Mandolin | Mike Compton | Intermediate/Advanced | Period 3 | Week 2 (July 14-19, 2024)
The goal of this class is to troubleshoot technical issues and improve each player’s ability to get around on their instrument with a broader knowledge of the landscape as well as instill a higher level of confidence in their abilities. Class will review fundamentals (because there’s never enough). Listening skills will be covered, as well as how rhythm patterns and grooves change the heartbeat of a melody and how one has to approach it to play the material. We will work with varying rhythms to accomplish this goal. Also, time permitting we will explore playing in a duo mandolin setting and the advantages/restrictions presented there.
I would also like to look at playing a couple multiple-part arrangements within the class for possible presentation.
Students should be technically proficient and be able to play most reasonable tempos and keys comfortably, have basic improvisational skills, be able to jam with other players, be able to use both downstrokes and alternating strokes at most tempos. Music reading skills are not required, but advised, as some material will be shared in standard notation and tablature form. Bring an audio/video recorder.
This will NOT be a lecture and you are encouraged to participate fully in both class discussion and execution of material.
About the Instructor
Befriended and mentored by Bill Monroe, the acknowledged Father of Bluegrass Music, Mike Compton is one of today’s foremost interpreters of Monroe’s genre-creating mandolin style. Mandolin students from around the world make the pilgrimage to his annual Monroe Mandolin Camp in Nashville, TN, where Compton and a select handful of other experts teach everything from the basics of bluegrass mandolin to the most intimate details of Monroe’s endlessly inspiring mandolin style.
Mike Compton’s decades of touring and recording with musical luminaries ranging from rockstars Sting, Gregg Allman and Elvis Costello, to straight-from-the-still acoustic legends like John Hartford, Doc Watson, Peter Rowan, Ralph Stanley, and David Grisman, have established Compton as a true master of the modern American mandolin and a premier interpreter of roots and Americana musical styles.
Compton’s mastery of mandolin is at once effortless and exceptional. A compelling entertainer either alone or with a group, his skills as a singer, arranger, instrumentalist, composer and accompanist also make him in-demand as a band member and ensemble player at festivals, clubs and concert halls, recording sessions, music workshops and as a private instructor. With more than 140 albums in his discography, including work with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Patty Loveless, Compton has helped keep mandolin a cool, relevant sound as the modern musical styles ebb and evolve to reach an ever broadening audience.