Rock and Roll Mandolin with Matt Flinner Curriculum

This course has concluded. To view the current list of courses offered, visit the Winter Online Course page.

Welcome to Rock & Roll Mandolin with Matt Flinner! This course will explore the wide and wonderful world of Rock & Roll, enabling students to learn more about mandolin technique, be more versatile in various styles of playing, and have a whole lot of fun along the way. The course will focus on a few main areas: learning various rhythms with a consistent picking hand technique, learning new ways of playing chords, strengthening fundamentals such as picking and fingering, and getting to know the fretboard better in various keys—as well as learning some great tunes along the way. Songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones (to name a few) will be part of the curriculum.

Each week, students will be given exercises related to picking technique, chords, licks or double stops, along with a couple of standard Rock & Roll songs. Students will also be given a simple “riff” tune each week (though they’ll gradually get more complicated over the 8-week course) to explore the fingerboard with. The goal is to get students to strengthen their fundamental technique, learn more about the fretboard, get better at playing by ear—and do all of the above in a fun way.

The course will run from April 6 to June 11, with class sessions on Wednesday evenings at 9 pm eastern (except Session 2, which will be on Monday, April 18th at 9 pm eastern) and follow-up practice/review sessions on Saturdays at 12:15 pm eastern time. The weeks of April 13 and May 18 will be off due to Matt’s tour schedule. There will be a total of eight class sessions and eight practice sessions over the course of 11 weeks.

The course fee is $200. Sign up for any two courses and receive 20% off the second course. Use the discount code “blackbird” on the second course to receive $40 off.

Here is the schedule:

Week 1 (4/6):

A Few Rock & Roll Rhythmic Patterns

Using Picking Patterns Over Various Rhythms

Ways of Playing Chords in A and E

Rock & Roll (Led Zeppelin)

Bonus tune: Proud Mary

Riffs: Day Tripper

Week 2 (4/18):

Monroe-style Playing in Rock & Roll

A Few Chuck Berry Riffs

Johnny B. Goode

Bonus tune: Roll Over Beethoven

Riffs: Birthday

Week 3 (4/27):

Rhythm II

More Chord Forms

Creating a Groove

Pinball Wizard

Bonus tune: Gallow’s Pole

Riffs: Sunshine of Your Love

Week 4 (5/5):

Using Some Double Stops

Typical Double Stop Forms

Some Pentatonic Licks

Time Is On My Side

Bonus tune: The Wind Cries Mary

Riffs: Cinnamon Girl

Week 5 (5/11):

Complex Picking Patterns

Picking Exercises Across the Strings

Here Comes the Sun

Bonus tune: Every Breath You Take

Riffs: Heartbreaker

Week 6 (5/25):

The Blues in Rock

Blues Scales

Blues Licks

The “Hendrix Chord”

Voodoo Chile

Bonus tune: Hound Dog

Riffs: Back in Black

Week 7 (6/1):

Diatonic Chords

3-Note Chord Shapes

Blackbird

Bonus tune: Sultans of Swing

Riffs: Hey Joe

Week 8 (6/8):

More Complex Chord Progressions

Bringing Blues Licks, Double Stops and Various Rhythms into Your Playing

White Room

Bonus tune: Comfortably Numb

Riffs: Black Dog

To go back to the spring classes info page, click here.

One comment on “Rock and Roll Mandolin with Matt Flinner Curriculum”

Jim Hurster says:

February 18, 2016 at 6:58 am

I’ve taken music and instrument classes over the years, and I’ve never received such a comprehensive and successful approach as this format. Live video, downloaded charts and diagrams, recorded sessions, at the most affordable price. Nothing I’ve participated in compares to this. Best value for the dollar. Highly recommended..

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