Once in a while we stumble on a great resource that springs from outside the realm of mandolin pedagogy. Such is the case with StudyBass.com, authored by Houston, Texas bassist and bass teacher, Andrew Pouska who has been privately teaching bass lessons full-time for the past 12 years. (He's already taught nearly 2000 students of all levels how to play bass guitar.)

Check out his keen insights into music theory in his article "About Music Theory." His perceptive slant that theory doesn't make the music, it only explains it, should help put in perspective the significance of understanding the construction of music.

Also you'll find incredible insight is his online fretboard, which is easily adjusted to violin/mandolin. This is a great visual resource for comprehending scales and relationships to scale degrees and chords.

Explore the Scale and Chord Tone Fretboard Printer. Includes 4 and 5-string versions.

Tell Andrew you read about his site at JazzMando.com!

Posted by Ted at October 20, 2006 8:18 PM