ASAP Bluegrass Mandolin is the title of a newly-released instructional method from Hal Leonard.

The book, by Eddie Collins, consists of 112 pages of “quick-start” mandolin lessons (presented in both tab and standard notation), plus 2 audio CDs. The first CD contains a solo demonstration of each lesson from the book, and the second has 32 songs played by a full bluegrass band, with the mandolin part separated on the right channel.

We contacted the author for his concept of what the book sets out to do…

“Hal Leonard’s new ASAP Bluegrass Mandolin began as a book that I self-published, Basics of Bluegrass Mandolin.

From personal experience, I dislike how most bluegrass mandolin ‘methods’ are little more than a compilation of fiddle tunes. I wanted to focus on helping learners find their way around the neck using common double stops, developing creative back-up skills, playing solos to vocal tunes in the style of Bill Monroe, and beginning the process of making up your own solos.

Fiddle tunes are used as examples of incorporating scale fragments and double stops in the studied keys.

Also, the play-along CD is designed to be enjoyable listening, thus folks get to know the tunes better from repeated plays.”

The book/CD set sells for $24.95 and is available wherever bluegrass instructional materials are sold. More details – including a sample lesson – can be found on the Hal Leonard site.