Mandolin Licks-ercises

Improving your mandolin technique does not have to employ mind-numbing drills and exercises. Dix Bruce shows you licks, solos, kick-offs, endings and complete tunes that will hone your skills so that even near-beginners can use them in real-life playing situations.

Dix’s well thought-out, step-by-step method uses our trademark Licks-ercises concept. Starting with simple “call and response” phrases, he outlines Nine Pound Hammer and More Pretty Girls Than One, using a plethora of variations on fill-in licks.

After a necessary foray into basic music theory and scales, you’ll learn the well-loved Amazing Grace, played in “closed” positions (i.e. no open strings) so you can move it to different keys up and down the neck. Dix also uncovers “magic chord shapes,” double stops and other important concepts that will help make you a better, more musical player.

As the lesson progresses, you’ll also build arrangements for All the Good Times Are Past and Gone, In the Pines, Will the Circle Be Unbroken and other bluegrass and old-time classics.

Bio:

Dix Bruce has been playing and teaching mandolin for decades, and he knows how to get his concepts across to all players. This San Francisco Bay area musician and writer has authored over fifty instructional books, recordings and DVDs, including the popular “Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook” and “Gypsy Swing and Hot Club Rhythm.” Dix performs and does studio work on guitar, mandolin, bass, and banjo, and was the editor of “Mandolin World News” from 1978 to 1984. He has released four CDs with guitarist Jim Nunally and one with singer and mandolinist Julie Cline entitled “Look At It Rain.” Dix arranged, composed and performed on the sound tracks to four different editions of the best selling computer game, “The Sims.”