Octave Mandolin Course

[Marcus CA]

Matt Flinner is offering an eight-week online course exclusively on OM this spring. I've seen occasional instructional materials and workshops for OM, but never a structured course. After noodling on the instrument for over a decade, I'm looking forward to the deeper dive. https://www.mattflinner.com/2021/01/...lum-3-31-5-29/

[Jim Garber]

The OM I am borrowing might take a month or so to get back in my possession but I might have it in time. I took a mandolin class with Matt a few years ago and he is an excellent teacher. I am sure this class with be good, too. Aside from different fingering there are also different musical uses for the OM like countermelody, harmony and vocal accompaniment for ensemble as well as solo playing.

Sounds like a great course and covers quite a bit. I see that early cost is $150 before 2/14. I doubt my instrument will be ready by then. Oh well...

[tmsweeney]

all ready signed up - met Matt a few times - we talked "Underground Music from the Mysterious South" for a bit, looking forward to it.

[yarnivore]

I'm a little anxious, because I've never taken proper music lessons, but I'm signed up and eager to start! For now I have a tenor guitar with a 23" scale tuned GDAE, with dreams of a GBOM for my future. I figure if I do well and enjoy the class, I'll be justified in splashing out on a new instrument.

[Scotter]

I'm a little anxious, because I've never taken proper music lessons, but I'm signed up and eager to start! For now I have a tenor guitar with a 23" scale tuned GDAE, with dreams of a GBOM for my future. I figure if I do well and enjoy the class, I'll be justified in splashing out on a new instrument.

I can understand being a little anxious having never taken lessons before but Matt is an excellent teacher and his on-line set up for teaching is comprehensive with chat capability during the weekly zoom lesson AND during the weekly practice session, an on-line forum for getting more follow up help from Matt AND other students as well a slow video for each tune for ensuring correct pick direction AND usually two to three MP3 versions of each song played at various speeds. He typically provides charts with chords and standard and tab notation a few minutes before each class. You can later save the videos and MP3s to your hard drive for review after the course is finished. This is a surprisingly comprehensive approach to teaching and one of the best teaching formats I've experienced anywhere. So, be anxious if you must, but relax in knowing that you have chosen one of the best teachers with one of the best online teaching formats currently available. Your tenor guitar tuned to GDAE should be fine.

-Scotty

[Mandular]

I'm excited for this course. I'm working out whether to use mandolin style fingering or one finger per fret so for now trying to learn most things both ways when I can. Just picked this up after playing a double bass mostly for 25 years. My bass callouses make it a little difficult cuz my fingers are like big bulbs that balloon out when I press down but it's alot of fun. Especially just soloing. I'm looking forward to learning to play properly.

[Jim Roberts]

First lesson was tonight and, as expected, Matt is an excellent instructor. I'm taking this octave class and learning on my short scale tenor guitar tuned GDAE. Wasn't sure what to expect but am glad to be enrolled in this class.

[tmsweeney]

Jim I agree Matt is very good teacher, and is giving very solid examples of how to operate these beasts, plus he went almost an hour over, so his enthusiasm is contagious ( I know: a bad analogy in this era).

Some of it was a little "entry level" for me but I understand he has to reach a broad audience and did not advertise this as "advanced".
It never hurts to revisit and reinforce foundation concepts.

I forget to ask him but I think he has a 22" Lawrence Smart octave, where my octaves are all 20".

The funny thing about octaves is there simply is not a lot of professionally recorded and produced music using octave mandolins, this is double edged as there is no rigid instilled tradition to conform to which I believe deters less people, but on the same note the instrument is not widely popular so finding learning resources and picking partners or even music to play along with can be a challenge.

[JCook]

I very much enjoyed the class last night, and although I've been playing the OM for about 3+ years or so (self-taught) I learned quite a lot from the lesson. I play mandolin, and much of what I play on it I also play on the OM, but it takes some adaptation. Matt's class will help clear up some of the transferring of technique from mando to OM. Looking forward to the rest of the lessons.

Jack

[Chris Gray]

I just received notification that Joe K Walsh's Octave Mandolin course is now available on Peghead Nation

[Dave Hulse]

I am taking Matt's octave class also. The first session was great. Very well thought out with an accompanying web site with helpful material and a forum for students. Matt says he has never taught an octave class. I couldn't tell.

[Marcus CA]

Jim I agree Matt is very good teacher, and is giving very solid examples of how to operate these beasts, plus he went almost an hour over, so his enthusiasm is contagious ( I know: a bad analogy in this era).

Some of it was a little "entry level" for me but I understand he has to reach a broad audience and did not advertise this as "advanced". It never hurts to revisit and reinforce foundation concepts.

I agree completely!!!

I just received notification that Joe K Walsh's Octave Mandolin course is now available on Peghead Nation

Interesting timing! I wonder if the PN folks saw Matt's course offering and decided to get in on the action.

Joe is starting with some tunes that I really like, but he's just starting to build the curriculum for the course, so I might check back near the end of the year to see how it has filled out. John Reischman's PN course was the same at first, but now he really has an extensive set of lessons in it.

[Mandobar]

The OM I am borrowing might take a month or so to get back in my possession but I might have it in time. I took a mandolin class with Matt a few years ago and he is an excellent teacher. I am sure this class with be good, too. Aside from different fingering there are also different musical uses for the OM like countermelody, harmony and vocal accompaniment for ensemble as well as solo playing.

Sounds like a great course and covers quite a bit. I see that early cost is $150 before 2/14. I doubt my instrument will be ready by then. Oh well...

The man to learn counter melody and harmony lines from is Dave Surette. He is the master at this. His Green Mandolin and Northern Roots CD have a lot of octave and bouzouki on them.

[yarnivore]

Matt's class was great! I got a little overwhelmed towards the end of the first session, but I tried to just let it wash over me and not get too hung up about it -- Matt mentioned that the later material was for people who are a little more advanced.

Thanks so much to Marcus, who posted about it above!

[shaundeane]

Matt is the best, I'll take anything he offers and have. Jo's course on Peghead is excellent, too. The first tune by Duke Levine is beautiful and doable with som nice extras to grow into.

[Jim Garber]

My borrowed OM is finally ready at the luthier’s. It was not really playable but it is a good one. Too bad I missed Matt’s first class—I took an in-person class with him in NYC a few years ago. I might check out Joe’s though. I love both their playing on mandolin and general musicianship.

[Mandobar]

Matt is the best, I'll take anything he offers and have. Jo's course on Peghead is excellent, too. The first tune by Duke Levine is beautiful and doable with som nice extras to grow into.

Notice Joe has switched to a Brock GBOM for the Sam Brown Hill tune.

[abousall]

Hey Jack! Where are you located and where do you play? Im in Wellfleet. Back before the 'demic I used to play some of the sessions at O'Sheas, and my 'local' was The Well Friday night session in Wellfleet (sadly closed down)

[Vivian]

Matt’s class, teaching, styles explored and materials provided (PDFs, MP3s, videos) are just great. I am really enjoying myself. A big thank you to Marcus CA for posting, otherwise, I would never have known.

[JCook]

Hey Jack! Where are you located and where do you play? Im in Wellfleet. Back before the 'demic I used to play some of the sessions at O'Sheas, and my 'local' was The Well Friday night session in Wellfleet (sadly closed down)

Hi abousall, I just noticed your post from back in April! I live in North Falmouth, and play mando and octave mando with some people in an informal group that hardly ever plays out. But I play octave mando with a sword dancing group in Woods Hole (English sword dance, similar to morris dancing). I also play mando in a mandolin orchestra based in Providence. I haven't been to O'Sheas, but have heard of it. I have a friend who lives in Dennis named Eric, who plays banjo, and he goes to the sessions there sometimes.

Jack

[cunparis]

I guess the course must be over now, so how did you all like it? How much of the course was on accompaniment?

If he does the class again I'd like to take it. I don't have an octave mandolin (yet).. I play on a baritone ukulele tuned like an octave mandolin. Would that be OK?

[Marcus CA]

I think it would be OK from a technical standpoint, since the scale length would be on the low end of the OM's range, and the tuning would be the same. However, I think that much of the music --- both the skills practice and the tunes --- wouldn't sound as good, because to my ear, ukes don't have the sustain or the richness of an OM. Also, you'd have melody problems with the G string not being the lowest of the set.

[Jim Garber]

Marcus: baritone Ukes don’t have re-entrant tuning and besides he said it was tuned like an OM.

[Marcus CA]

Thanks for the info, Jim. I thought that all ukes were tuned in the same relationships, with the 4th string higher than the 3rd. So, when cunparis said that his bari uke was tuned like an OM, I figured that he meant GDAE, but with the G an octave higher, like on the other ukes.

[cunparis]

Thanks for the info, Jim. I thought that all ukes were tuned in the same relationships, with the 4th string higher than the 3rd. So, when cunparis said that his bari uke was tuned like an OM, I figured that he meant GDAE, but with the G an octave higher, like on the other ukes.

I have my soprano uke in GDAE (with a "low-G") too. Even when the soprano was in uke tuning, I never liked that re-entrant G so I replaced it with a low G.

I'm having a hard time with the finger stretch on my baritone which is 20.375″ scale length. But so far I'm really liking the sound.