I had the pleasure of taking Mary Coogan's advanced mandolin class at the O'Flaherty irish Music Retreat last week and it was an eye opener.
To my mind there is no consensus on how the mandolin fits into ITM. I've taken Marla Fibish's class, one from Mick Moloney recently, also from Martin Howley and others. There has been some similarities, but mostly it is very individual and it depends on how banjo-centric the teacher is. (Incidentally i have video of most of them.). Mary presents another aspect.
Another coda before I discuss the class: i got to hear a recording of the recent All-Ireland mandolin contest (i don't know what level which may make a difference) and it was not only boring, but fairly slow in tempo. Does anyone know if there is a specific style they want at these contests? It was nothing like any of the above mentioned teachers.
Mary is an accomplished mandolin player. You don't hear much from her because she is mostly in the role of accompaniment with Cherish The Ladies (or "Cherish" as she calls it.). in that role she has used the mandolin to play the tune or to embellish singers. Her style is sparse but very tasteful and it is clear that she is a master of the instrument. She plays a Phoenix instrument (which is an "f" hole mandolin) that sounds terrific over a sound system if a little soft acoustically.
Her style uses triplets as ornaments but she relies on a lot of other mandolin ornaments too including the usual hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, double stops and she plays to the strengths of the instrument. She also teaches the instrument specifically as mandolin and not a tiny banjo. We learned accompaniment styles from her (to be used when you have to, but it was very effective) and we saw a much broader use of the instrument.
In class she was very prepared with all the tunes available as notation and tab. She taught the usual way of a phrase at a time but expected the class to keep up which it did for once. (Most prior classes were all comers which meant that advanced students lost out. This year and last year they started a novice/intermediate class with john leistman.). She also had her husband, Bruce Foley, present to show us how the pipes play the tunes and she asked the class to contribute ideas after we heard Bruce.
This was more of a master class in which the students contributed ideas and we explored the tunes for ideas rather than just learning another tune. Technique was explored more than any other class i had in the past but it was not dictated. Rather it was drawn from us and I think that this contributed more memorable ideas than the other way. I'll note that even in the last class, the one that often fizzles out, class interest was high right to the end.
None of this should surprise. Mary is a substitute teacher in addition to being a professional musician. It was the best of both worlds.
I recommend her class to anyone who is interested, especially at the advanced level. If you live near Yonkers, NY you can get classes directly from her and get an insight into Cherish while you are at it.
Mike Keyes
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