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Matt Flinner

Bluegrass Jamming II, Scale & Arpeggio Intensive II, Chord & Rhythm Intensive II Start 8/9-11!

 

 

 

 

“This was the best online learning experience I’ve ever had.  And, for the time and money, the best music learning experience in any format:  DVD, video, group, or individual live lessons.”—Christine R. 

 

 

“After buying six mandolins and umpteen books…I am convinced your course is best $100 I have invested in my mandolin journey to date.  Finally, I’m getting the discpline I need with your exercises to learn scales, arpeggios, double stops, fingering techniques, learn the fretboard (the essential tools I need)…and most importantly to learn how those things fit into playing tunes.”—Rick D. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bluegrass Mandolin 101 online lessons program continues this summer with three four-week long intensive courses designed to help you improve your technique, learn the fretboard, learn some tunes and help you have more fun playing the mandolin!  

Note that all three courses are follow-up courses to early summer courses (Bluegrass Jamming I, Scale and Arpeggio Intensive I and Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive I), but students do not need to have taken the earlier course in order to take any of the follow-up courses.  Students are welcome to jump in any time!

 

Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming II with Matt Flinner                           Curriculum         Registration

Scale and Arpeggio Intensive II with Matt Flinner                           Curriculum         Registration

Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive II with Matt Flinner              Curriculum         Registration

 

The Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming II course (August 9-September 4) is intended to help students play bluegrass music with other people.  Each week, students will receive four new tunes (from beginner to advanced level) along with ways of playing rhythm, approaches to creating variations on the tune, and some exercises to help with fundamental technique.  The goal is to help students learn more tunes, learn practical approaches to playing those tunes, and get out and play with other people!  Register here. 

 

The Scale and Arpeggio Intensive II course (August 1o-September 4) will help students learn the fundamental building blocks of melody, harmony and improvisation.  The course is intended for students at an intermediate to advanced level, and will use swing and well as bluegrass material as examples in conjunction with exercises in scales and patterns, modes and arpeggios.  Students will get a lot of material to help them learn the fretboard, and will learn one song per week with some suggestions on how to incorporate that week’s exercises and concepts into creating new solos and improvising over chord progressions.  Register here.  

 

The Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive II course (August 11-September 4) is intended to help students with playing rhythm—something we do all the time when we play with other people, but tend to neglect in our practice!  Various styles of rhythm will be touched on, including folk, bluegrass, swing and blues.  Students will be given practical guides to playing in various keys using a variety of chord styles and shapes (open chords, chop chords, 7th chords, 3-note chords, etc.) to be able to approach playing rhythm in various styles and settings.  Chord progressions to four songs will be given each week, and students will explore applying the various styles of chords while looking at smooth chord movement, basslines and voice leading in various rhythms.  The course is intended for players of all ability levels (though absolute beginners will likely find it too difficult) who want to expand their possibilities in rhythm playing.  Register here. 

 

Register for Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming II with Matt Flinner

Register for the Scale and Arpeggio Intensive II with Matt Flinner

Register for the Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive II with Matt Flinner

 

The Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming II course (August 9-September 4) course takes place on Monday afternoons and evenings at 2 and 9 pm eastern time.  We’ll also have practice/review sessions on Saturdays at 10 am eastern time.  NOTE: Monday afternoon sessions take place at 2 pm eastern time—a more convenient time for our friends in the UK and Europe!  2 pm eastern time translates to 7 or 8 pm in the UK and most of Europe.   Students are welcome to join in on either or both of the Monday sessions each week (they will be essentially identical to one another in content).  Monday class sessions will take place August 9, 16, 23 and 30, and Saturday follow-up practice sessions will take place August 14, 21, 28 and September 4.  All live sessions are recorded and uploaded to a class website, where they are viewable generally by the following day (in the case of Saturday practice sessions, they’re usually available to view later that day). Register here.

 

The Scale and Arpeggio Intensive II course (August 10-September 4) meets on Tuesday evenings at 9 pm eastern time, with follow-up practice sessions Saturday mornings at 11 am eastern time.  Students will have four Tuesday class sessions (August 10, 17, 24 and 31) and four Saturday follow-up practice sessions (August 14, 21, 28 and September 4).  All live sessions are recorded and uploaded to a class website, where they are viewable generally by the following day (in the case of Saturday practice sessions, they’re usually available to view later that day). Register here.

 

The Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive II course (August 11-September 4) meets on Wednesday evenings at 9 pm eastern time, with follow-up practice sessions Saturdays at 12:30 pm eastern time.  Students will have four Wednesday class sessions (August 11, 18, 25 and September 1) and four Saturday follow-up practice sessions (August 14, 21, 28 and September 4).  All live sessions are recorded and uploaded to a class website, where they are viewable generally by the following day (in the case of Saturday practice sessions, they’re usually available to view later that day). Register here.

 

ALL class materials (PDFs, practice mp3s, short practice videos and class session videos) are available for students to download and keep for future use.  

 

The course fee for each course is $125. 

All students access to the live sessions as well as all materials (PDFs, mp3s, practice videos and class session videos), which they can download for future use.  

 

Here’s a little more info about the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 online experience that I hope will give you a good idea of how the program works.

 

BLUEGRASS MANDOLIN 101 

Matt Flinner started the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program in the fall of 2013.  Along the way, the program has helped hundreds of students improve their mandolin playing in a wide variety of styles.  The program offers a unique approach to online mandolin lessons that gives students the best of both live lessons as well as recorded mandolin instructional videos, audio recordings and written materials.  The courses focus on helping mandolin students get to the next level in their playing and broaden their understanding of a variety of American musical traditions. 

 

A UNIQUE APPROACH: LIVE INSTRUCTION AND INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEOS

Part of what makes the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program unique is the fact that students follow a step-by-step program of live lessons over a four or eight week course.  The courses follow a carefully planned curriculum in the given style or area of technique, and the live lessons get a little more challenging each week as the course progresses.  Classes meet twice per week: on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evening, depending on the course, and on Saturday morning/afternoon, when students can join a follow-up practice session to review that week’s material.  Students can view the live lessons via their computer, iPad or smart phone.  Students are encouraged to ask questions during the class sessions via a chat window and/or their external or built-in microphone (this microphone is muted unless the student requests to use it).  And students do not need a webcam.  

All live sessions are also recorded so that students can review them any time if they are unable to make it to the live sessions; this also gives students the added convenience of going through the material as many times as they want to.  Students are given access to a private class website where they can find these recorded sessions and they can also view and download all PDFs of the materials and several practice mp3s of that week’s song(s) recorded at various tempos.  Students will also be given download links for all class videos so that they can view them offline at their convenience on into the future.  In essence, all materials from the course are for the students to keep.  

One aspect of the live class schedule that makes the program so effective is that students are generally more encouraged to practice in order to keep up with the schedule.  Students are given a list of suggested priorities each week, depending on their ability level and amount of practice time, and all material is then reviewed in the Saturday practice session so that students get another chance to run through it with the instructor.  Just by showing up, students will run through the material twice each week—for many of us, that’s already an improvement!  

 

HOW INTERACTIVE ARE THE COURSES?

All live sessions are interactive; students can ask questions and/or demonstrate tunes or exercises via live microphone or telephone, or via a chat window (most students opt for this approach).  The instructor is able to immediately respond and demonstrate the answers for the whole class.  Another form of interaction comes via mp3 recordings; students can record mp3s on their own time of themselves playing the material (or anything else they want to send in) and send it to the instructor for feedback, which is also recorded in mp3 form and sent back to the student.  Students can post their mp3s on the class site (and likely get encouraging feedback from other students in addition to the instructor) or email them privately to the instructor.

 

HOW MUCH DO I NEED TO PRACTICE?

That is completely up to the student.  While, say, 30 minutes per day might be a good recommendation for practice time, students can make whatever they choose of this course based on their own schedule and aspirations.  Practicing week to week (again, say 30 minutes per day) will help students keep up with the week’s lessons and concepts, but the instructor knows that people have busy lives!  This is why all instructional material is archived and available for download so that students can learn on their own time after the course has finished as well as during the eight weeks of classes.  However, one advantage to the four-week scheduled course is that by practicing at least somewhat regularly, students are more able to be prepared for the following week’s lessons and therefore take full advantage of the live and recorded mix of lesson material.

Students can decide whether to practice along with the class session or with the shorter individual videos (or both), depending on what they want to focus on for that week.  Material is given each week that is targeted toward various ability levels; a song is given which is playable for beginning to intermediate players (or intermediate to advanced, depending on the course), and various concepts relating to that song are also given to educate and challenge players at beginning, intermediate and even advanced levels.  The student essentially decides how much they want to take on for the week (and the course) based on their ability level and how much practice time they have.  Any material they were unable to get to during the week and want to revisit later will be available in the archived videos and PDFs.  The instructor will also give students a recommended list of priorities each week to help students take the best advantage of their practice time.

 

THE CLASS WEBPAGE

This is the virtual gathering place for the courses, where students can view the instructional videos, view and/or download all written materials, listen to mp3s of Matt playing the tunes, get listening recommendations, ask questions, submit their own mp3s for feedback and generate forum discussions.  It’s a great place to drop by any time and explore, learn and discuss.  

 

REGISTRATION FEE

Fees for the 4-week summer courses are $125 each. 

 

 

Here are a few quotes from some past students about their experiences in the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program:

“I’ve participated in many online learning programs, but so far, your format is the best I’ve ever seen. I am so pleased I happened upon your courses.”—Gina M.

“I’ve practiced more in two weeks than I have in months!  Really enjoying how it’s going.”—Donna O.

“I have to say that making everything available online is a great convenience for me. Being able to stop and return to a more challenging exercise or a newer phrase is great for learning. I also really appreciate your availability to answer questions offline. This is a great course, and I feel as though I’m improving daily because of it.”—Joe C.

“The level was perfect. Mentally I understand many things that have opened up the fingerboard a lot; now I need some quality time to get it under my hands. I found things challenging without feeling out of reach.”—Stan M.

“I’m really enjoying the course. The first time I’ve actually practiced an instrument in my 60 years!”—Skip H.

 

 

To visit the registration pages, click one of these links:

 

Register for Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming II with Matt Flinner

Register for the Scale and Arpeggio Intensive II with Matt Flinner

Register for the Mandolin Chord and Rhythm Intensive II with Matt Flinner

4 comments on “Bluegrass Jamming II, Scale & Arpeggio Intensive II, Chord & Rhythm Intensive II Start 8/9-11!

  1. Bob Schmidt says:

    Matt,
    I am currently in the scales and arpegio coarse. THis is enough material that it will thake me a while to get my head around it all, so since my goal is to learn to apply this stuff to tunes, would it make sense to switch to the bluegrass jamming coarse?

    • Hi Bob,

      I think the Bluegrass Jamming II course would be a good fit for trying out what you’ve learned in the Scale and Arpeggio I course. It definitely is a lot of material, and I still work on it 30 years later! But any music you’re already playing would be good for trying out concepts from the course as well.
      Please email if you have any other questions ([email protected]). Thanks Bob!
      —Matt

  2. Stan says:

    Hi Matt and Bob, since I”m new at the mando I was worried that getting into one of these courses might be too much info for me.. do you think I should stick to what I can find on Google.com?

    • Hi Stan,

      Yes, these may be a little challenging to start off with. If you do search for free mandolin instructional material online, I would just be concerned about getting off to a good start in the fundamentals, especially picking technique. It’s easy to develop bad habits that are then difficult to break later, and the free stuff online varies from good to….not good.
      The Old-Time Mandolin 101 course, which starts up in January, might be a good fit. I’ll be gearing it toward various ability levels, but a lot of attention will be paid to picking technique and rhythm playing. I’ll also be offering a “Picking Intensive” class for five days at the start of January—more info coming on that!
      Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you want more specific recommendations for where to start out.

      Thanks Stan!
      —Matt

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