I want to learn how to play the mandolin. I read music, but I've never played guitar. Do I have to learn guitar first?

I want to learn how to play the mandolin. I read music, but I've never played guitar. Do I have to learn guitar first?

I've never held a guitar (or mandolin) so I don't know positions. I do read music (sing, play piano, various other instruments), so I understand chords, but I don't know how to read tablature. I'm planning to teach myself the mandolin (if possible) until I'm confident taking lessons from a teacher.Do I have to start with guitar before moving to mandolin?

And, are there decent books for Mandolin beginners? Who makes a good mandolin for around $500? Asked by mezzogirl 47 months ago Similar questions: learn play mandolin read music played guitar Entertainment > Music > Music Instruments.

Similar questions: learn play mandolin read music played guitar.

Guitar not necessary, lessons online, and Michael Kelly or Kentucky, A-Style I picked up mandolin after playing guitar for many years, and I actually felt like I had to "unlearn" quite a bit in order to play mandolin You should have no difficulty learning mando, and you're better off focusing on it solely, rather than throwing guitar into the mix, if you don't currently play either. There are some good starter books out there; I just saw that a new one was published by Mel Bay in a news story on the front page of Mandolin Cafe (mandolincafe.com). Speaking of which... they have a pretty extensive online lessons library to help you get started.

FWIW, I picked up a good instructional DVD by Chris Thile (of Nickel Creek) from Homespun. They have a pretty vast library of instructional videos, ranging in target audience from beginner to accomplished player. Www.homespuntapes.com.In the $500 range, you're probably looking at an instrument built in a Chinese factory - but there are some good ones out there.

Kentucky and Michael Kelly are pretty good. In this price range, resist the urge to pay for that fancy strap hanger (the scroll) on an F-style - you get more tone and playability for the money in an A-style (teardrop-shaped) instrument. Have fun!

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Learn the Mandolin first I have both a guitar and mandolin, and you absolutely don't need to know one to learn the other. In fact, I think knowing how to play guitar has made it more difficult for me to learn mandolin, because when I see a chord my fingers want to play it like it's fingered on the guitar, but it's completely different on the mandolin. The sizes of the instruments make a huge difference as well.

If you learn to play guitar first, you'll just get used to the wide, long neck, which is so much different from the tiny little mandolin fret board. Since you already read music and understand chords, you should not have too much trouble picking up a mandolin and learning some basic music right away. I would recommend checking out guitarcenter.Com , Musician's Friend and Zzounds.

Com to see what kind of deals you can find. I've ordered from all three places in the past, and have had good results with each of them. Just take a look online and see what kind of deals there are out there, so when you go into a music store you know what range you're looking for.

Then go to a real music store and try out some mandolins. See how they feel. Listen to them as you play.

If you're nervous, ask a sales person to make some recommendations in your price range, and to play them for you so you can hear how they sound. If they can offer you a better deal than the website, go ahead and get it there. If not, take notes and see what prices you can get for the same model online.

Then just pick up a couple of books and maybe a CD or DVD play along. I bought a super-cheap mandolin and guitar package just so I could learn mandolin and have a junk guitar to take to the beach, and with a couple of books I was playing in a couple of hours. I'm still not any good, but it is easy to get started :) Have fun!

MightyCow_DontFollow's Recommendations Teach Yourself to Play Mandolin Amazon List Price: $12.50 Used from: $8.30 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 7 reviews) How To Play Mandolin Amazon List Price: $12.95 Used from: $6.25 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 2 reviews) Teach Yourself to Play Mandolin (Bluegrass Basics Ultimate Beginner) Amazon List Price: $14.95 Used from: $6.99 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) How to Play Mandolin Amazon List Price: $5.95 Used from: $2.99 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) Learn to Play Bluegrass Mandolin Amazon List Price: $14.95 Used from: $14.95 Average Customer Rating: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) Learn to Play Irish Mandolin Amazon List Price: $112.507 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 1 reviews) I don't have any of these specific books, but the two I have are almost identical anyway. You just need some basics about tuning, strumming, fingering, chords, and so forth plus some simple songs and exercises to get started..

No, you don't have to learn guitar first My daughter plays string instruments so after years of lessons, I have some experience. Her first teacher taught mandolin and he taught even small children who had never had any other lessons. Why do you want to teach yourself before you get a teacher?

Starting lessons from the beginning will keep you from having to un-learn any bad positioning or form that you may inadvertantly develop by teaching yourself. That being said, I'll put some resources at the bottom of the page which would help you to get started. I learned early on to look for instruments on ebay.

There are lots more people who buy an expensive instrument only to realize that it was more fun to think about playing it than it was to actually play it and will sell them for cheap on ebay. I have purchased three instruments (string) there and daughter's teachers have been amazed to see the quality for so little money. Do your research, you can get one for way less than $500.

I hope you enjoy your time playing! SOTWord's Recommendations Beginning Mandolin (Book & Cd) Amazon List Price: $19.95 Used from: $17.99 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 10 reviews) Teach Yourself Bluegrass Mandolin (Teach Yourself Bluegrass) Bk/CD (Teach Yourself Bluegrass) (Teach Yourself Bluegrass) (Teach Yourself Bluegrass) Amazon List Price: $17.95 Used from: $9.950 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 7 reviews) Mel Bay First Lessons Mandolin Amazon List Price: $19.950 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 2 reviews) Absolute Beginners Mandolin (Absolute Beginners) Amazon List Price: $9.950 Used from: $9.950 Mel Bay's Mandolin Wall Chart Amazon List Price: $9.950 The Encyclopedia Of Mandolin Chords Amazon List Price: $17.95 Used from: $9.952 .

You don't have to play guitar first. I got up one day and I wanted to play the mandolin so I went down to the music store and rented one. You don't have to play guitar to play mandolin.

They are not that similar. It cost about $15 a month to rent. I'm not sure of the brand but at first, to learn, you don't really want something expensive.

You can move up in quality when you get better. I got a mandolin book. It was called "You can teach yourself Mandolin".

The book is good. It taught me about all the mandolin parts, tunning, scales and lot of chords. From there you can take it to a more advanced books.

Good luck with your mandolin playing.

No need to lear guitar I don't see why you should start with guitar if you want to play mandolin. I played guitar a little when I was a teenager and I recently picked up the mandolin. The instruments are not tuned the same, so guitar is a whole different fingering pattern.

The only benefit I can think of to starting with guitar is that those mandolin strings really cut into your fingers in ways guitar strings don't. But you'll get callouses pretty quickly. I've been teaching myself with the Hal Leonard beginner book which is adequate if uninspiring.

I also go on chordie. Com and look up songs I want to play. The site allows you to have any song (with chords) transposed to mandolin chords so it can be quite fun to turn up the ipod on my speakers and play along.

I also knew how to read music and this was probably the most helpful thing for starting on my own with a book, so I think you're in good shape! I got my beginner's mandolin online from the mandolin store. They set it up for you which is great and saves lots of heartache and difficulty.

I paid around $200. A good brand of mandolin, if you are going to pay $500 would be Kentucky. I would urge you NOT to buy from musiciansfriend or other mega sites as they do not set the instrument up for you.

I like musiciansfriend and bought my tuner and picks from them, but not the instrument. Good luck and I hope this helps! It is really a FUN instrument and you will find, with the strings tuned in fifths, that you will be playing songs right away..

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