Mandolin Picking Intensive II with Matt Flinner Curriculum (August 19-September 12)

“Thanks for the terrific class! I had my mandolin lurking in the corner for 9 months before I took this class. I played with it now and then but felt out of my depth, having only played piano in the past. A few weeks into your class, I couldn’t put down my mandolin, practicing far more than my kids want me to. In addition to the wonderful tunes we learned in class, I started to pick out other melodies like Christmas carols, simple gifts, harry potter, star wars; anything I hear I want to find it on the mandolin.”—Randy R.

“Your classes are the best and most successful learning approach for me, Thank you.”—-Eric B.

See the Bluegrass Jamming II Curriculum (August 17-September 12)

See the Swing Jamming II Curriculum (August 18-September 12)

This course is intended to help students with the fundamentals of tone and picking technique while learning the fretboard. Various picking exercises will be looked at, along with double stop exercises (which will incorporate concepts from the picking exercises) to help improve efficiency and speed, and exercises for playing jigs and crosspicking as well. We’ll also focus quite a bit on improving our tone and getting the most sound out of our instruments that we can. In addition, each week we’ll learn a tune and focus on the various aspects of picking technique we’ve been looking at as applied to that tune. The course is intended for players of all levels who want to go deeper into the fundamentals of playing the mandolin, especially tone, picking ability and double stops.

This course is a continuation of the Mandolin Picking Intensive I course which just finished up, but students do not need to have taken that course in order to take the Mandolin Picking Intensive II course.

Here is the curriculum:

WEEK 1 (8/19)

Picking Exercise IV on single strings

Picking Exercise IV on double strings

Double Stop Exercise III in G

Double Stop Exercise I in E minor

Drowsy Maggie

WEEK 2 (8/26)

6/8 Picking Exercise I

6/8 Picking Exercise II

Double Stop Exercise III in A

Alternate ways of playing 6/8 and 9/8