Hello,
I'm an experienced player and have had a number of mandolin students in the past. Previously my students were experienced with guitar or had played mandolin a while. Now I have a student that is new to all musical instruments.
Can other instructors provide some advice on how to approach rank beginner lessons? I've already demonstrated the importance of posture/ergonomics, having a proper strap, tuning the instrument, left hand position, pick types and holding the pick.
After that I had the student finger and open C chord and just practice a right hand strum pattern of down, down, down-up-down. They were able to get pretty comfortable with that and I instructed that the more time the better to spend on strumming rhythm and getting the right hand loose.
I play bluegrass and oldtime so going forward would you recommend continued work on strumming rhythm with singing, or do you think melody/single-note playing should be introduced early on as well?
Thanks for your consideration,
Zack
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