• Media Softcover with CD 64 Pages

• Book/CD Pack by Fred Sokolow and Bob Applebaum

• Author: Bob Applebaum

Throughout the CD the person playing the demonstrations flubs notes (they buzz, they're accidentally muted and so on) and his high E strings are quite often out of tune to each other. His low G strings don't so much ring as "plunk". Several times throughout the CD his instrument is out of tune to itself.

In the chapters on "chop" chords he lets his chords ring way to long. The CD examples are NOT chops, they're short duration chords. A chop should sound like "Chunk Chunk Chunk", not "Bling Bling Bling"

If I was to place the playing on this CD in a mandolin contest I'd say that it's solidly intermediate level playing, but certainly not advanced. Listen to Chris Thile to hear how clearly played notes should sound.

The only reason I give the book 3 stars is because the actual content is pretty good. There are many places to get this information, but this is a good reference to have a bunch of scale and arpeggio information in the same place. His two note chop positions are really usefull, he just doesn't play them as true chops on the CD.

So consider this book with a grain of salt. It's decent for a workout book, but it works best as a suppliment to a good teacher or to other books. I wouldn't take this book's CD as an example of the proper way to play.

31 of 37 found the following review helpful:


Gotta' start somewhere  Dec 27, 2005 By Jorge Barbarosa "the_bassist"
Okay... we've had good and bad reviews. I am approaching this from a music instructor (albeit a mandolin, guitar, bass "teacher") BUT also... one who teaches students MUSIC... not INSTRUMENT instructions.

Here's what I think:

The book is okay; no it's good. The book provides some good basic advice, shows the reader a "course to pursue" but... doesn't teach it for you... THAT'S YOUR JOB. That's why it doesn't come with a nanny... the CD IS the instructor.

Practice... Rehearse.... Exercise.... Devote.... those are terms which YOU... the reader HAVE to employ in your DAILY routine.

Like bongos or Harmonica.... whatever. The text provides 90 percent of what you need. YOU have to provide the other 10 percent and MAKE IT WORK... GIT 'R DONE. It's really up to you.

Wanna lesson...

(1) check out Carl Culpeper's "Terrifying Techniques for Guitar" and employ the same system to mandolin.

(2) Develop a list of tunes you can play... and

(3) Expand that list

(4) Change Keys for ever song. Know them all in 2, or 3 keys. Make one key a flatted key so piano and woodwinds will enjoy playing with you. Or visa versa.

(5) Search out standards, ballads, classical (Bach is GREAT). And incorporate the masters into your learning. Not just the folk music or old time aspects of the instrument. ** The mandolin has a deep history with lots of classical influences.

(6) Search out Violin music... same tuning and LOTS of it out there. There's plenty on line, use it to your advantage.

(7) LEARN TO READ MUSIC. Tab has it's uses... but notation speaks the language.

'nuff said. GIT 'R DONE

Seriously? Seriously.

12 of 14 found the following review helpful:


Freting about Fretboard Roadmaps for the Mandolin  Aug 02, 2005 By Chris A. Murphy
Overall - the book is pretty good. It has some neat licks in it and the CD is sorta helpful. Only "sorta" in that the idea is to teach a new song, scale, etc, but the speed of the recording is way faster than a beginner can play. It should have some slower versions of the songs available (like Jay Buckey does with his instruction manuals).

I do like the simple cords chart at the beginning of the book and I am using them already. I also like the simple fret board map with all the notes indicated. I used that to label the position of all the notes on my fretboard.

Try this - next time you are changing your strings, puch out some holes with a one hole punch in a sheet of self adhesive labels. Carefully stick the circle on your fret board and label the note (using the above mention fret board map) with a fine point sharpie. It really helps me to see the notes I am playing and eventually, I'll have them memorized.

8 of 9 found the following review helpful:


Still Asking for Directions  Aug 26, 2005 By d'pepper mingori
I bought this based on the 'generally' positive reviews above, but have been basically disappointed. The premise of the book is to show 'essentials' of mandolin patterns from various styles, but the text and (particularly) the graphics are so obtuse as to almost be useless. Why reinvent the wheel? Just use basic musical notation and skip trying to come up with new graphics that are more confusing than helpful. As to the 'essentials', the book jumps from style to style, pattern to pattern without building much in the way of a clear logic or development.

All in all pretty disappointing. Find another way to get to Mandotown.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:


A good value!  Aug 05, 2009 By Ernie Wild "Eddie"
This is a good course. It does what it promises to do. Teaches you to play and THINK! This is NOT a "how to play the mandolin" book. It's not for beginners! Like the other courses in the "Roadmaps" series it's for intermediates who are in a rut and need to learn their way around the neck and styles and how to apply them. This book screams think, THINK! If you apply what's here you will become a much better mandolin player. For the price I'd say it's a bargin. It's a subtle course. Just when you think you have a section all figured out something else pops into your mind. That's what it's designed to do! It's a course designed to make you think!

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