Flatpicking

Learning to add up strokes and down strokes is crucial to add speed to your mandolin playing. Learning scales and scale patterns will develop your fretting hand, prepare you for improv, and make learning new tunes much easier. Check out these lessons then put your new skills to the tests with a few songs.

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  Learning Path

  Flatpicking Mandolin 101: The Picking Hand

  This lesson series focuses on right hand technique for flat picking melodies on the mandolin.

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  Learning Path

  Flatpicking Mandolin 102: The Fretting Hand

  Now that you've practiced your picking technique on the mandolin let's add in your fretting hand and learn some scales.

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  Learning Path

  First Fiddle Tunes

  Learn Old Joe Clark, Angelina Baker, and Red Haired Boy, plus D and A major scales!

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  Song

  G Major - 2nd Position - Low Octave

  Check this out to learn the G major scale in 2nd position. You'll also find several exercises and scale patterns to help increase s...

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  Song

  G Major - 2nd Position - High Octave

  Check this out to learn the higher octave G Major scale in 2nd position. You'll also find several exercises and scale patterns to h...

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  Arrangement

  Boil Them Cabbage Down
  Beginner

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    A
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  Boil Them Cabbage Down is one of the first tunes many mandolinists and fiddle players learn and it’s a good one for learning your no...

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  Arrangement

  Old MacDonald
  Melody - Key of G

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    G
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  After you've learned this in the key of A, try it out in G as well!

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  Arrangement

  Grandfather's Clock
  Bluegrass - Key of G

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    G
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  Sometimes your in a jam with a banjo and a guitar player. It happens. Sometimes those players are lazy. Instead of putting the capo ...

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  Arrangement

  I'll Fly Away
  Bluegrass

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    G
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  A great standard version of I'll Fly Away with some nice licks!

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  Arrangement

  Turkey in the Straw
  Bluegrass

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    G
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  This is how a seasoned fiddle player might interpret this tune. The licks are will add a great challenge for you.

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  Song

  C Major - 2nd Position

  Start on the Scale exercise. Memorize the fret hand fingerings. These will be used on all the exercises. The Alternate Picking e...

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  Song

  Crawdad Song - Key of C

  This is a classic tune that's sometimes played at jams

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  Arrangement

  The Entertainer
  Bluegrass

  • Difficulty
    
  • Key
    C
  • Tuning
    GDAE

  This classic American melody works out great on mandolin. There's a lot of Bluesy runs and chromaticism in the arrangement and some ...

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