All Courses $50 Off: Advanced Bluegrass, Rock & Roll and Mandolin for Beginners

“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

“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.

In light of current events, all spring courses will remain $50 off through the sign-up period (and after!). Let’s play some tunes and help each other get through these difficult times!

Mandolin for Beginners Curriculum Registration

Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing Curriculum Registration

Rock and Roll Mandolin Curriculum Registration

The Bluegrass Mandolin 101 program is pleased to offer three courses this spring focusing on bluegrass, basics and rock and roll! Courses are offered for a variety of ability levels and interests, and are intended to help students improve their technique and learn the fretboard while learning some great tunes. Mandolin for Beginners, Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing and Rock and Roll Mandolin will start up March 30th and 31st and April 1st.

Each course lasts eight weeks, with class sessions on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday evenings (depending on which course it is) and follow-up practice/review sessions on Saturday mornings or afternoons to help you solidify the material while learning practice techniques and getting tips on practice routines.

Students DO NOT need to tune in to the live online sessions, as all class sessions and practice/review sessions are recorded and posted to the class website by the next day for viewing at the students’ convenience. Students are encouraged to attend the live sessions whenever possible, as they can ask questions during the session—plus we’ve found that many students are more likely to practice when they show up for the live sessions!

Mandolin for Beginners (March 30-May 30): This eight-week online program is designed to give the beginning mandolin student a solid foundation in basic mandolin technique, and help students start playing actual songs and tunes from the start. Chords, picking exercises, fingering exercises, rhythm exercises as well as tunes and songs will be taught each week in a progressive curriculum to help students establish good habits and enable them to advance more quickly in their mandolin playing.. Register here.

Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing (March 31-June 6): This course is intended to help students learn some more advanced concepts in bluegrass mandolin. Solos by bluegrass mandolin masters Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Bobby Osborne, Jesse McReynolds and many others will be taught each week. Students will be given two transcribed solos on bluegrass standards to choose from, along with some analyses of the solos and supplementary exercises to help them learn more of the fretboard and apply various musical concepts in their own playing. This course is intended for intermediate to advanced level students. Register here.

Rock and Roll Mandolin (April 1-June 6): This course will explore the wide and wonderful world of Rock & Roll, 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 focus on a few main areas: learning various rhythms with a consistent picking hand technique, learning new ways of playing chords, strengthening fundamentals such as picking and fingering, and getting to know the fretboard better in various keys—as well as learning some great tunes along the way. Songs by the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones (to name a few) will be part of the curriculum. Register here.

SCHEDULE:

60-minute classes take place online every Monday (Mandolin for Beginners), Tuesday (Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing) or Wednesday (Rock and Roll Mandolin) evening from January 6, 7 or 8 to March 10, 11 or 16 at 9 pm eastern time, and 45-minute practice/review sessions take place every Saturday morning/afternoon from April 3 to Ma7 30 (for Rhythm Mandolin) or June 6 (Advanced Bluegrass and Rock and Roll). The shcedule will vary a bit due to Matt’s tour schedule; each course will have eight class sessions and eight practice sessions over the course of 9-10 weeks.

NOTE: It is helpful, but not essential, to be present for the live sessions. All class sessions are recorded and available to view on the class website by the following day.

WHAT STUDENTS GET FROM THE COURSE

All students will also have unlimited access to short recorded videos of all of the material played at a slow tempo, PDFs of all material in both standard notation and mandolin tablature, and mp3s of all of the tunes at slow and medium speeds that they can practice along with. Students can access all of this material at any time through the class website, and can also download all materials (videos and class session videos included) to keep them permanently. All class sessions and practice/review sessions are recorded and posted on the class website (usually by the following day) so that students who were unable to attend the live sessions may view them at their own convenience, and all students may review the class videos as often as they wish.

Students will also be given a Recommended Listening list each week for the material covered. A variety of versions of each tune will be provided in the hopes that students will listen to recordings and further explore the wide world of recorded old-time and bluegrass music.

HOW INTERACTIVE IS THE COURSE?

During the live sessions, students can ask questions and/or play examples via their microphone (built-in or external plug-in), or they can ask questions via a built-in chat window. The instructor responds to all questions immediately (or between teaching exercises, etc.) on the spot.

Students are also encouraged to submit mp3 recordings at any time during the course if they would like to, and the instructor will respond in an mp3 recording with constructive criticism. Students can submit these mp3s either privately via email or publicly via the class website, where all students can listen and respond if they choose to. Mp3 submissions are encouraged but not required, and there is no limit on how many mp3 submissions a student can send in.

There is also a class website where registered students can find all class materials (videos, PDFs, mp3s) anytime. The site also has a Forum section, where students can ask questions, bring up topics for discussion, etc., in an open forum where the instructor and other students can respond.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO PARTICIPATE:

1. A desktop or laptop Mac or PC computer, iPad or Internet-connected mobile device (such as iPhone) in order to view the sessions, plus a good internet connection.

2. An internal microphone and speakers on your laptop or desktop computer, or a phone to listen and speak (if desired) during the sessions. Instructions for participating by phone are included when you register for the course (long distance charges may apply).

3. During the course, you have the option of submitting recorded examples of your playing to the instructor (and to the group, if desired). In order to do this, you will need your computer’s built-in microphone or an external microphone plugged directly into your computer (via built-in ports or an external audio interface), in addition to basic audio recording software, such as Audacity or Garage Band, that will allow you to record yourself playing and save the recording in MP3 format.

4. A mandolin (actually maybe that should have been #1).

The course fee is $225 for the Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing and Rock and Roll courses, and $200 for the Mandolin for Beginners course.

In light of current events, all courses will be discounted at $50 off.

If you have questions about any of the courses, email Matt at [email protected].

View curricula for each course here:

Mandolin for Beginners with Matt Flinner Curriculum

Advanced Bluegrass Mandolin Soloing with Matt Flinner Curriculum

Rock and Roll Mandolin with Matt Flinner Curriculum