Background: I bought my first mandolin about 8-9 years ago, learned my way around the fretboard on my own, then finally signed up for private lessons almost a year ago (early quarantine). My technical facility has improved considerably in that time, and I've also gotten a much better sense of the kind of rep I want to play. Outside of mandolin, I've been playing classical piano almost my entire life, so reading standard notation is no problem, and I have a solid grasp on music theory.
I feel I am starting to reach the limits of how far I can go with my current teacher, who plays mandolin, but it's not his main instrument, and his knowledge of that instrument is predominantly focused on old-time music.
My own musical interests as a mandolinist are:
- Baroque/classical (clarifier: I prefer Bach and Telemann to Calace, and archtops to bowlbacks)
- Irish fiddle tunes
- Old-time fiddle tunes
I'd like to find a teacher who's into historically informed performance practice. I'm also curious about Marla Fibish's Irish course and Aaron Weinstein's chord melody course on Peghead Nation.
As far as HIP goes, I'm based in the SF Bay Area, and I saw that the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra is offering lessons. They have a lutenist/guitarist, as well as several violinists. (No mandolinists, unsurprisingly.)
This is all very open-ended, but I'm wondering if anyone has advice as to how I can guide my practice, if anyone has experience with the aforementioned Peghead Nation courses, experience training with non-mandolinists, etc.
Thanks in advance!
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