Mandolin Adventures 3-DVD Value Pack – Norman Blake, Steve James, Tim O’Brien
The Mandolin of Norman Blake
Traditional and Original Tunes and Techniques
Before there was bluegrass there were fiddle tunes, mostly brought to these shores from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Norman and Nancy Blake teach beautiful, little-known old-time and original instrumentals in the Celtic and Southern mountain tradition.
All of the tunes presented here will be easy to learn by intermediate-level mandolinists. Norman and Nancy Blake have chosen hauntingly beautiful mandolin instrumentals in the Celtic and Southern mountain traditions. Each of the tunes is a gem chosen for easy learning by intermediate-level mandolin players. The duo generously shares tips and advice on tuning, phrasing, ornamentation, double-stops, tremolos, drones, split strings and other essential topics.
Norman teaches lovely traditional tunes, playing each one up to speed and then slowed down as our split-screen close-ups capture both the picking and the fingering in detail. You’ll learn little-known pieces like John Brown’s March, Campbell’s Farewell To Red Gap and The Hollow Poplar. Nancy shows you how to play her own Father’s Hall. Norman’s slow Irish air The Little Fair Child features tremolo, and the spectacular Jack Danielson’s Reel, with its leaps up and down the neck, challenges players with more advanced technique. Green Castle Hornpipe, and two duets, Mandolin Fanfare and Blake’s March, close this excellent lesson.
Extra: Norman uses prized vintage instruments to demonstrate differences in tone, including his “Style B” Lyon & Healy, a 1914 Martin, a 1914 Gibson “A4”, a 1922 white-top “A3” and a 1923 Lloyd Loar “F5.”
Level 3 • 90 minutes
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Learn To Play Blues Mandolin
Steve James
In the early days of the last century, the mandolin gained popularity both as a blues instrument and as the backbone of the early African American string bands. Several of these groups added mandolin to guitars, banjos, fiddles, jugs and kazoos to play energetic and heart-felt renditions of blues and ragtime songs. Bluegrass players, from Bill Monroe onward, incorporated blues licks into their playing. Steve James knows this music and its history well, and he brings it clearly into focus on this fun and funky lesson.
Mandolin novices will start out by learning a basic G scale and how to alter it to create a blues scale. After demonstrating his pick strokes and tremolo technique, Steve dives right into Divin’ Duck Blues by the great Yank Rachell. Steve and John Sebastian, another jug band and blues enthusiast, perform the tune, and then Steve takes it apart, note-by-note.
Steve lays out some of the primary blues chords on the mandolin, showing how it can become a wonderful accompanying instrument with the use of partial chords for rhythm comping. Turnarounds, double stops and variations on a walking boogie-woogie line are all essential parts of a blues repertoire, and Steve shows several of these, including a variation he learned directly from the legendary Howard Armstrong.
From there he launches into some powerful and challenging songs, each one of which shows you something new on the instrument. The Lonesome Train That Carried My Gal Away, from the recordings of Charlie McCoy and the Mississippi Sheiks, is a good-time tune that Steve plays on banjo-mandolin while John accompanies him on 6-string banjo. Big Joe Williams’ Juanita Stomp is played on a “high-strung” mandolin (the lower strings are tuned to octaves) and features a rockin’ blues riff in A. Steve’s raucous original, Saturday Night in Jail, contains double stops, chord comps, blues licks and scales and, as Steve puts it, “fun-lovin’ high-jinks.” Steve and John close the lesson with a performance of Shotgun Blues, which Steve plays on an electric mandolin that once belonged to Yank Rachell.
Level 2 • 60 minutes
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The Mandolin and Bouzouki of Tim O’Brien
Playing Celtic, Bluegrass and Contemporary Songs
Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien’s artistry is unique, crossing boundaries between bluegrass, old time, Irish, country and folk music styles. His heartfelt singing, instrumental virtuosity and profound songwriting have put him at the very pinnacle of today’s acoustic performers.
Tim O’Brien’s course will be a boon to mandolin and bouzouki (octave mandolin) players who want to improve their technique, develop ideas and learn new repertoire. Whether he’s breaking down an Irish slip jig, an old time mountain ballad, a bluegrass tune or an original country/pop song, Tim brings his brilliant musicianship and formidable technique to bear, making these pieces fun and enlightening for learning players.
The tunes and techniques that Tim teaches can be played on either instrument. Switching between mandolin and bouzouki (they are tuned to the same notes one octave apart), he demonstrates right and left hand techniques and the advantages of each for soloing, song accompaniment and how to get the most out of their respective textures and tonalities.
Each song or instrumental that Tim teaches will bring you greater facility on your instrument. They include Down in a Willow Garden, The High Road, Lay Down Your Weary Tune, One Girl Cried, More Love, The Kid on the Mountain and Travelers.
Note: Even if you don’t have a bouzouki, there’s plenty of material on this lesson to keep mandolinists busy for a long time!
Level 3 • 115 minutes
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