Complete Mandolin Method Complete Edition: Book & Online Audio (Complete Method)

Greg Home has written an excellent book that is well organized and follows a very logical progression for learning how to play a mandolin. The book physically is rather large (9x12 inches...23x30 cm) with 288 pages. It fits nicely on a music stand and will stay open on front and back pages without breaking the book's back. The print size is sufficient that you can read the text and music with the book placed on a music stand. Unlike most mandolin books that use tabular and generally ignore teaching the reader how to read music, Horne drops tabs very early and concentrates on teaching the reader how to read music as well as know and understand music theory. The book is broken into three sections... beginner, intermediate, and master. Horne progresses with step by step lessons having meaningful exercises that support the material the author wishes the reader to know. A CD is also provided so the reader can hear what an exercise sounds like when played by someone knowing how to play a mandolin. If the reader follows the progression laid out in the book, masters the exercises for each lesson as they come up, and follows the author's recommendations regarding how and when to pratice; there is an excellent chance that the reader will also master the mandolin. The one weakness in the book is that there are not enough exersices for each lesson. Additional exercises would provide more variety for the learner to master. This, most likely, is a trade-off made by the author as adding more exercises would result in a book that is unwieldy thick and difficult to use. An alternative would have been to break the book into three volumes with more exercises; eg, a beginners book, a intermediate book, and a master's book. Three volumes would also have increased the price. In any case, the exercises provided for each lesson are adequate for the purpose. Keep in mind that the book is meant to teach someone how to play a mandolin. It is not a mandolin song book. If you are looking for a book having songs then you should look for another book. However if you are wanting to learn how to play a mandolin then consider this book.

As a guitar player, I have a little head start learning the mandolin. This book has been perfect for me. I'm well into the intermediate section after a few weeks and have learned a ton. Plus, he gets you playing stuff that sounds good from very early in the method. He encourages smart learning techniques like working on different sections, having a few projects, working/memorizing in chunks, etc. Lots of good music theory here too. If you're a complete newbie to stringed/fretted instruments this book will also be a very good place to start. I'd also recommend perhaps checking a few youtube videos helping you to hold the instrument properly, etc., as their are limitations to the book/audio format. Oh, while I'm on that - the included MP3 are excellent as well and are a great aid when learning the material. I loaded mine onto my tablet and play it from there as I work through the book. It's much harder to learn from written music/tab alone.

This is not only a terrific book on learning the mandolin, it's a terrific book on learning music from the ground up. Absolutely a terrific value, I wouldn't hesitate to have paid three times the price once I saw how much was packed here. This book is also sold as three separate volumes but the single edition is a much better value. Personally being a violin player I liked how he immediately introduces both tabs and standard music notation.

Great for beginners! But if you aren't a fast study then I would recommend maybe a video tutorial that's more hands on. Or even a class with a teacher. I myself am not a fast study and I learned very fast!

I've had a chance to go through this book and dvd; first of all, all the audio tracks in the book do not exist on the cd/dvd. Second of all, they leave out some critical information about learning the mandolin techniques and I ended up looking up stuff on youtube to explain what they did not.

Superb Clear and concise language. I play a few instruments. None well. Decided to get serious with the mandolin and found this. Will toss my music theory books. Horne spells it out very well. Wish I had started with this.

I've just bought a Mandolin, although I love the 'sound' I have no idea how to play it, so I ordered this manual to see if I could learn something ? I think the book is very well portraid & gives easy and understandable instructions. I am very hopefull that I will be able to learn to play the Mandolin !! I would defintely reccomend it to anyone else who is learning.

Went on a Mando kick and have ordered 8 books. This is the most comprehensive one yet. Covers a wide range of styles so when I get this down I could play and understand just about every style, with a lot of practice of course.