Grateful Dead Mandolin with Matt Flinner Curriculum (3/24-5/23)

“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.

“I have done some online courses, some one-on-one instruction and some camps. The course I just finished with you has been the most useful by a pretty large margin. Thanks for both the thought and effort that went into the design and material preparation and for the personal presence you bring to it.”—Steve F.

See the Bluegrass Mandolin 101 with Matt Flinner curriculum (3/23-5/16)

See the Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing with Matt Flinner curriculum (3/24-5/23)

Welcome to the Grateful Dead Mandolin course! As you might expect, this course will explore the wide and wonderful world of the Grateful Dead, 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 especially focus on a few main areas: learning various rhythms, getting tips on soloing, and especially learning how to navigate tricky and unusual chord progressions! We’ll also focus on having a consistent picking hand technique, learning new ways of playing chords, and getting to know the fretboard better in various keys—as well as learning some great tunes.

Each week, students will be given exercises related to picking technique, chords, licks or double stops, along with a couple of Grateful Dead songs. 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.

This course is offered at Europe-friendly times! Class sessions take place on Tuesdays at 2 pm eastern time (7 or 8 pm in most of Europe) and 9 pm eastern time. Students are welcome to join whichever session is more convenient for them…or they can join both! Students who cannot make it to the live sessions are able to view the sessions afterwards on the class website—generally by the following day. Tuesday class sessions will run from October 8 to December 3 (with the week of November 26 off due to the Thanksgiving holiday), and practice/review sessions will take place on Saturdays at 12:30 pm eastern time from October 12 to December 7 (with November 30 off).

Here is the schedule:

Week 1 (3/24):

Some bluegrassy-ish tunes

Picking Exercise I

Melodic Pattern I for Soloing

Some Mixolydian melodic ideas

I Know You, Rider

Uncle John’s Band

Week 2 (3/31)

Basic rock rhythms

Rhythm exercise II

Picking Exercise II