How to Learn Mandolin at Home by Yourself
Music is a big part of American culture and it can be found in all aspects of our daily lives all over the country. The love of music has been passed on generation to generation in America, even before we officially became a country. Over the years peoples taste in music has evolved into many, many different genres of music and musical instruments.
Read: Methods to Learn Mandolin Quickly
Most people choose to play some of the more traditional musical instruments like; guitar, piano, drums, and others. However, for some, they prefer less traditional instruments such as the mandolin. They choose it for many different reasons, such as the unique sound that is produced and also because they like the genre of music that is closely associated with the mandolin. This article is designed to help introduce our readers to some popular methods of learning how to play the mandolin on your own.
5 Top Methods on How to Learn Mandolin at Home by Yourself
1) Online Mandolin Training Courses
As part of our research for this article, we discovered there are several ways to learn how to play the mandolin in your spare time online. One of the more popular methods of online training is a website called Udemy.
- Udemy
The website is set up like an online university and offers a wide range of training classes. Each of the courses is taught by people who are part of the industry that course covers. All course material (video-based instruction) is available to registered students and requires an Internet connection to have access to it.
2) Mandolin Lessons Online
Another very popular method online for learning how to play the mandolin is a website called Artistworks.
- ARTISTWORKS - Mike Marshall Bluegrass Mandolin Lesson
This unique learning site is a membership-type website that has an enormous library of video-based musical instrument lessons. They have a collection of more than 200 of the top musicians in the industry. These professionals represent all of the major genres of the music world. One of the artists that can be found in the Artistworks database is Mike Marshall. He is a world-renowned mandolin player. As a paid member of the Artistworks website, you can find his lessons by searching the database.
3) Mandolin Training Books
Long before digital technology that brought musical training to the masses on the Internet, you had to pick up a book if you wanted to learn how to play an instrument on your own. Today, if you want to learn to play the mandolin from a book, you have two options available to you; a music book written by a master mandolin player from a bookstore or an online retailer like Amazon or a digital ebook downloaded from the Internet to your mobile devices.
4) Online Mandolin Tutoring
The same technology that brought us online mandolin training courses and lessons also make it easy for mandolin tutors to be able to reach prospective students without having to leave your home or go to their studio. Most of them take advantage of skype and other video chat technology to work one on one with their music students to teach an instrument like the mandolin.
5) YouTube Mandolin Lessons on Video
Last, but certainly not least, the fifth and final method we included is YouTube. With its billions and billions of homemade video clips that are uploaded by everyday people, you are likely to find hundreds if not thousands of videos that show how to play the mandolin. By searching the website’s database you will find a wide range of video options that cover the gamut of mandolin training. You will likely find videos made by professionals and amateurs alike, but the best part is that they are 100% free to watch.
9 Valuable Tips to Help Improve your Mandolin Playing Skills
Find some mandolin music – Get a hold of some classic mandolin music to study from. It is a really good idea to have something to draw knowledge from.
Keep it close at hand at all times – You never know when the urge to play a few chords may hit you and if you always keep your mandolin close by, you will be able to satisfy the urge. You can also use the time to get that much better.
Set aside time to play every day – Carve out a little practice time every day to be able to pick up your instrument. The more consistent time that you can dedicate to your craft will go along ways to improve your playing experience.
Make good use of a metronome – Timing is a very big part if play instruments like the mandolin. A metronome is the best way to learn about timing when playing a musical instrument. While it might be a bit of a challenge to learn to use one, in the long run, it will pay off.
Look for local mandolin workshops – To help improve your playing skills there local groups forming all over the country. They often set up workshops and even some have opened up week-long music camps for the mandolin.
Don’t rush it, going slow is a much better way – Do not rush yourself, be sure to leave plenty of time to set a slow enough pace. Just don’t be in such a hurry that you end up sounding sloppy. As they, patience is a virtue, just take it really slow.
Develop your musical ear – In order to be a really good musician and mandolin player you need to develop a musical ear. This will you to be a much better player by being able to listen to music from other mandolin players. By being able to decipher what you are listening to and to be able to recreate the same sound is a powerful skill.
Be a bit of a book worm – Learn to read and appreciate sheet music, it will serve you well to be able to read sheet music. There are many books on the topic of understanding how to read music.
Invest in a good recording device – Having a high-quality recording device is a really good idea, by recording all of your sessions you can go back and listen to them. This also means that you can tell the areas that you need to improve on.
Steps to Self-Taught Mandolin
The mandolin is a unique instrument with an equally unique sound, which is probably what draws some people to want to play it. For years the only way a person could learn the play such an instrument they had to search the yellow pages in their area to find a professional music teacher that would be able to teach them to play.
Fortunately, today, there are several ways that a person can take advantage of the technology available to learn to play the mandolin online. Whether you are into one on one live tutoring using Skype, paid video-based training courses, lessons or free “How To” videos on Youtube. In this article, we included several methods for self-teaching of the mandolin and we also wanted to offer our reader some of the tips that we came across during our research. These tips are designed to help the reader to improve their playing skills.