The Next Bluegrass Mandolin Summer Intensive Courses Begin August 12 & 13

These courses have concluded. To view the current list of courses offered, visit the Winter Online Course page.

Welcome to the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 online program!

The Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program continues this summer with a second series of 4-week online intensive courses beginning August 12 & 13 and 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 and work toward improvisation.

Each week, students can join the 60-minute live sessions on Tuesday (103 level) or Wednesday (104 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 103 course is intended for beginner to intermediate level players, and is designed as a continuation of the 101 level course which finished up on July 5. However, it is not required that students take the 101 course to be able to take the 103 course. Both courses are targeted to beginner/intermediate level players and are intended to help improve overall technique. 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 104 course is intended for intermediate to advanced level players, and is designed as a continuation of the 102 level course which also finished up on July 5. However, it is not required that students take the 102 course to be able to take the 104 course. Both courses are targeted to intermediate/advanced level players and are intended to help improve overall technique. A general knowledge of chords, picking technique and several tunes is recommended.

The 103 Intensive course begins August 12, and the 104 Intensive course begins August 13. Both courses will finish up on September 13 with the final practice/review sessions (we’ll be taking the week of Sept 1 off due to Matt’s touring schedule, but there will still be four class sessions and four practice/review sessions for each course). In addition, both courses will include a final practice/review session to go over many of the concepts and exercises plus all of the tunes learned during the course. These will take place on September 16 (103 level) and September 17 (104 level).

The fee for each four-week course is $100. Students need only a computer and a good internet connection (and a mandolin).

The curriculum for the 103 level course can be viewed here.

The curriculum for the 104 level course can be viewed here.

To register for 103, visit the 103 registration page.

To register for 104, visit the 104 registration page.

If you have questions, feel free to email Matt at [email protected].