Mandolin Picking Technique Intensive Curriculum (6/12-7/13)

“Thanks for the terrific class! I had my mandolin lurking in the corner for 9 months before I took this class. I played with it now and then but felt out of my depth, having only played piano in the past. A few weeks into your class, I couldn’t put down my mandolin, practicing far more than my kids want me to. In addition to the wonderful tunes we learned in class, I started to pick out other melodies like Christmas carols, simple gifts, harry potter, star wars; anything I hear I want to find it on the mandolin.”—Randy R.

“Your classes are the best and most successful learning approach for me, Thank you.”—-Eric B.

See the Bluegrass Mandolin Jamming Curriculum (June 10-July 13)

See the Mandolin Tune Studies Curriculum (June 11-July 13)

This course is intended to help students with the fundamentals of tone and picking technique while learning the fretboard. Various picking exercises will be looked at, along with double stop exercises (which will incorporate concepts from the picking exercises) to help improve efficiency and speed. And we’ll focus quite a bit on improving our tone and getting the most sound out of our instruments that we can. Each week, we’ll also learn a tune and focus on the various aspects of picking technique we’ve been looking at as applied to that tune. The course is intended for players of all levels who want to go deeper into the fundamentals of playing the mandolin, especially tone, picking ability and double stops.

Class sessions will take place on Wednesday evenings from June 12 to July 10 (with the week of July 3 off due to Matt’s touring schedule) at 9 pm eastern time, and practice/review sessions will take place on Saturdays from June 15 to July 13 (again, with the week of July 6 off) at 12:30 pm eastern time.

The course fee is $125.

Here is the curriculum:

WEEK 1 (6/11)

Picking Exercise I on single strings

Picking Exercise I on double strings

Double Stop Exercise I in D

Double Stop Exercise II in D

Practicing with a metronome

Bonaparte’s Retreat

WEEK 2 (6/18)

Picking Exercise II on single strings

Picking Exercise II on double strings