Mastering Mandolin
Wayne Fugate
Alfred Publishing
From "The Complete Mandolin Method, Beginning, Intermediate, Mastering," and part of a collaboration of Alfred Publishing and the National Guitar Workshop.
 Nine chapters include:
1. Warm ups
2. Important Chords
3. Chord Progressions
4. Chord/Melody
5. Scales and Modes
6. Exploring the Time Signatures
7. Melodic Rhythm
8. Improvisation
9. Finding Material from Around the World
The mandolin world is fortunate to have a wealth of good beginners' pedagogical tools at its fingertips (pun intended...) through the major publishers, and many teachers also self-publish there own private stock of print learning tools. The real quest is for good, next-level intermediate "one-size-fits-all" materials. What if the beginning Bluegrass musician has mastered some fiddle tunes and wants to expand out into jazz? What if the classical mandolinist wants to leap off the printed page, diving into improvisation? What about the already proficient guitarist who successfully picked up a mandolin recently and wants to veer into a hyper-drive journey and mando potential?
Our own Mel Bay book, "Getting Into Jazz Mandolin" is complete and will assist in these needs, but isn't scheduled for release until August 2008. Until then, we'll make a pitch for more advanced/intermediate material and suggest acquiring the third book in the Alfred Series, "The Complete Mandolin Method" by Wayne Fugate, "Mastering Mandolin. "
Wayne offers a very balanced, no-nonsense approach to many advanced concepts taking already familiar elements in Harmony, Melody, and Rhythm, strategically building off them. A master musician in his own right, Fugate's experience in Bluegrass, Jazz, and Classical styles, having benefited from the tutelage of Mike Marshall and Barry Mitterhoff, has brought him to stage and studio with some of acoustic music's finest, including Tony Trischka, Mark Cosgrove, and the New York Mandolin Orchestra.
He starts as all practice sessions should, with some good Warm Ups, isolating Left Hand and Right Hand. Some of these will be familiar if you've seen Mike Marshall's Mandolin Method (reviewed on this site), having developed his technique with Marshall's previous instruction.
We go from fingers to brain as the chapter on Chords introduces chord construction and some elementary but necessary music theory. This is very thorough with many useful chord fingerings and includes a look at extending the chords to alternate positions. Next chapter advances from vertical to chord progression studies, starting with a simple Blues Pattern and on to Rhythm Changes (the second most popular stock jazz progression) with some tasty variations and ultimately, more complex Bebop alternatives. Wayne hits it home well, explaining Chord Substitutions; this is a concise but very benefical introduction to the myriad of common opportunities advanced jazzers use to spice up static choruses. He dabbles some in Chord/Melody basics, not a thorough treatise on the subject, but a terrific primer in the stylings of the great Jethro Burns.
The second section of the book is Melody, a tough subject to convey advanced material without getting bogged down with the pedantic, but he moves quickly enough and introduces cerebral but important concepts without abandoning the practical side of understanding Scales and Modes. Refreshingly, he does go beyond the bane of irresponsibly self-indulgent improvisation, (in our opinion.) the empty starch of Pentatonic Scales, that horrible crutch for all too many novice improvisers. He introduces Blues Scales, tasty Whole Tone Scales, and Altered Scales (here referred to as "Whole/Half Diminished" or "Auxiliary Diminished"). This is must-have jazz material, upper level improvisational fodder with teeth. (Leave the Pentatonic for musicians who have no teeth...) His descriptions of "mood" characteristics of modes are great for understanding how to really make music out of them.
In the third section, Time Signatures and Rhythm will be review for the trained musician, but for others he drives these fundamentals home with some tunes easily learned and demonstrative of concepts like compound and odd meter. His succeeding chapters of Melodic Rhythm and Improvisation can be a great catalyst to empower the musician too timid to improvise or create a solo on the fly. Again, not intended to be overly comprehensive, there are still healthy nuggets to digest and take the player to a whole new dimension of playing.
The book includes a CD, print is big and easy to read, and perpetually practical. This would be a terrific choice for broadening the horizons of any mandolinist who is already acquainted with the notes of the fretboard and basic chording.
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