Re: How to choose a mandolin teacher
I don't know how much access you have to music camps/workshops, but there's nothing like spending a week immersed in the music you like with some instruction from some of the best out there. If nothing else, you can see how different people teach.
I remember once at Irish Arts Week when Alec Finn was a teacher, everybody and his brother signed up for his bouzouki class because, after all, Alec Finn. I was taking a mandolin class but one of our group was in the bouzouki class. Two days into the week, there was so-and-so in the mandolin class. And as the week progressed, more and more people ended up in the mandolin class, because while Alec Finn was an incredible player, apparently he was a terrible teacher/instructor, at least that week.
I don't know if the person you're interested in taking a lesson from would let you sit in on another lesson so you can see how s/he teaches, but you can ask. and you can ask for a sample lesson. And I'd suggest going to a camp where you can take different kinds of lessons from different people or simply hang around with other musicians. It's hard doing stuff in isolation.
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1920 Lyon & Healy bowlback
1923 Gibson A-1 snakehead
1952 Strad-o-lin
1983 Giannini ABSM1 bandolim
2009 Giannini GBSM3 bandolim
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