Category Archives: Mandolin

Life’s Railway To Heaven: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this mandolin lesson for ‘Life’s Railway To Heaven’, we’ll take a look at an advancing intermediate arrangement of the song, using double stops, in a movable pattern (Key of C). The arrangement has 2 variations, one each for the verse & chorus melodies.

‘Life’s Railway To Heaven’ is a popular, old gospel song that is always a great session sing-along! Go to lesson...

Sweet By And By: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this mandolin lesson for ‘In The Sweet By And By’, we’ll take a look at an intermediate arrangement of the song, using double stops, in a movable pattern (Key of C). The arrangement has 2 variations, one each for the verse & chorus melodies.

‘In The Sweet By And By’ is a popular, old gospel song that is always a great session sing-along! Go to lesson...

Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this Will The Circle Be Unbroken: Mandolin Lesson we’ll take a look at the basic melody, played in the open position (Key of A), an advancing beginner arrangement in a movable pattern, using tremolo (Key of D) and finish off with an intermediate arrangement of the tune, using double stops also in a movable pattern (Key of G). Go to lesson...

Big Sciota: Mandolin Lesson

Howdy! Big Sciota is one of my all time favourite fiddle tunes. It has a sweet sounding melody and is great fun to play! In this Big Sciota: Mandolin Lesson we’ll take a look at an intermediate mandolin arrangement of the tune, played in the key of G. The melody sits in the open position, using the G major scale, so we’ll also take a look at how to play the scale, plus the arpeggios for the chords used in the tune. Go to lesson...

Fretboard Freedom 102: The Mandolin Octave Pattern

Using the mandolin octave pattern to gain fretboard freedom is a crucial and quick step to locate a note anywhere on the fretboard. By using the mandolin octave pattern and your knowledge of the notes on one or two strings (see Fretboard Freedom 101: The Musical Alphabet) it becomes quite simple to locate any note on any string, then play a chord, scale, arpeggio, etc. Go to lesson...

Fretboard Freedom 101: The Musical Alphabet

Fretboard Freedom: The Musical Alphabet is the first lesson in a course that will help you unlock the fretboard, enabling you to find any note, double stop, chord, scale, arpeggio in any position. It will give you the freedom to find your way in any key and have the ability to transpose/reposition breaks, melodies & chord progressions and improve your ability to improvise. Go to lesson...

Hot Pentatonic Licks: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this mandolin lesson we’ll take a look at several bluesy Hot Pentatonic Licks! The licks are built using the minor pentatonic scale, blues scale and the minor pentatonic scale with the added major 3. As part of this lesson we’ll dive into a little theory to help you understand how to use these licks and also start to build your own! Go to lesson...

Nine Pound Hammer: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this mandolin lesson we’ll take a look at a movable break for the song ‘Nine Pound Hammer’. Recorded in the key of A, the break is using a closed position major blues scale and double stops, so can be transposed to any key! The lesson also includes technical work which covers the major blues scale & double stop shapes required for the tune & and how to then transpose the break. Go to lesson...

Billy In The Low Ground: Mandolin Lesson

G’day! In this mandolin lesson we’ll take a look at Billy in the Low Ground, a popular fiddle tune played in the key of C. There are 2 variations in this arrangement, a basic, intermediate version and a more advanced variation. The lesson also includes technical work which covers some of the fundamental technique required for the tune & your general playing! Go to lesson...

Chop Chord Shortcuts: Mandolin

Are you having trouble playing the 4 finger chop chord? Well this lesson is for you! Here we’ll take a look at easy ways to play chop chords using only 2 or 3 notes. The lesson has 3 parts:

  1. In the first lesson we’ll take a look at 3 easy major chop chords and practice playing along in a standard I IV V chord progression.
Go to lesson...