Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming Curriculum (6/21-7/24)

“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., Bluegrass Mandolin 101 student

“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 a 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., Bluegrass Mandolin 101 student

See the Scale and Arpeggio Intensive Curriculum (June 22-July 24)

See the Chord and Rhythm Intensive Curriculum (June 23-July 24)

This course is intended to help the aspiring mandolinist build up repertoire and find ways of creating new solos over commonly played standards; it’s also designed in the hope that it will encourage students to get out and jam with other players!

Now offered at Europe-friendly times! Class sessions take place 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.

Each week, we’ll look at four bluegrass standard tunes. Students will be given lead sheets (in standard notation and tablature) for each song, as well as a few exercises to help them learn more about the fretboard and start incorporating new ideas into their solos. Concepts and tunes will be taught during the class session, and all tunes will be revisited during Saturday practice sessions in a “jam session” format, where each song is played several times though, and students have the opportunity to try out some of the week’s concepts on the tunes (with guidance from Matt).

Classes meet every Monday from June 21 to July 19 (the week of July 5 is off due to Matt’s touring schedule) at 2 pm eastern time (7 or 8 pm in the UK and Europe) as well as 9 pm eastern time. We hope this will be convenient for folks in various time zones, including Europe and around the world! There will also be 45-minute review sessions every Saturday at 12:15 pm eastern time (5:15 or 6:15 pm in the UK and Europe).

The course fee is $125.

Here is the curriculum:

WEEK 1 (June 21)

Key of G

Positions in G

Double stops in G

Going between single notes and double stops

Don’t This Road Look Rough and Rocky

Love, Please Come Home

Columbus Stockade Blues

Bluegrass Breakdown

WEEK 2 (June 28)