Piper - Posted - 12/05/2015:  09:03:08

I am a new mandolin player and have been teaching myself for a couple weeks now out of a beginners mandolin book. I already read sheet music pretty well, and the book focuses on teach you mando in correlation to sheet music. I have been looking for mandolin sheet music online to practice, but mostly what I find is for piano & guitar. Is there some sheet music for other instruments that can be played on the mando? or am I reduced to the old timey pickin' books found at your local music shop until I can figure music out by ear?

I don't find many tabs for mando online either. Am I looking in the right places? How do mando players figure out how to play some of the music they want to play w/o figuring out by ear?

Texasbanjo - Posted - 12/06/2015:  05:10:19

There's 451 tabs in the tab archive.  You might start there.  

You might checkout mandolincafe.com as it has a LOT of mandolin tabs.  

And, the best way to play the music you listen to is to listen and..... pick it out by ear.  It isn't that difficult once you get the hang of it.  Figure out what key the song is in and what the chord structure is first.  Remember, you only have 12 notes to work with and the usual melody notes are found in the pentatonic scale (not all of them, but the majority) and once you figure out the melody notes, you're on your way.

TeachinMandolin444 - Posted - 12/27/2015:  11:38:50

Elizabeth,I teach reading music/TAB for mandolin on Skype. See my Teachers page here on the site. Or you can PM me if you're wanting more info on this!

Jandante - Posted - 12/29/2015:  12:27:59

A lot of songs here, though mostly old ones, however they would give you an idea. I'm new to picking and print off the 4 line tab paper and tab the songs myself that I want to play that I have sheet music, or lead sheets for.

traditionalmusic.co.uk/mandoli...-tab.html

Once you see how the numbers representing the fret and string are placed, and have a copy of the fretboard in front of you, all you need is a little patience.

All the best.

Edited by - Jandante on 12/29/2015 12:33:22

Jim Yates - Posted - 01/12/2016:  07:20:14

If you're interested in standard notation, I find that there are thousands of tunes in fiddle tune books.  The Fiddler's Fake Book* has many tunes of varying genres.  I've heard that Steve James and Rich DelGrosso (sp?) both have books on blues mandolin.  I haven't seen them, but have heard both of them play and their books should be great.  There is a great book of Ragtime For Fiddle & Mandolin available through Elderly Music.  It's all standard notation and has a whack of tunes.

*There is also a Mandolin Player's Fake Book put out by the same people with a lot of the same tunes in Tab, but the Fiddler's F B has a lot more tunes and can be used for guitar and fiddle as well as mandolin.

Edited by - Jim Yates on 01/12/2016 07:22:31