The Mandolin Picker's Fakebook

Large collection of useful tabs. If the tabs were clearer and larger the book would be perfect for 64-year old eyes.

I love the BOOK. I was very disappointed, however, to receive a normal bound paperback rather than the comb binding pictured. The book won't stay open on a music stand. I'm returning it because I specifically wanted the comb binding.

If anyone over 40 tries to use this book, you had best have your cheaters or a microscope to read the tab.

This is the 2nd copy I've purchased ... the latest for a mandolin playing friend ... I grew up listening to my grandfather play all these traditional fiddle tunes ... I have just about worn out my copy ... good tabs and excellent selections ... if you love the old fiddle tunes and want to learn them on mandolin or if you just want to improve your picking by learning these traditional tunes, this is a fun and productive ride ...

This book is in tab form and it is not listed that way on Amazon’s website. I don’t read tab and I was hoping that this book would be written similar to Brody’s Fiddle Fake Book, but geared more to mandolin. The comb binding on the fiddle book is quite good and user friendly. This thing is going to fall apart if anybody uses it on a daily basis. If I did read tab I’m sure I couldn’t play this because the print is tiny! I’m sending mine back. This was a major disappointment.

I ordered this book previously and received one that looks like the photo here. Plastic binding which was broken in several places. And the paper and print were poor quality and hard to read. The next one I ordered had a traditional binding, nice paper and darker print. I love this copy. I use it daily!

This series is a must. Easy to read mandolin tab to a vast array of classic fiddle tunes and melodies. Great for enthusiasts and also for pros who wish to expand their repertoire. Very enjoyable to browse - and informative. Recommended.

This books has a boat-load of songs, but as other reviewers have noted; it is unusable in the Kindle edition because you cannot zoom in.I use my iPad to read Kindle books and to play music from Kindle music books. I MUST BE ABLE TO ZOOM. I bought this without knowing (or looking at the reviews) that I could not zoom in on the pages. I will not buy another Kindle music book without being absolutely positive that I can zoom in on the music so I can read it.This is an absolute disappointment that should never have happened. Kindle Books are not just supposed to be "pictures" of written pages statically displayed on a screen. A good Kindle Book presents the information is malleable ways so that the consumer can adapt the display to his or her needs. If you can't, it shouldn't be Kindle.

This is quite a frustrating book.On the plus side:- it is a sizeable compilation of tunes, mostly from the USA but including GB and Ireland.- it has helpful lists of recommended recordings for each piece.- it (just about) balances on a standard music stand- it uses mandolin TAB notation.However:- it only has TAB notation, so unless you know the tunes already from their titles (or can sight-read TAB...) then every piece is a voyage of discovery and it’s difficult to know where to start. I’ve started to put together a playlist by searching tune-by-tune through Amazon Music, but it’s slow work.- as others have noted, the typeface is small and the fingering can be difficult to read. Of course, if the printing had been larger and standard notation had been included, then the book would have been twice its current size!- the majority of tunes are swift reels, polkas, rags and the like. There are very few slower, reflective pieces - which is a great pity - and you are mostly confronted by a continuous procession of quavers and semi-quavers which can be daunting if you are not an experienced player.- the author notes that the book was a straight adaptation of a similar book for the fiddle. It shows. Some of the explanatory text at the beginning and end of the book has been amended from fiddle to mandolin, but some has been missed.- the recommended recordings are mostly fairly elderly (publication was 1993) and fiddle-centric. There’s a brief section tacked on at the end with (eight) recommended mandolin recordings, but it feels cursory compared to the fiddle-related recommendations.Overall, this is an interesting and extensive collection of traditional tunes, but it requires a lot of work from the mandolin player to get much out of it.

Tunes are great but beware, the tablature is too small (at least for me) to read without a magnifying glass!

This book is entirely in TAB! It doesn't say that this is so on either the front or the back of the book, you have to look inside it to find out!If I'd known this I would not have bought it.Unfortunately I didn't read the previous review, I will in future.However, as someone new to learning an instrument the "Introductory Materials" section Has been very useful in my understanding of tune types, tempo and rhythms. The Mandolin Picker's Fakebook (Mandolin)The Mandolin Picker's Fakebook (Mandolin)

I would recommend this book to any NON-sight-reading mandolin player who wants to learn some fiddle tunes. There are a lot of tunes nicely laid out in mando tab only, along with the accompaniment chords.I use this book daily and find it valuable for learning basic versions of the tunes.I also have the Fiddler's Fakebook which has more tunes in it but is of little use to me for the mando because I don't sight read notation very well on the mandolin.I realize that this is not the only resource available for mandotab but it is a comprehensive one and is easy to use.

Good book although print is smaller than normal.