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My wife gave me the go ahead to do on line lessons last night. I know absolutely nothing about them, so can you folks enlighten me about them? I think Mike Marshall would be a good one and have thought about Mike Hedding as well as Mandolin Academy. Do any of you have experience going this rout good or bad. In your opinion who should I really look at as far as beginner classes go? Thanks in advance
Are there local teachers in your area offering private lessons over Zoom? For instance, I'm based in the Bay Area, and I'm taking online lessons through the San Francisco Community Music Center. I think you'd get more out of interacting with a teacher in real time than watching pre-recorded videos.
Well, I have been a member of Artist Works with Mike for about 4 years. Can't recommend it enough.
The pre-recorded curriculum is great but the real different of AW is that you can send a video of yourself to Mike and then he will respond back to you with feedback specific to you. It's not as instantaneous as in person of Skype/zoom lessons of course. The other super valuable thing is that you can see the lessons sent in and replied to for every other student. There are literally thousands of them to watch. Probably close to a thousand just on Old Joe Clark.
Mike is also great about working with you on whatever you want to send in no matter the genre. Bluegrass, choro, Irish. classical, jazz, etc.
I've also been a member of Peghead Nation for a while and those lessons are great as well, but it is all just pre-recorded so there is no feedback or any kind of interaction among the students.
Mike Marshall at Artistworks has a fantastic beginner curriculum, if you’re looking for that. I’ve taken years of lessons from him. I also take from Peghead Nation, whose instructors and classes are also world-class, but I think MM is best for early learning.
Pete Martin at pete@petimarpress.com !
If you're a beginner beginner I'd recommend taking a few in-person (Zoom, Skype these days) to get started off right. Listen to some players and contact the ones you like for lessons. Also, Matt Flinner has a BG 101 class starting in January and he goes over basic things like holding the mando, hand position, warm-up exercises and such.
Then I'd look into Banjo Ben, PH Nation, ArtistWorks, the choices are unlimited. Since it's so close to the holidays keep an eye out for packages or discounts.
Are these prerecorded lessons like the tutorials on you tube? Thanks for all the answers so far.
If you're looking for online lessons, you can't go wrong with Andy Hatfield. Andy is a great player, a patient teacher, and a genuinely nice guy. He'll be able to help you get started.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6g8BxAkitA
I think a beginner needs one-on-one structured lessons in real time, and it’s great if you can make that link to musicians who live near you.
I really don’t know the teachers you mention, but I think you’re asking a difficult question because I personally wouldn’t write anything negative about any teacher.
I think they’re all good. And in small doses, even the ‘bad’ ones, whatever that means, are probably good, but for other people.
I’d say just try them out and see for yourself.
Here’s a great lesson by Mike Hedding.
Pete offers Skype lessons pay-as-you-go, and all his books and recorded lessons are free of charge, though donations are recommended. I recently became a Patreon sponsor. But he has a whole new website that has everything on it, so visit www.petemartin.info rather than petimarpress.com (IMHO)Quote:
Originally Posted by yankees1
In addition to ArtistWorks and Peghead Nation already mentioned, there are
www.bradleylaird.com for recorded material, some of which is free.
www.mandolessons.com for recorded material, free material but donations recommended.
www.homespun.com for recorded lessons, pay per set of lessons, by some of the greatest mandolin players.
There are other choices as well, these are my own go to sources.
Torpedo
Welcome to the mando world. I saw that Mark mentioned my material and he is correct that it is recorded video. (Thanks for the mention, Mark!)
I want to mention a couple other things which might be useful. I also have a podcast (171 episodes at present) which you can get free. I have even interviewed several of the other teachers mentioned: Mike Marshall, Pete Martin et al.
You can get them all at
http://www.grasstalkradio.com
and most all podcasts apps.
Good luck and happy pickin, Tom
This is actually a good example.Quote:
Originally Posted by onswah
Standard online behaviour would be to take the vid, slow it down to .25 times with the YouTube button, then write out the TAB, then practice it over and over.
-you could probably then play the piece really well, but still wouldn’t understand why it sounds good.
The great thing about a teacher is that they will be able to explain to you where all the different arpeggios in this tune (for example) come from. With a bit of scales practice, knowing each arpeggio in the key, plus the chords around this key, you can really get to know the tune, and then just freely start to improvise on your own.
Also, check out the courses offered by Matt Flinner. I have taken several this year and they are excellent. He just posted the course offerings for this winter on his website. They typically are 1.5 hours, two times per week, for 8 weeks, at very affordable cost/course, with a lot of materials and resources.
If you are a motivated self-study type then there is a lot of mileage to be gotten out of the various tapes from Homespun. Butch Baldassari's series is a great place to start, and really the sky is the limit from there with great videos from Sam Bush, Norman Blake, Ronnie McCoury, etc.
It's also worth mentioning that there are some great in-person programs that have moved online due to the pandemic. I have had a great experience with the online group classes from Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. I've only taken guitar classes with them so far but the group format over Zoom works really well - sort of a happy medium between a prerecorded lesson and a private lesson. The teacher walks you through the material, and you have the opportunity to ask questions in real-time. Information about the mandolin classes at OTS can be found here:https://www.oldtownschool.org/classes/adults/mandolin/
Jack Tuttle is also teaching private lessons over zoom right now, that would seem like a great option if that's the route you want to go.
https://www.jacktuttle.com/all-about-lessons/
This may have been posted before but I don't keep up much. I ran across https://pickinlessons.com/mandolin-all-lessons/ this morning. Lessons on guitar, mandolin and banjo. Think all his melody lessons on mandolin tunes are free but you'd have to join to get a tutorial but what I watched was interesting and he's a good player and probably a good teacher for those wanting to progress
I am currently taking Mandolin 2 in the winter session of The Louisville Folk School via Zoom. I took the beginner's Mandolin 1 in the fall. I have learned a lot.
They have not announced their spring classes so I don't know if Mandolin 1 will an offering. Their site is:
https://louisvillefolkschool.org/col...ndolin-classes