a personal outlet for musical expression.
Tristan provides simple exercises that will have you playing double stops and using tremolo right away, while also learning some basic major and minor chords. He also covers proper right and left hand technique and important strum patterns, with the result being you playing complete songs in your initial two week period.
When you get the book, you receive a code that provides online streaming or downloadable audio files that accompany the lessons. All the exercises and material in the book are presented through tab and fingerboard diagrams so you don’t need to read music. Though not geared only towards playing bluegrass, the book does include the popular fiddle tune, Angeline The Baker.
The 80 page How To Play The Mandolin in 14 Days is available from Amazon in either a paperback or Kindle edition.
If you have a mandolin resting in its case, or want to get one and try your hand at learning to play it, Scroggins’ new book is a quick and inexpensive way to get started. After going through this 14 day program, you can move on to other online or video instruction, all of which is available through Tristan’s web site.
