by Joe Carr
Many students and mando-friends I have met on the Internet read tablature but struggle over reading basic music notation. I did too all through my 20s until my wife who had learned to read music as a high school flute player helped me through what I was doing wrong.  I adapted this approach to the mandolin.
To share this easier sight-reading approach, I established a Yahoo group dedicated to beginning music reading for the mandolin located at http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/mandonotes/
Why should you learn to read? As a musician, I always felt …

by Joe Mendel
PDF
 Walt Kuhlman had an early interest in music, but didn’t begin playing an instrument until after high school, when he got his first guitar. He joined the Peace Corp. and in the mid-1970’s ended up in Ecuador, where everyone played some type of musical instrument for their own entertainment. There where flutes & guitars, and a few Cuatros, as well as a variety of other instruments. There were lots of local luthiers and Walt decided that he wanted to build a guitar, so he approached one of the …

by Wendy Anthony
The Tune:
Cindy, in the Key of D, is another popular Old-Time fiddle tune that is also known as (a.k.a.) Get Along Home Cindy, Cindy

Listen to the MIDI: 120 | 160 bpm
Printable Sheet Music: pdf

Techniques:

Chords: Part A starts & stays on the D (I) chord, until changing to A (V) for the 7th measure, before returning to D (I). Part B starts on the G (IV) chord for 2 measures, changes to D (I) for 2 measures, changes to G (IV) for another 2 measures, before finishing similar …

 by Matt Raum
  This issue’s tune is the very standard Blackberry Blossom.  The video shows me playing the tune at 60 beats per minute and then at 114 beats per minute.  Practice slowly at first and then gradually increase the tempo until you can play it at jam session speed.

PDF

For more videos and to buy my books, visit my website at…
 www.mattraum.com  
Also visit my youtube channel at…
 http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=mattraum – g/u

by Michael B. Gregory
We feature in this issue a somewhat rare polka that I learned from the playing of a young fiddler named Geraldine O’Callaghan.  She hails from Freemount, County Cork.  She is also a first-class Sliabh Luachra fiddler.  I first learned of Geraldine when a good friend sent me this URL which links to an archived radio program:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thebloomofyouth/1237648.html
Select the August 4th program to listen.
Presented by Kieran Hanrahan, the program is called the Bloom of Youth. It is a series of programs featuring the younger traditional musicians of Ireland. Geraldine …

by Ted Eschliman
 PDF
The Augmented 11th. A new vocabulary for a new voice…
Last session we took a close look at the construction of what we consider the second most important scale pattern in jazz, eclipsed only by the Major Scale. We examined several ways of approaching the scale, calling it a Mixolydian with a raised 4th, or a Lydian mode with a lowered 7th. We also mentioned its relationship to the Altered Scale and the Melodic Minor (ascending). Hopefully all this theory didn’t have you running for the hills; really the …

by Michael B. Gregory
Back in June 2007 we featured a pair of hornpipes that proved to be very popular among our readers.
We hope the same will be true for the pair we feature in this issue. I learned them from a wonderful new CD titled “The Millstream” To my knowledge, the CD is currently only available in Ireland but you can listen to an archived radio interview with the two main
players (Dan Herlihy on accordion and Wayne Taren on mandolin) here:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thelatesession/1250078.html by scrolling to the bottom of the page and selecting …

by Matt Raum
I’ll be contributing an article to this site that brings you a jam session standard fiddle tune every issue.  These will be the tunes that you are likely to encounter at jam sessions and should know, regardless of your skill level. We’ll start off here with St. Anne’s Reel.
Here’s a  video of me playing it on YouTube, first slowly and then faster so you can play along.

PDF

For more videos and to buy my books and CDs, check out my website here…
http://web.me.com/mattraum/Site/Home.html
Good luck and please email me through my …