Irish Music for Mandolin Made Easy Paperback – May 15, 2008

I am impressed with the selection of songs in this book. At my level of playing the fiddle, they are still a challenge but an achievable one. I am looking forward to working through them. I really like the audio files. Though these are traditional Irish songs, they are not performed at the breakneck speed that they would be played in a traditional setting.

Having a link to hear the audio of the tunes is a huge help since I can't sight read very well. I know I've heard just about all of these tunes in sessions so this book is a great resource for someone like me trying to find their footing in learning more tunes on mandolin or tenor banjo.

This book is so helpful, listening to the songs first then playing along is great!

Very good book.think of the theme from lionheart...very easy ,melodic,irish,touching .Very" i'm resting on a hugh grass field in irland with my cows and sheeps around me"Simple but very musical.who said music have 2 be complicated

piano & tab only, no lyrics included. download audio online available with it, and that is very pleasant instrumental to listen to, also no words.

Nice selection of Irish music in easy to ready tabs. Nice CD that comes with this book.

I have only been playing a year and this book is perfect for my level. The pieces are graded and really help you improve. The recordings really capture the Irish sound and are essential to help you interpret the sheet music. This would be too simple for someone in Suzuki book 3 or the equivalent, but you need to be at least in Suzuki book 2 to handle the material. BTW, I'm not a Suzuki student, but realize that most players understanding grading difficulty on the Suzuki scale. I'm in the middle of Sassmanhaus book 2.

This is one of my favorite mandolin books. It has a good variety of songs that are a lot of fun to play. I highly recomend it!

The online audio is downloadable only from a site that is 404'd ages ago.So there is no online part - there is not even a CD/DVD-ROM included.The audio is irretrevable even using such things as the internet history time machine.Irish, it does sound - but so does everything with cheap alcohol.Book is fine, cannae complain about that.But check first if the "online" audio is actually still there!!!None of the bauzouki books I purchased has even so much as a tuning guide where the notes are played.They are either, "idk how to teach yeh, jes copy me here, look at this youtube vid with comments turned off", or, "we don't know what this instrument is really about, but here are some songs that we figured out on a single string or two..."Contents of book - 1/10, esp the "online audio" which vanished when the ppl who made this book decided not to pay no more (or even move it to a free host so they didn't have upkeep).They book as described - 9/10, esp the "online audio" which the seller really coulda checked or answered a question about first (thanks for not responding, but I guess that's how you sell this kinda stuff.... to the blind!).Expectation to reality is a marked difference - I would love to toss a copy a dog pit and have the authours try to reclaim it and explain what they meant between chapters (aka a few pages).

As a fiddle/violin teacher, I find this not suitable for total beginners, and the tunes are not presented in a logical order according to difficulty as it says it is. Most of these keys are too difficult for starting players. However, it is useful for kids who’ve been playing fiddle/violin for at least a couple years, and a few of the tunes are in D and G major which does work for beginners. It is however a good solution for kids who want to do Irish trad but also learn to read music and are ready for Book 2 of a fiddle method.

I like this book as a nice introduction to Irish folk mandolin. It starts with simple tunes and gets trickier. It has a CD with backing guitar which enhances your enjoyment to play along with. It's also good that it shows you the guitar chords as you're playing, so that you can start to develop more complicated play yourself, and slip into improvised backing mode yourself if someone is singing or taking the melody line. Each song is given its own page which is a good format - not too bunched up, and no page-turning mid tune. Why not 5 stars? It was close but I'd've liked to see the tempo marked on the music (you can of course figure that out quickly from the CD), and perhaps the lyrics too would've been good. As always with songbooks etc, I also would prefer a ring-binder. But generally I am very happy with it.

This is a fantastic introduction to Irish folk music for beginners around grade 1/2. The pieces are all very good. They get progressively more challenging. The backing tracks are really super for making it more fun for kids and are a good sensible pace! Most pieces can be played by flautists as well as violinists . It would also be good to have a cello version as my cellists want to join in. Although its possible to transpose the music to Bass Clef easily this of course takes time so Id prefer to buy it.

We are really enjoying this book of songs for Mandolin - lots to choose from and all very achievable for beginner through to intermediate players. I would say the levels in this book start at Preliminary and go up to Grade 3. There is little in the way of Mandolin graded material out there, not that this is graded, its just my opinion as a Guitar Teacher. The only downside was the quality of the first track on the CD was scratchy sounding, hence 4 not 5 stars.