Best books about mandolins according to redditors

The Hal Leonard Mandolin Fakebook has a diverse selection of 300 tunes in it. Everything from contemporary pop to more traditional songs. You will need to be able to read sheet music though.

sites to help

www.mandolincafe.com

chordlist.brian-amberg.de/en/mandolin/

www.chordie.com

www.folkofthewood.com

this is the book i started with and i think it definitely helped me get a good grasp on playing.

http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Mandolin-Book-Greg-Horne/dp/0739034715

watch your right and left hand technique from the beginning. don't wanna pick up any bad habits that will require more effort to fix down the road.

Learn your scales.
you can learn them by remembering major scales move in the order of WHOLE STEP > WHOLE STEP > HALF STEP > WHOLE STEP > WHOLE STEP > WHOLE STEP > HALF STEP.
Minor scales move in the order Whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step

I'm by no means a great mandolin player, but I was happy with Beginning Mandolin by Greg Horne.

If you're going to build a mandolin, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It was an excellent resource when I built mine, even in addition to the dozen books I already owned about building guitars:

https://www.amazon.com/Mandolin-Project-Workshop-Building-Mandolins/dp/0980476208/

Covers everything from flat-tops to A-style carved-tops. I once even wrote the author to ask for clarification on a topic and he responded the next day.

There's not as formal of a progression with mandolin as there are with more established jazz/classical instruments. I think the closest that you're going to find would be a book like The Complete Mandolinist. It has a decidedly classical bent to it, but it's a single book but it was created to be used progressively rather than a random selection of tunes.

I've also heard good things about Horne's series. but they are well reviewed. More folk/bluegrassy oriented.

It doesn't answer your question, but depending on your level and what you're looking for, there are two books that I have that are more exercise oriented that focus on a progressive approach to learning imrpovisation and the fretboard-- Esichman's getting into Jazz Mandolin has years worth of exercises to develop a Jazz vocabulary and fretboard knowledge.

And Petersen's Guide to Bluegrass Improvisation focuses on building a bluegrass improv vocabulary.

Sorry I don't have much more help, but I don't know if there is a correct answer to this one.

If you can read music then this is a great start. It starts off pretty easy but quickly challenges you in sight reading. Other than that there are plenty fiddle tune fake books around.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0871667630

Fake book suggestion-
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0825602394/ref=mw_dp_img?is=l

If you can find a used copy of Dave Peters Masters of Mandolin, I'd recommend getting it. It has a ton of breaks tabbed out from several genres (from Grisman and Burns to Monroe and Lawson). I'd also recommend the Mandolin Picker's Fakebook. It has 250 fiddle tunes ranging from well known to obscure.

The thing that strikes me about MM when listening to his instructional videos on YouTube is that when talking music (not posture, not technique, but notes) he talks like an improviser... which can be hard to follow if you don't already know lots of scales and chord progressions. "So in this lick you can throw in a C here, which gives it a little bluesy sound." "Well why the hell does it DO that, Mike?" So I've been a little reluctant to sign up for his courses. Awesome player, but communication-wise, might be better to learn from someone who has had to articulate all of this stuff for themselves because it didn't come naturally.

For theory: You may want a book. You could go for a straight-up music theory book, but for something geared towards mandolin, I think that the book by Horne and Fugate did an okay job on theory. Mike Marshall also publishes an "Improvisational Concepts" book for mandolin (look at Elderly.com for it, I think). It is a little sparse, but if you are willing to work with the exercises and design some of your own it can work. Pretty bluegrass specific, but I think this book is outstanding, lots of depth, slowly ratchets up your improv level.

For technique: Watch videos and mimic. Video yourself practicing (it helps!)

Learning random songs: There is a lot to be said for learning random songs as a tool for learning theory...as long as you are consciously connecting it to the theory, rather than just playing tab. I like the Jethro Burns mandolin book for this reason. It looks mostly like a big collection of songs...but Jethro is the absolute freaking master of licks, turnarounds, and finishes. If you spend some time figuring out how his licks work with the chord progressions and melody you will not be sorry.

You may be a different type of learner.

Consider getting a book and learning at your own pace. A book like this was good for me to start- easy chord shapes, well known songs in easy keys.

Pick some songs and learn them as chord only versions and then if you like them and want to extend yourself there are small solos in each of them.

I got this book by Carlo Aonzo recently and I've been enjoying it. The first few pieces are pretty straightforward, then the later tunes are a lot more complex.

I've recommended this book for a long time: https://www.amazon.com/Irish-Mandolin-Playing-Complete-Guide/dp/0786687649

Lots of fundamentals as well as advanced stuff. Classic book.

Do you have prior experience with stringed instruments? If so I strongly suggest The Mandolin Picker's Guide To Bluegrass Improvisation, and Getting Into Jazz Mandolin, the don't require a lot of experience, but you might struggle if you have none at all. I'm sure some ones suggested Mandolin Cafe, but If you are a complete beginner, Folk of the Wood Is another good place to start.

That's badass, dude. Hope it goes well. At any rate, those jams are fun as hell but there's invariably a learning curve if it's your first time. If you don't know it yet, you can use www.thesession.org to find jams (as well as tunes, etc.).

Try learning one of the Bach Cello Suites if you want to expand your technique. Most of them are pretty easy. The violin partitas, on the other hand, are quite a bit more advanced.

I also can't recommend Jesper Rübner-Petersen's The Mandolin Picker's Guide to Bluegrass Improvisation enough.

In my blueglass ensemble class we used 50 Tunes for Mandolin, Vol. 1: Traditional, Old Time, Bluegrass & Celtic Solos by Mark Geslison. Here's the Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bay-Tunes-Mandolin-Vol/dp/0786664649/ . Looks like there's a newer version here: https://www.amazon.com/50-Tunes-Mandolin-Traditional-Bluegrass/dp/0786687487 . Includes staff notation, tablature, and audio. Has a nice variety of tunes.

Don Stiernberg is the man! Thanks for posting this, I didn’t realize he did lessons like these. I’d also recommend anyone interested in jazz on the mandolin pick up his book Jazz Mandolin Appetizers. It assumes you’re starting with an intermediate understanding of the mandolin, but it has some great bits of wisdom in it, especially the section on chord melodies.

I recently picked up a copy of this book and have been extremely pleased with the approachability for newcomers as well as the depth of lessons as you get more advanced http://www.amazon.com/presents-Mandolin-Pickers-Bluegrass-Improvisation/dp/078668237X

Gives you exercises to help you learn the scales and theory behind what you're playing as opposed to just a lead sheet or fakebook.

all the standards of most styles can be found in this book

https://www.amazon.com/Mandolin-Pickers-Guide-Bluegrass-Improvisation/dp/078668237X

Do you want a theory book, go over pentatonics/3 minor scales, chords to learn after major/minor triads? The above is really good, but you can learn that from a lot of books in yoru library, this is another https://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Theory-Dummies-Online-Instruction/dp/1118646770/

The other, non theory way to go is to listen to lots of version of, say, Whiskey before breakfast, hear all the melody, harmonic and rhythmic variations and incorporate that into your playing without thinking "oh year, this picker really like mixolydian"

Just got this book and it is awesome! I love Django Reinhardt so this was a perfect find for me: https://www.amazon.com/Gypsy-Swing-Mandolin-Play-Along-5/dp/1458413942

I also feel ya, I actually don't like bluegrass. Use to, but not really my thing these days. Lots of classical stuff you can learn as well as mentioned in other comments (mandolin=violin.)

https://www.amazon.com/Bach-Sonatas-Partitas-Mandolin-transcribed/dp/1492218812

There's actually quite a bit of tablature out there.

https://www.amazon.com/Kenny-Halls-Music-Book-Old-Time/dp/0786632593/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1550106264&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=kenny+hall

Not modern tunes, but a great “fake book” that covers abroad range of tunes and gives personal stories about a very interesting fiddler/mandolinist.