Member of the School of Mandoln?

[cedarhog]

Just wondering if there are people already members of the Mike Marshal School of Mandolin, and if so how is it going? Are the lessons as good as I'm hoping and how fast a response do you get on your video uploads you send in, and is there a limit to how many you can upload during your membership time?

[Isaac Revard]

I gave it a go for 3 months. It was a great experience and I would recommend it. The curriculum is well thought out for three levels of playing: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. For 30 bucks a month, you cant beat it...Unless you want to pay for one on one lessons. Which is why I did not continue, more involved one-on-one lessons are what I need right now.

The responses from Mike are awesome. It was pretty cool to submit a video to him and get a personalized response. He helped me out a great deal. I think the response time of the videos would be the only negative that I could think of, It took anywhere from a couple of days to three weeks to get a response. Its rather hit or miss, it all depends on what Mike has going on, he still gigs around the country and does a variety of other musical mandolin things. However, every student's videos are available for you to check out, which was helpful here and there. You may submit up to 3 videos at a time.

Some of the other features such as the forum, chat and such are kinda...blah and unexciting. No comparison to the forum here.

There are some cool videos of Mike interviewing other Mandolin stars on the site too.

All in all...good stuff really. Mike is an awesome teacher and it's worth spending the 90 bucks to give it a shot for a few months. I took away tons of pearls in that time.

[Marcus CA]

I'm on my second three-month stint, and agree with everything that Mando Isaac said about it. My only disappointment is with myself, rather than the School. The past couple of months, I've only used it 2-4 times a month. Still, each time I do, I feel like I've gotten my $30-worth from that session alone. I revisit a lesson or two, and then do another 2-3 new lessons. I always get a few nuggets out of each session, so even if I logged in just once a month, I'd be a satisfied customer.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the intermediate set of lessons. I've gotten a ton out of both the theory/technique lessons and the tune lessons. I also get a lot out of watching Mike's responses to student videos. Mike's responses are usually over 5 minutes long and offer suggestions that always seem appropriate to the level of the player. At some point, maybe I'll get up the nerve to send in a video.

[cedarhog]

thanks guys.......sounds like its worth a shot.........sometimes you just have to treat yourself!

[tburcham]

I am and I love it. Like Marcus, I don't spend enough time there, but I'm definitely getting my money's worth from the site. Mike is a great teacher!

[Elliot Luber]

I have not taken Mike's lessons yet, but I learned a whole lot just watching the videos of his clinics at YouTube. I would say spend time with a great player any time you can, particularly one with the reputation of being a great teacher. The down side is?