Mandolin Exercises For Dummies (eBook)

Don Julin is professional mandolin player, instructor and recording artist. Don has spent the last 30 years challenging the boundaries of mandolin and helping others do the same. He is the author of Mandolin For Dummies¯®.

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Ready to Practice 5

Chapter 1: Getting the Basics Sorted: Mandolin Fundamentals 7

Chapter 2: Limbering up to Get into the Groove 15

Part II: Learning Scales 25

Chapter 3: Mastering Major Scales 27

Chapter 4: Discovering Three Types of Minor Scales 37

Chapter 5: Bringing Color to Your Playing with Pentatonic and Chromatic Scales 63

Chapter 6: Connecting Scale Patterns to Extend Your Range 83

Part III: Exploring Arpeggios 93

Chapter 7: Taking Notes One at a Time: Major Arpeggios 95

Chapter 8: Seeking Darkness: Minor Arpeggios 105

Chapter 9: Adding a Fourth Note to Create Seventh Arpeggios with Major Triads 115

Chapter 10: Summoning up Seventh Arpeggios of the Minor Variety 135

Chapter 11: Creating Drama with Diminished and Augmented Arpeggios 157

Part IV: Chords 165

Chapter 12: Tying Everything Together: Diatonic Harmony 167

Chapter 13: Seeing that Less Is More with Three-String Closed Chords 177

Chapter 14: Personalizing Your Playing: Improvisation 199

Part V: The Part of Tens 207

Chapter 15: Ten Top Tunes to Put Your Skills to Good Use 209

Chapter 16: Ten Tempting Tips on Tempo to Increase Your Playing Speed 221

Appendix: Using the Audio Tracks 227

Index 233