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 202 level course begins August 12th and runs through September 12th. 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 August 24th off due to his touring schedule, so the final lesson will take place Sept 12 rather than Sept 5).
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 202 level course is intended for players at an intermediate/advanced level. While this course is a continuation of the Bluegrass Mandolin Intensive 201 course which concluded in early July, it is not necessary for students to have taken the 201 course to be able to take the 202 course. 202 is intended to reinforce many of the concepts taught in 201 while pushing the student’s technique further than the 201 level did.
Register for the 202 course here.
To view the curriculum for the 102 level course, click here.
Here is the curriculum:
WEEK 1:
Picking exercise for building speed
Advanced Fingering exercise I
Chord exercise: more ways of playing ii-V-I chord progressions
C Major scale in seven positions
Major 7 arpeggios in root position and first inversion
Diatonic double stops in three keys
Hammer-on pull-off triplet lick
Tune of the week: Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree
WEEK 2:
Four string picking exercise
Fingering exercise: position shifts on one string
Chord exercise: ii-V-Is in the key of C
Scale exercise: major scale patterns using 3rds, 4ths and 6ths
Arpeggio exercise: C and Bb ascending arpeggios
Moving double stops between C and Bb
Two hammer-on and pull-off licks
Tune of the week: Blue Monk
WEEK 3:
Crosspicking exercise
Fingering exercise on two strings
Chord exercise: moving between dominant 7 chord inversions
Scale exercise: F Major scale in seven positions
Arpeggio exercise: arpeggiating through a chord progression with major 7 and dominant 7 arpeggios
Double stop exercise: smooth double stops on trickier chord progressions
A few tricks in F and C
Tune of the week: Sweet Georgia Brown
WEEK 4:
Reverse picking exercise
Fingering exercise across the strings
Chord exercise: I-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 in various keys
Tune of the week: I Got Rhythm
The fee for the course is $120.
Register for 202 here.
Looking forward to the course
Glad to have you in the class, David!