Mandolin Music & Song Books

Musick’s Delight on the Modern Cittern is intended for the beginner seeking a collection of simple yet attractive tunes that are enjoyable to play; the more intermediate player desirous of widening their repertoire; and any player in want of a collection of tunes upon which they can build further. All tunes are presented in both notation and tablature, together with chords for an accompaniment, in GDGDG for cittern and GDAE for mandolin and octave mandola, plus two hundred and fifty chords each for GDGDG and GDAE. Bouzouki and tenor mandola players can also play these tunes via the tablature. From the age of knights, castles and courtly love; from the palaces and gardens of Renaissance Europe; and from the assemblies, playhouses and noisy streets of seventeenth and eighteenth-century London: Musick’s Delight on the Modern Cittern presents a repertoire spanning 600 years – as delightfully playable and addictive now as it was then.

Musick’s Delight on the Modern Cittern is intended for the beginner seeking a collection of simple yet attractive tunes that are enjoyable to play; the more intermediate player desirous of widening their repertoire; and any player in want of a collection of tunes upon which they can build further. 

All tunes are presented in both notation and tablature, together with chords for an accompaniment, in GDGDG for cittern and GDAE for mandolin and octave mandola, plus two hundred and fifty chords each for GDGDG and GDAE. Bouzouki and tenor mandola players can also play these tunes via the tablature. 

From the age of knights, castles and courtly love; from the palaces and gardens of Renaissance Europe; and from the assemblies, playhouses and noisy streets of seventeenth and eighteenth-century London: Musick’s Delight on the Modern Cittern presents a repertoire spanning 600 years – as delightfully playable and addictive now as it was then.

Although the cittern has a history spanning 500 years and several countries, like its cousin the Irish bouzouki, it is a relative newcomer to contemporary traditional music. Doc Rossi, a well-known citternist in both traditional and early music, has created this book for intermediate to advanced players who want to improve their technique, develop ideas and learn new repertoire. Guitarists can play all of the tunes in this book on the guitar by tuning C F C G C F, low to high, and putting a capo at the second fret. The lowest line in the tablature then corresponds to the fifth string. The CD features all the tunes played at a medium tempo.

This brilliant songbook, Folk Songs For Mandolin, features more than 40 traditional favorites arranged specifically for mandolin, including John Henry, Kumbaya and Man of Constant Sorrow.
Full lyrics included.

A spiral-bound master collection of mandolin music in notation and tablature. Contains classical, early country, bluegrass, fiddle tunes, blues, gospel, and ragtime music. A great source book for mandolin repertoire.

Thirty-four folk favourites arranged in notation and tablature for mandolin solo. Complete lyrics and accompaniment chords are provided.

In music, the term "bluegrass" describes the hot string-band style pioneered by Kentuckian Bill Monroe, which blends old-time country music with blues rhythms and jazz-influenced improvisation. This book contains 101 authentic bluegrass mandolin licks in the favorite bluegrass keys of C, G, D, and A minor written in notation and tablature. The licks are broken down into phrases of two, four, and eight bars. In addition, several endings and crosspicking licks are included.

Joe Carr presents his advanced mandolin arrangements of 12 well-known Texas-style tunes. The arrangements are inspired by the popular Texas contest fiddle style. The included online audio link features the tunes with the bluegrass band accompaniment.

This book and companion audio is intended to be a tune repertoire book. It includes over 100 Old-Time festival favorites. Some are cliche, others unusual, some easy, some difficult. This mandolin book includes two lines of standard notation -- basic and advanced - as well as a mandolin tab line that can be interpreted for fiddle also.

Featuring 28 well-known Christmas songs arranged for mandolin with chord symbols for an accompaniment instrument. Book contains chord diagrams for mandolin and guitar as well as common strum patterns to use for rhythm backup. All songs are arranged in standard notation and tablature for mandolin.

50 Tunes Volume 1 for Mandolin is one book in a 5-book series. The 50 Tunes series is a collection of Bluegrass, Old Time and Celtic tunes for ensembles, families and individuals. This book contains the same 50 tunes as those found in the other 4 books of the series, but carefully designed for the mandolin. Includes access to online audio tracks featuring every tune in the book recorded by a full band.

Twenty-four Christmas songs arranged especially for mandolin. Includes Away In A Manger, The First Noel, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, Jingle Bells, O Holy Night, O Christmas Tree, Silent Night, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Up On the Houstop, and It Came Upon The Midnight Clear.

Strum, sing and pick along with these 25 Beatles favourites arranged for Mandolin.

This songbook includes Across the Universe, And I Love Her, Eight Days a Week, Eleanor Rigby, Here Comes the Sun, Here, There and Everywhere, Hey Jude, In My Life, Let It Be, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Penny Lane, Yellow Submarine, Yesterday and more.

An exciting collection of 29 traditional tunes from Ireland, arranged for easy Mandolin. All tunes are written clearly in standard notation as well as Mandolin tablature. An accompanying online audio recording contains all the tunes, played at a manageable speed, with Guitar accompaniment.

This book of original melodies is intended for the beginning mandolin student who can already read music or tab and play basic chords, but wants to learn new techniques and have fun in the process.

O'Carolan's best-loved harp tunes are notated in a contemporary style that makes them accessible to all instrumentalists. This ideal collection with accompanying audio lays bare 20 classic Irish compositions for melody and backing players using standard notation and chords. For all 5-string banjo players, fretting and picking-hand fingerings are included in the transcriptions which match the play-along tracks. This is Hanway's fourth collection demonstrating Celtic fingerstyle banjo in G tuning. It is part of a Celtic 5-string series that includes Mel Bay's Easy Irish and Celtic Tunes for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Jigs and Reels (2012) and Mel Bay's Easy Irish andCeltic Melodies for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Airs and Session Tunes (2013). Tom Hanway's pioneering work, Mel Bay's Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo (1998), was acclaimed by Bluegrass Unlimited magazine (1999) "as 'the bible' for any 5-string player with an interest in this joyous music." The current collection breathes life into the Gaelic classical melodies of Ireland. Access to online audio download.

Book/Online Audio pack. 27 songs with chord changes, performance and fingering suggestions. Designed to give players a repertoire of common tunes and commonly used techniques such as slides, double stops, fiddle shuffles, tremolos, double-time ornaments and syncopation. "Big Mon," "Arkansas Traveler," "Sailor's Hornpipe," "Sally Goodin," "Whiskey Before Breakfast," "Kentucky Mandolin," "Old Dangerfield," more. The audio files include PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right.

Eleven solos transcribed for mandolin in notation and tablature. Includes works by Corelli, Handel, Telemann, Bach and others.

As Bill Monroe is commonly lauded as "the father of bluegrass music," his tunes are standard repertoire and should be studied and memorized by any serious student of bluegrass. This book is a collection of transcriptions in notation and tablature taken from classic instrumentals recorded over a span of 40 years, from the early 1940s to the early 1980s.

This collection includes 34 great gospel favorites, well-known hymns and old-time spirituals especially arranged in standard notation and tablature for the mandolin. Several of the tunes are arranged for solo mandolin, while others are designed to be played with guitar accompaniment. Standard chord symbols are provided for accompaniment. The included online audion presents all 34 tunes, many with guitar backup.

This book gathers together in one volume the most played, most requested, most useful tunes from the full complement of regional and national styles. Included in the over 250 tunes are jigs, reels and hornpipes from Britain and the U.S.; old-time breakdowns and rags, marches and strathspeys from Scotland and Cape Breton, western swing and contra dances.

A new book on improvisation is now available for bluegrass mandolin players. Based on the concept of learning by playing, this 200 page book covers a wide range of improvisation tools and how to implement them in your playing.

This book is a collection of some of the most famous pieces from this vast historical repertoire. The collection includes lots of popular folk songs, virtuosic pieces by original mandolin composers, as well as an original Aonzo composition. The book is presented in English and in Italian while the music is in standard notation and mandolin tablature.

A fine collection of Irish tunes put together by one of Ireland’s best mandolinists, Paul Kelly. There’s lots of reels and jigs plus waltzes, polkas, slides and set dances.