Mandolin Practice Techniques Curriculum (6/23-7/25)

“All your courses are really good, very well designed, and you have a great teaching style and a relaxed, open, while also serious, approach – which really comes across with the live lessons – thank you for being so encouraging always!”–-Penny J.

“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.

See the Fiddle Tune Jamming Curriculum (6/22-7/25)

See the Mandolin Chord & Rhythm Intensive Curriculum (6/24-7/25)

Mandolin Practice Techniques is intended to help the aspiring mandolin student practice more efficiently and improve their playing skills more quickly. Students will be given exercises in the following areas: picking exercises, arpeggios, scales, fingering exercises, double stops, and a tune for the week. Students will receive the materials in PDF form (in tablature and standard notation), and Matt will then guide them through the exercises. Matt will then help students build daily practice sessions (as short as 15 minutes and as long as an hour—or longer if they want to!), giving them tips on how to improve and how to practice more effectively.

Class sessions will take place on Tuesdays at 1 and 9 pm eastern time, with follow-up practice sessions Saturday mornings at 11 am eastern time. NOTE: Tuesday afternoon sessions take place at 1 pm eastern time—a more convenient time for our friends in the UK and Europe! 1 pm eastern time translates to 6 or 7 pm in the UK and most of Europe. Students are welcome to join in on either or both of the Tuesday sessions each week (they will be essentially identical to one another in content). Tuesday class sessions will take place June 23, July 7, 14 and 21, and Saturday follow-up practice sessions will take place June 27, July 11., 18 and 25. 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 often available to view later that day)

Students have access to all materials (PDFs, videos and mp3s) on a class website any time, and they can also download and keep all PDFs, mp3s and videos (including recordings of the class sessions) to practice with on their own time if they wish to.

Here is the curriculum:

WEEK 1 (6/23)

Picking Exercise I

Fingering Exercise I

Double Stop Exercise I in G

Scales and Patterns in G

Major 7 Arpeggio Exercise

Lick #1 in All Keys

Tune: Leather Britches

WEEK 2 Curriculum (7/7)

Picking Exercise II

Fingering Exercise II