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Mike Marshall Mandolin Lessons Review

mandolin lessonsOne of our mandolin students has written a great review of his experience taking online mandolin lessons with Mike Marshall. He posted this in the forums at the School of Mandolin but we wanted to showcase it here on the blog so everyone can read it. We've also linked to two of his Video Exchanges so be sure to click on the images below to watch. 

I've been a member of the Mike Marshall School of Mandolin (MMSM) for a little over one year now (first video submission response was on 12/24/11) and I'd like to share my thoughts on how it has gone.

One word: AMAZING. If you look at my first exchange and compare it to my most recent exchange, there is no comparison.

 

mandolin lessonsOne of our mandolin students has written a great review of his experience taking online mandolin lessons with Mike Marshall. He posted this in the forums at the School of Mandolin but we wanted to showcase it here on the blog so everyone can read it. We've also linked to two of his Video Exchanges so be sure to click on the images below to watch. 

I've been a member of the Mike Marshall School of Mandolin (MMSM) for a little over one year now (first video submission response was on 12/24/11) and I'd like to share my thoughts on how it has gone.

One word: AMAZING. If you look at my first exchange and compare it to my most recent exchange, there is no comparison.

Video Exchange from December, 2011

mandolin lessons

Video Exchange from December, 2012

online mandolin lessons

I have a good amount of music experience. I've played drums since I was 10 and a fair amount of guitar in high school, with a pretty substantial "vacation" from it in adult life. I picked up the mando in roughly June of 2011 since a good friend was forming an informal bluegrass circle. With my guitar experience I was pretty confident I could come up to speed, certainly at the level he was expecting to play at. I quickly learned a few rudimentary chords and a few basic tunes via the web and was enjoying mandolin and getting together with my friends. Little did I know the mandolin, and especially MMSM, would change my life.

I don't think I'll ever forget when I discovered MMSM. It was November of 2011. I was at a conference in Salt Lake City, UT, with mando in tow, and had gone out to play in the local jam and had a good time. When I got back I was perusing manodlincafe.com and they had this promotion for the Academy of Bluegrass. I started looking into it and thought, "I'm at a time in my life where I can afford to do something like this if I want to." So I signed up. From the "outside" (reading promotions, etc.) it's very hard to understand how awesome it is on the "inside." Probably 3 or so video exchanges in I realized "this is incredible."

I have done a lot of "work" to get to where I'm at (not that I'm awesome, but I think I'm much improved over my initial video exchange). Most weekdays I spend at least an hour practicing. I feel fortunate that my current life situation (kids are getting older) allows me to dedicate this sort of time. There is no doubt I would have improved a lot in the year without MMSM, using widely available web resources, etc., but I have to estimate that MMSM has accelerated my progress by a factor of 2-3. My heart flutters just a little bit every time a new video response comes up from MM.

As to how my experience with the site has evolved. I was submitting fast and furious in the initial months, to good effect. As Mike got to know me and my interests, and I became more proficient, the "material" Mike provided in his responses resulted in longer digestion times. It didn't occur to me when I signed up for MMSM that progress through the curriculum would slow as you get better, but that has indeed been the case for me. I'm now sort of on a once per month submission schedule. As of 6 months ago I thought I could get through the intermediate curriculum at a decent clip, but my estimate now is at least one year out from now. (I tend to be methodical about these sorts of things and am trying to follow the curriculum pretty closely, not accounting for my "outside the curriculum" interests in jazz, which can "slow things down," even though they are "speeding it up" in other areas.)

As to cost, it's a killer deal. I was paying $45 per lesson (with another special mando player, Sharon Gilchrist, who is really great and a very fun person), but I had to travel 45 minutes each way for a lesson. And there are aspects of MMSM that make it better than a live lesson. Most importantly, the fact that you get to watch your lesson over and over again. There have been times where I definitely think a personal interaction would have cut down on some confusion, but you can't have it all, right? I've recently upped my subscription to MMSM to one year. If I do one submission a month it's less than 1/2 of what it was costing me to travel to the other great mandolin instructor.

Anyhow, a HUGE SHOUTOUT to MMSM. I'm so very pleased with it.

 - woollybear (aka john)

P.S. The second most awesome thing that has happened to me and my playing in the last year, after MMSM, is that our friend Ciskoe alerted me to the fact that there is an incredible guitar player in my little town, Ian Fleming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acAhAdQE3bk and the good part about being in a little town is that there aren't many mando players, so I've been playing with him. He has agreed to do a submission with me. I'm thinking some bluegrass and some jazz. Look for that in early 2013! He's incredible!

 
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