You Can Teach Yourself Mandolin is written as a teach-yourself text with play-along examples and tunes on the companion recording. In the author's words, "It is aimed at helping you get started immediately on your way to mandolinhood by giving you the basics of the mandolin and mandolin playing." With this informal, often humorous text, Dix Bruce will guide you step-by-step through the basics of learning this versatile instrument. Learn all about accompanying yourself and others, common chords, and useful strums, reading simple melodies, playing a colorful assortment of mandolin folk songs, and more. All musical examples and tunes are written in both standard notation and tablature. Diagrams of all the principal chords used on the mandolin are shown in the Chord Appendix, making this book a particularly useful study aid for the beginning mandolinist. Illustrated with drawings and photographs of vintage instruments.