Various: Medieval Music for Mandolin - Volume 2

These medieval pieces sound great on the mandolin. They also lay right under the fingers. There is both notation and TAB and no page turns for any of the pieces in this book. The reason? This book is made for musicians, by musicians. You can get the book with a CD and the guitar and mandolin are separate tracks. You can turn the mandolin totally off and play with the cd. There is no "Tick Tick" before the pieces, instead there are two measures of intro with the guitar, so you can sit and listen to the CD and become familiar with the pieces without it sounding like a learning CD. There are chords with the music and at the end of the book, there are examples of what the guitar is doing for many of the tunes in both tablature and notation.

These tunes sound terrific, and are a great addition to any repertoire. You can use them for any kind of gig, or you can try doing some medieval fairs, medieval feasts or medieval weddings. The bowl back mandolin looks so much like the lute, most people would never know the difference. Often when I play the lute, they ask me if it's a mandolin. I play lute, guitar and more recently mandolin. I know the music. These pieces are particulary suited for the sound of the mandolin. I love playing them. The book is beautiful and scored professionally. The paper is heavy stock. The titles may not make a lot of sense, but these are great pieces. Many have variations to make them longer.