I know that everyone doesn’t have the time or the resources to attend professional, weekly lessons. Hey, just because someone is a good picker doesn’t make them a good teacher … sometimes you just don’t have the money or your scheduling conflicts keep you from committing to a regularly scheduled session with your local professional. I truly understand that and even though nothing can take the place of a great instructor, having some quality guidance in the form of some great free online Mandolin Lessons couldn’t hurt!
I am happy to provide you with these free Bluegrass Mandolin Lessons. I will continue to add tabs, audio recordings and even videos as I have time to shoot them. Let me know if these are helpful and I hope that they will help you to expand your abilities as well as your musical mind.
Thanks for checking these out.
Richie Dotson
Here is my difficulty scale:
1 = Beginner – No skills necessary, only a Mandolin and the will to master it
2 = Easy – Basic skills necessary such as being able to change chords on command and the ability to maintain meter
3 = Easy Moderate – Basic skills plus the ability to play in shapes, not just open chords
4 = Moderate – Requires the ability to play with other people and have a solid grip on Bluegrass Style Mandolin
5 = Advanced Bluegrass – Ranging from advanced Monroe to Grisman Lite
6 = Advanced Other – From Irish to Classical and other atypical, non-Bluegrass material
Click on the names of the tunes and exercises below to see them
Day 1, Easy Beginner, Open Mandolin Chords, Key of G: YouTube Link
