This course has concluded. To view the current list of courses offered, visit the Winter Online Course page.
The Bluegrass Mandolin 101 online lessons program continues this summer with two more four-week long intensive courses designed to help your overall mandolin playing technique. Each week, we’ll look at seven exercises intended to increase your knowledge of the fretboard and help your picking hand control as we look at seven different areas: picking exercises, fingering exercises, scale exercises, arpeggios, chord exercises, double stops, and licks. We’ll also learn a new tune each week and apply the ideas from each of the exercises to that week’s tune; by practicing these exercises in this context, students get some practical applications for the exercises as well as some ideas for variations on tunes.
The 104 level course begins August 13th and runs through September 17th. Class sessions meet every Wednesday evening from 8 to 9 pm Central time, and practice/review sessions meet every Saturday from 11:15 am-noon Central time. (Matt will be taking the week of September 3 off due to his touring schedule, so the final lesson will take place Sept 10 rather than Sept 3). There will also be a final review session on September 17 at 8 pm central to go over many of the concepts and all of the tunes learned during the course.
Students are encouraged to attend the live sessions to be able to interact more directly with the instructor, but live attendance is not required. Students will be able to view the recordings of all of the sessions any time afterward as often as they want through the class website.
The 104 level course is intended for players at an intermediate/advanced level. While this course is a continuation of the Bluegrass Mandolin Intensive 102 course which concluded in early July, it is not necessary for students to have taken the 102 course to be able to take the 104 course. 104 is intended to reinforce many of the concepts taught in 102 while pushing the student’s technique further than the 102 level did.
Register for the 104 course here.
To view the curriculum for the 103 level course, click here.
Here is the curriculum:
WEEK 1:
Two string picking exercise: building speed
Fingering exercise I: across the strings
Chord exercise: ways of playing ii-V-I chord progressions
G Major scale in seven positions
Major 7 arpeggios in root position, 1st inversion and 2nd inversion
Diatonic double stops in three keys
Hammer-on pull-off triplet lick
Tune of the week: Sweet Sue
WEEK 2:
Four string picking exercise
Fingering exercise: position shifts on one string
Chord exercise: using open major and minor chords and getting a big sound
Scale exercise: major scale patterns using 3rds, 4ths and 6ths
Arpeggio exercise: G and F ascending arpeggios
E minor double stop exercise
Two hammer-on and pull-off licks
Tune of the week: John Riley the Shepherd
WEEK 3:
Crosspicking exercise
Fingering exercise on two strings
Chord exercise: finding neighboring chords on trickier progressions
Scale exercise: D Major scale in seven positions
Arpeggio exercise: diatonic 7th arpeggios in three keys
Double stop exercise: smooth double stops on trickier chord progressions
A Chuck Berry-style lick
Tune of the week: Salty Dog Blues
WEEK 4:
Reverse picking exercise
Fingering exercise across the strings
Chord exercise: VI-ii-V-I progressions
Scale exercise: diminished scales
Arpeggio with neighbor tones exercise
Double stop exercise: alternating between “open” and “closed” style double stops
ii-V-I lick
Tune of the week: Blue Moon
The fee for the course is $100.
Register for 104 here.