101 Red Hot Bluegrass Mandolin Licks and Solos: Includes Online Audio (Mccabe's 101)

Good book. Seems a bit laborious, learning all these fills and endings. But the info is there, and we all wish we had more of them.

Let's get this clear from the start: this is NOT a book of hot licks for mandolin. Where licks books like the one by Orrin Starr for bluegrass guitar or the Tony Trischka and Bill Knopf titles for banjo are replete with flashy runs and fills to spice up your playing, well, this one isn't. If you're expecting minor key explosions extracted from the playing of Grisman, you'll be disappointed; if you're expecting Texas fiddle-inflected excursions from Sam Bush, put your pick away. What we actually have here is an odd collection of basic conjoined runs to be played over particular chord sequences, some of them recognisably extracted wholesale from tunes like Billy In The Lowground and The Rights Of Man. While some such material is used in the books mentioned above, it's there to provide context for the flashy stuff. What's truly ironic is that none of the examples are particularly difficult to play, and worked through as part of a learning regime the book could be useful for beginner to intermediate players, offering as it does models of how to navigate through chord sequences and ultimately how a basic break might be put together. As presented, with silly title, flaming mandolins on its cover and all, it does nobody any favours.

Not the best

This is a great book for someone who needs help in developing and placing them in their music. I am an advanced beginner in mandolin who has know idea how to improvise licks, now I may use the ones in the book till my skill level develops to the next level of playing.

Good book!

Good product