These courses have concluded. To view the current list of courses offered, visit the Winter Online Course page.
Welcome to Bluegrass Mandolin 101 and 102!
The Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program continues this summer with 4-week online intensive courses focusing on technique. Each week students are invited to attend a live online class session in which they will be given seven exercises focusing on various aspects of mandolin technique: picking exercises, fingering exercises, double stops, arpeggio exercises, scale exercises, chord exercises and licks. A tune will be taught each week as well, and the exercises will be used in the tune to give them some practical context and help the student create variations.
Each week, students can join the 60-minute live sessions on Tuesday (101 level) or Wednesday (102 level) nights to learn the exercises and ask questions via chat window or audio. In addition, Matt will conduct live practice sessions on Saturday mornings to review the week’s materials and take questions. Students will also have access to recorded videos of each exercise, as well as practice mp3s and PDFs of all of the material. Students can also watch the recorded videos of all live sessions after the fact, in case they missed any of the live sessions and/or would like to review them. All videos, mp3s and PDFs can be downloaded and kept by the students after the course is finished.
The 101 course is intended for beginner to intermediate level players. A basic knowledge of chords, basic picking technique and some melodies is helpful but not absolutely necessary, as most exercises are intended to address fundamental technique issues, and should prove helpful to players of many ability levels.
The 102 course is intended for intermediate to advanced level players. A general knowledge of chords, picking technique and several tunes is recommended.
The 101 Intensive course begins June 10, and the 102 Intensive course begins June 11. Both courses will finish up on July 5 with the final practice/review sessions.
The fee for each four-week course is $100. Students need only a computer and a good internet connection (and a mandolin).
To view the curriculum for the 101 course click here.
To view the curriculum for the 101 course click here.
To register for 101, visit the 101 registration page.
To register for 102, visit the 102 registration page.
If you have questions, feel free to email Matt at [email protected].
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Mandolin course – Where is it being held? I live in CA.
Thanks,
Bill
Hi Bill,
The courses will be online; we’ll be using a combination of live lessons (Tuesdays or Wednesdays at 6 pm Pacific, and practice sessions on Saturdays at 8 am or 9:15 am Pacific) and recorded videos and other materials which will be available to view on a class website. You’d just need to download a free interface (Citrix GoToTraining is the one we use) and you’re basically good to go.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks Bill!
Best,
Matt Flinner
I am an intermediate player and feel I should start with the 101 course. However, I am interested in the 102 course as well, if i sign up for both will I be able to access the 102 lessons after I finish with the 101 lessons? Thanks.
Salaam,
Chris
Hi Chris,
Absolutely. You are welcome to sign up for both courses, and are free to download and keep all of the materials (including videos) from both if you do sign up. If you’d rather not download stuff (some of the files will be rather large), you should have online access to all videos for at least six months before I have to take them down to make room for new content. I’d recommend downloading, but I’ve also had some students either send me a flash drive or the money to buy a flash drive (around $40) to send them all the materials that way. Either way, all the videos and PDFs are yours to access whenever you want to.
Also, if you do sign up for both, the fee is discounted to $180. I’ll refund you the extra $20 if you decide to do that.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks Chris!
Best,
Matt Flinner
Hi Matt,
Do you have plans to do another round later in the summer or maybe early in the fall? I won’t be able to make it this cycle, but I would be interested in later dates.
-Amanda
Hi Amanda,
I’m planning on doing another short 4-week course (similar to the one starting tomorrow) starting either August 19 or 26, and an eight week course focusing on fiddle tunes and variations/improvisation starting October 14 or so.
Glad you could make the lesson on Saturday! Let me know if you need any more info.
Thanks,
Matt
Thanks, Matt! I will stay tuned.