MandoTom2 - Posted - 04/23/2018:  04:40:14

When I first decided to study the mandolin, I was about 23 years old... And in college...

I went to my college library and got books on anything and everything related to music, music history, music theory, sight reading, etc., and began reading...

Simultaneously, I collected every magazine (Frets, Mandolin World News) there was out there and also went as far as obtaining every out of print issue I could purchase and studied them all...

I bought as many actual mandolin instruction books as I could afford from every music store in town and... read and studied all of them as time allowed...

I collected the names of ll of the great players and looked up their bios and, read and studied about all of them...

I also went to every bluegrass and folk music festival I could get to and... listened! And bought albums, of course for later listening...

School and public libraries provided me with more vinyl records than I could carry...

I made cassette tapes of all of the good music I found on those records...

I attended workshops at bluegrass festivals...

While all of this was going on in the background of my college education, I was also digging into Christian education, which means going to church...

Through the Lutheran churches I attended, I collected several hymnals which still serve me to this day for songs, keys, song history, research, etc... Hymnals typically have authors names and the dates they lived which can be yet another rich resource for you to pursue as you study the history of music as it relates to your favorite musical instrument...

Todays world has gotten very homogenized by television and the internet, so 'local styles' may be elusive everywhere you go... Best to find styles on recordings and in history books... THEN look up examples of those styles on the internet.

I forgot to mention...

There was NO internet when I did my studying...

Best of luck to you...

MandTom2