# Music by Genre > Celtic, U.K., Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk >  Marla Fibish's Irish Mandolin Course

## James Rankine

Anyone else taking the Irish mandolin course on Peghead Nation taught by the wonderful Marla Fibish and care to share a video of their progress? She's teaching Irish slides at the moment. It's really good to get some comprehensive teaching on the less common tune types. Here's where I'm at, just now, with this month's tune - An Choisir.

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bob_mc, 

bruce.b, 

Denman John, 

dustyamps, 

Jill McAuley, 

Loretta Callahan, 

Mark Gunter, 

mikeyes, 

Paul Statman, 

Ryk Loske

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## James Rankine

And this is what it's supposed to sound like!

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## Mark Wilson

No.  But I'd like to.  Well done!

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James Rankine, 

mikeyes

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## Jill McAuley

Lovely stuff there James, well done! I'm doing a 3 day Irish Mandolin intensive workshop with Marla in February '18 - can't wait!

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James Rankine

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## mgap

I have invested in Marla's lessons from the beginning of her addition to Peghead Nation.  Yesterday was my last day of subscription.  Going to take a break and work on other projects.  I do enjoy her lessons.  

Your lessons have paid off well.  Nice job.

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James Rankine

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## John Kelly

Lovely playing there, James.  Your lessons are certainly paying off.

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James Rankine

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## musicology

> Lovely stuff there James, well done! I'm doing a 3 day Irish Mandolin intensive workshop with Marla in February '18 - can't wait!


I wish I could do the workshop, too... have fun! :Mandosmiley:

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Jill McAuley

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## Gelsenbury

I'm really enjoying your fluency and smooth attack! Which strings and pick are you using?

Martha's course is interesting, but I don't feel ready yet. I have a three-day workshop with Simon Mayor coming up later this month, and I can hardly wait.

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## James Rankine

> I'm really enjoying your fluency and smooth attack! Which strings and pick are you using?
> 
> Martha's course is interesting, but I don't feel ready yet. I have a three-day workshop with Simon Mayor coming up later this month, and I can hardly wait.


Thanks. D'Addario J74s and Dunlop Primetone 1.4.
Hope to make one of Simon Mayor's workshops one day - great player and entertaining character.

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Gelsenbury

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## Seamus B

> I'm really enjoying your fluency and smooth attack! Which strings and pick are you using?
> 
> Martha's course is interesting, but I don't feel ready yet. I have a three-day workshop with Simon Mayor coming up later this month, and I can hardly wait.



Hi there - where is the 3-day course running? And do you know if it is ok for beginners? Simon set-up my mandolin and I have always wanted to get some guidance from him!

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## Gelsenbury

Halsway in Somerset, from 28 January: https://halswaymanor.org.uk/event/si...dolin-weekend/

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## Seamus B

Oh that looks wonderful. I wish I had known about it before but now it is too short notice.

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## Gelsenbury

He does several of these every year. I think there was one in Sheffield last year, which may suit you better. Keep an eye on his website!

Returning to the original topic: After the workshop, I'll either seriously consider Marla's online course or decide that I won't be ready for a while yet! Looking at James's video, I think the course may be most enjoyable for players moving from intermediate to advanced.

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## Steve-o

> Returning to the original topic: After the workshop, I'll either seriously consider Marla's online course or decide that I won't be ready for a while yet! Looking at James's video, I think the course may be most enjoyable for players moving from intermediate to advanced.


I'm taking Marla's course, and it's mostly directed to an advanced beginner to intermediate player. There are a few tricky techniques, but these come later in her lessons, and a less experienced player should still be able to play the tunes without some of the trickier ornamentation.

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Gelsenbury

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## Seamus B

> He does several of these every year. I think there was one in Sheffield last year, which may suit you better. Keep an eye on his website!


Thanks! That would be handy, although I don't mind travelling to a nice location for a mando retreat like this. I would love to hear how it went.

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## sportsnapper

@glensbury - thanks for mentioning this course - didn't realise that it existed. I'm very tempted - I'm an ex grade 8 fiddle player (many years ago), but a beginner mandolin player - and frustrated by some of the onine stuff as it expects you to be able to memorise tunes from just shots of fingers - I'm much happier with notation or even TAB rather than guesswork! 
Looking back to orchestra workshoips I did in my youth, I remember how much progress could be made in a weekend.

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## James Rankine

> Returning to the original topic: After the workshop, I'll either seriously consider Marla's online course or decide that I won't be ready for a while yet! Looking at James's video, I think the course may be most enjoyable for players moving from intermediate to advanced.


I think no matter what level you are at you'd get a lot from Marla's course. I remember you saying over on the social group that you struggle with reels because of the pace but the biggest thing I've got from the course is that it's not the pace that gives reels the drive but the emphasis on the beat and the lift. There is a lovely moment during one of her lessons where she says "and now with more drive" and changes the emphasis of the playing without changing the tempo. There is too much store applied to playing Irish music fast because of the session culture, without getting the basics in place first. There is no better person to learn that from, than Marla.

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Gelsenbury, 

mikeyes

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## Gelsenbury

I had a look at the information on https://pegheadnation.com/string-sch...rish-mandolin/, and it looks really good. My problem with pretty much all of my instructional DVDs is that a long time is spent talking about techniques that I already know, and then they get put into practice in tunes played at a speed with which I just can't keep up. From first impressions, Marla's Peghead Nation lessons appear well paced and may be more useful to me. 

Does the course involve any assessment? And is there any interaction with Marla, or just the videos to view? I heard that Mike Marshall offered an online course at one point where students submitted videos of themselves playing, and Mike would offer feedback on technique and musicality. Is this the same kind of thing?

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## James Rankine

> I had a look at the information on https://pegheadnation.com/string-sch...rish-mandolin/, and it looks really good. My problem with pretty much all of my instructional DVDs is that a long time is spent talking about techniques that I already know, and then they get put into practice in tunes played at a speed with which I just can't keep up. From first impressions, Marla's Peghead Nation lessons appear well paced and may be more useful to me. 
> 
> Does the course involve any assessment? And is there any interaction with Marla, or just the videos to view? I heard that Mike Marshall offered an online course at one point where students submitted videos of themselves playing, and Mike would offer feedback on technique and musicality. Is this the same kind of thing?


It's not as interactive as Mike Marshal's site but there is a forum where you can post questions to Marla and I posted a link to a video of me playing one of the tunes and she gave some very helpful feedback.

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Gelsenbury

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## MikeyG

> I had a look at the information on https://pegheadnation.com/string-sch...rish-mandolin/, and it looks really good. My problem with pretty much all of my instructional DVDs is that a long time is spent talking about techniques that I already know, and then they get put into practice in tunes played at a speed with which I just can't keep up. From first impressions, Marla's Peghead Nation lessons appear well paced and may be more useful to me. 
> 
> Does the course involve any assessment? And is there any interaction with Marla, or just the videos to view?


The course involves no interaction with Marla, other than that mentioned by James in post #19.  Furthermore, the videos are not downloadable - they must be viewed online.  The pdf's and mp3's however can be downloaded.  

MikeyG

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Denman John, 

Gelsenbury

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## sportsnapper

I've been doing the Peghead begineers mandolin couse (rude not to as the first Month is free!) - but I'm about to swop to Maria's. Though I got some good basic info from the begineers course, not having the music was drviing me nuts - I've never been particularly good at memorizing tunes. And I prefer Irish music anyway!
On another note I'm also now booked on Simon's wokshop, so I've got a few new tunes to look at and practise in the next week!

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## Will Patton

Marla Fibish is joining myself, Matt Shipman and David Surette at David's great long running March Mando Camp in Concord, N.H. - the first week in March.  I'll be teaching some choro and jazz improv but very much look forward to hanging out with Marla as I've been a bit obsessed with Irish tunes as well.  Mr. Surette is no slouch hisself.

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## Annette Siegel

> Lovely stuff there James, well done! I'm doing a 3 day Irish Mandolin intensive workshop with Marla in February '18 - can't wait!


I'll see you there then!  :Smile:

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Jill McAuley

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## Jill McAuley

> I'll see you there then!


Yes, looking forward to it! Working me way through the tunes for it Marla posted as we speak!

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Annette Siegel

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## BBarton

Marla will be teaching mandolin again at this year's O'Flahertys Irish Music Retreat in Texas in October.

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mikeyes

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## Paul Statman

..

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