Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin & Fiddle Tunes Paperback – June 16, 2015

I really like this book. There is quite a few songs to learn (36) that all have mandolin tabs, so it’s easy to play them yourself if you don’t know how to read regular sheet music/notes.On these tabs there is no indicator that shows when to tremolo. So for a remedy incase this throws you off, you can listen to each track and follow along the tabs, pause the song each time a note has tremolo and then mark/circle the number on the tabs so you know when to tremolo for that note. I used a red pen so its easy to see. Not too big of a deal but it helped me so I thought I’d mention.Entering the link online that I found in the book to download the music was a breeze. One special thing in the book that’s cool is right below the title of each song is a brief paragraph written that talks about the songs history.Tablature books for the mandolin like this is rare for me to find, so its a real treat and is much appreciated. I will be buying his other books soon. I hope this author John T. La Barbera makes another one of these on Southern Italy again because although I enjoy all the songs on here, I was hoping to see particular classic folk songs from Sicily and Calabria that didn’t make the list on this one. I bet he could do a whole book or series on those two by them selves because there’s so many more fun songs to play on the mandolin from those parts of Southern Italy.The book is a gem for anyone who wants to play mandolin like a real paisan. I highly recommend! 5/5

It's hard to know what to say about Mel-Bay: sometimes they come out with pure junk (e.g.,  Mel Bay Fun with the Mandolin ), other time's it's pure gold.This one is gold: it's an anthology of authentic mandolin tunes from southern Italy, arranged alphabetically (not in order of difficulty). You've got the melody line and the TAB beneath that, complete with the names of accompanying chords. The melody line is not simply cheat-sheet style (one note): there are doublestops, triplestops, etc.And the thing is clearly mandolin-literate, with many hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc. indicated. In fact there's about 25 pages of very helpful advice at the beginning of the book on how to pull of some of these more advanced techniques. So this is definitely more than just an anthology of songs.In short, it's a labor of love written by a man who knows his subject well.The only complaint I have -- and the reason I give it four stars -- is the CD that comes with it. The CD sounds nice, but that's hardly what you're interested in. You want a CD where the melody is on one track and the accompaniment on the other, so that you can listen carefully to what's on the page, and then, when you play it yourself, turn that down and have the accompaniment only playing with you. No such luck: both L and R feature the full melody and accompaniment, so they cannot be separated for learning purposes.The pieces are of intermediate difficulty.

Mandolin players of all levels who want to discover Sicilian and Southern Italian folk songs, both familiar (Cu Ti Lu Dissi) and rare (Antidotum Tarantulae, ca. 1673), will be rewarded by the time they invest in this beautifully researched book and CD. It comprises 36 pieces of authentic material, transcribed in both conventional notation and tabulature for mandolin. All of the pieces are included on the CD. Instructional material and explanatory notes are concise, well written and often surprising. For example, I was not aware that the tarantella exorcism ritual dates back to 2000 BC, or that the city of Taranto in Apuglia was named after the spiders that were prevalent there. You'll learn some enchanting songs that showcase the mandolin, techniques to play them with authority, and some fascinating history. This is a book that will pay you back generously for your study and practice time. Highly recommended!

Songs are good, and the mandolin on the audio is good too. Sonically, Carlo Aonzo's book and CD are a little more inspiring, but this is solid, pick it up.

What a great piece of work. The author really did a great job collecting all this music. The guitar chords are included with the mando tab which is nice if you want to play these tunes with a guitar player. The included cd is helpful to get a feel for the music. The tempo's range from slow to fast ,so beginners and advanced players have something to learn. I wanted to learn something more than bluegrass , and this was it.

Love this book! I play mandolin & violin and this is a great collection of songs! I bought it for a gig my little band and I performed. It really helps to practice with the CD to get the cadence, speed and personality.These songs are not your typical Italian-American pieces. They have a very ethnic sound and each one has it's own character. I highly recommend it!

I was disappointed in that it does not contain the more popular traditional music, however, it was refreshing to learn and see new music as well as getting guidance to the tremolo etc. I enjoyed the CD too.

These pieces of music are beautiful and thankfully I have someone to play them with me. I think without having someone to play the chords they would be a little boring. but they are still nice melodies and while somewhat simple, the timing and musicality lend a difficulty level that I really appreciated.

This book is a splendid collection of Southern Italian tunes for mandolin and fiddle. I cannot give enough credit to the author, who has obviously put in an incredible effort here. Beyond the valuable collection of enjoyable tunes (with tabs), it contains extra notes on history, technique, and even a short history of the individual tunes. The audio download is also great for accompaniment. As a mandolin hobbyist, this book has my highest recommendation.

This book was not optimized to be an e-book.

The Kindle edition does not allow you to zoom in/increase the size of the font. When viewing it through any device you cannot actually read a large portion of the text/music. Do not buy the kindle edition.

I am sure this is an excellent compilation. In its original, large format, paper version the music was evidently admirably presented, both for TAB and for conventional format.Published on paper, it deserves five stars, both for the music itself, so well presented, and for the editorial matter. Collections of this sort are vital for the preservation of the musical heritage. As a Kindle book, it is useless. If I could face the hassle I would ask for my money back on the grounds that the book is unfit for purpose.The book is a copy, page by page, of the original, which has to be shrunk to fit the computer screen. I can just about read it holding it like a book but it is quite impossible to play the songs, using the propped up book as my music. I would have to be so close to read it that there would be no space for the mandolin between me and the book. (I hope that makes sense.)I have other Kindle books of music which I do use to play from. With those, you can adopt a landscape format, which is clearly more convenient. As you enlarge the image, it restructures itself so that you are continually presented with readable bars of music.No doubt there are technical terms to express clearly what I have struggled with. My apologies, but the people who set the book up must have known that they were creating something that could only lead to frustration. I suppose that the method of reproduction adopted as cheaper than the one I was looking for, but it would have been better to postpone the kindle version than to publish this.

Well produced and printed but the book doesn't contain any tunes that were particularly familiar or well known. The book provides some good material to practice and develop musicianship but perhaps no quick wins in terms of knowing that you have the tune correct.