As a newbie I am trying to decide whether to go with Mandolessons or with the beginner lessons by Sharon Gilchrist on Peghead Nation. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
Your financial status would help determine this. If you can afford lessons where you can elicit feedback from a teacher, it may be wise to go that route. Otherwise, self-teaching with the help of mandolessons or other lessons (Brad Laird, Homespun videos, Banjo Ben, YouTube searches, etc.) which are either free, donation-oriented, or require a small, one-time fee make learning accessible to anyone. My advice would be to get lessons from a reputable teacher who offers feedback, one-on-one if possible, or through skype or video exchange if that's the best you can do. If that is not affordable, there are many other resources but sans personal feedback.
+1 on Mark's suggestions. There's also ArtistWorks which is fee based. Classical would be with Caterina Lichtenberg and Bluegrass with Mike Marshall. With a full 1 year subscription, you can submit videos and receive feedback as much as you like. You'll get a 4 to 8 minute response and suggestions based on your submission. The down side is that there is anywhere from 1-2 week delay for response. However, you can watch everyone else's submissions and the instructor's responses. Along with that, you get a free music theory course and a free guitar course. It adds value. Since I already play guitar, I focused on the theory which is pretty extensive. There are other subscription options, too. I just completed my one year subscription with Mike. He's a good artist to learn from. He starts with ground zero and goes all the way to advanced. At this point, I'm focusing more on what I pick up here on the Cafe, what is available on the web, and possibly finding a real, live teacher. Even though I live in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, that's a hard find.
Hi Michael, As Mark & Fred have stated, teacher feedback is so important. I live in a mandolin desert, and found the 18 months i did on ArtistWorks advanced me rapidly. I had self-taught previous to AW, and so went into the course with some knowledge, but Mike's feedback really got to the essence of what I needed to do to bring out the best in myself & the song. The 2 week turnaround you don't even notice, there's another lesson to be learned and other avenues to explore. I've done other internet courses and learned from them plenty, but the fact you have to sit there & record your best take for Mike, and have everyone else see it too, makes ArtistWorks unique. Not cheap, but worth thinking about.
I'll just toss in my +1 for Mike Marshall and Artistworks. I've found Mike to be very patient and encouraging, and I learn a lot from his video responses. It's also great seeing other people's videos and responses as there's a lot to be learned from them as well. I have limited flexibility in my time and budget, and have found Artistworks to be a great fit for me. After I submit a video, I just start working on a new lesson. Sometimes Mike will say to go back and rework something in his response, but that's ok with me. Still learning something during the time between responses.
