Update on Lessons

A month ago, I wrote that Younger Daughter and I were starting weekly lessons - she on guitar, me on mandolin. A month later, she is working very hard at it and making great progress. I'm pleased and proud, but most of all happy for her that she's found something she loves to do. So she's continuing with the teacher we found.

I enjoyed my month of lessons, but I'm not continuing (and since you pay by the month, I didn't renew for December.) I got a couple of good technical pointers, but I need more - and I found it. I saw a number of flowing recommendations online for Mike Marshall's online mandolin school.

That's not a name that meant anything to me, but a little Googling shows that he's considered one of the very top mandolin players. He's set up a school where you pay by the month and get unlimited access to a big library of video lessons, which you can go through at your own pace. There are loads of free video lessons on YouTube, but seemed worth paying for. You also get access to printed tabs of the songs in the lessons - and the big thing is you can make your own video and submit it to the site, and Mike Marshall will review it and give you a video response. Not exactly the same as a real-time Skype lesson - but interactive nonetheless. A note for the frugal among us - unlimited access to Mike Marshall is *way* less expensive than half an hour a week at in in-person lesson.

I signed up two weeks ago, and I love it. I've been devouring the lessons. They're divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. While I knew I wasn't a beginner, I decided it couldn't hurt me to start at the very beginning - that maybe I had some bad habits from being mostly self-taught that I could correct.

I went through all the beginner lessons in a matter of days, and now I'm in the intermediate - which is definitely my current level. The lessons are interesting and challenging, and I'm getting a lot out of them. I haven't submitted a video yet...but I guess I should.... Yes, I'm a little nervous about it, even though he repeatedly asks you to do it. Who knows...maybe I'll even do it this weekend. :-)