Whether you're just starting out or have been playing mandolin for years, Peghead Nation has courses to help you develop your eight-string prowess. From beginning to advanced mandolin lessons with some of the finest mandolinists in roots music, you can delve into bluegrass, old-time, Irish, and other styles, building your repertoire of tunes and filling out your toolbox of techniques as you go. See introduction videos of all of our mandolin courses below, and check out free sample lessons as well. Enjoy!
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Available Mandolin Courses
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with Sharon Gilchrist
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Beginner
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• 27 Lessons
• 16 Tunes
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Get started off right on the mandolin, with basic techniques, scales and chords, and simple and popular bluegrass and old-time tunes to play. Includes downloadable Play-Along audio practice tracks for rhythm and melody on all tunes, advice on embellishing melodies and playing tremolo, and more.
with Chad Manning
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Beginner / Intermediate
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• 43 Lessons
• 6 Tunes
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Learn the basics of music theory as it relates to four-string instruments tuned in fifths. Chad’s practical approach will deepen your knowledge of chords, scales, and arpeggios, and help you integrate them into your playing.
with Sharon Gilchrist
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Intermediate
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• 22 Lessons
• 20 Tunes
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Learn to play solos to any bluegrass song in any key with Sharon's intermediate-level method for learning the fingerboard, based on arpeggios, chop-chord shapes, and double stops.
with Joe K. Walsh
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Intermediate
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• 52 Lessons
• 51 Tunes
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Learn the essential instrumental tunes you’ll encounter at bluegrass jam sessions everywhere. Designed for intermediate level mandolinists, with tunes, techniques, and solos from mandolin greats.
with John Reischman
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Intermediate
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• 11 Lessons
• 9 Tunes
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Learn to play old-time fiddle tunes and song melodies with mandolin master John Reischman. Includes advice on picking technique and playing old-time rhythm on the mandolin.
with Sharon Gilchrist
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 75 Lessons
• 56 Tunes
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Learn to play solos on classic bluegrass songs and instrumentals using bluegrass mandolin techniques like tremolo, double stops, two-string melodies, and more.
with Marla Fibish
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 83 Lessons
• 75 Tunes
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Learn traditional Irish mandolin, with an emphasis on playing the dance music of Ireland with an authentic Irish feel and rhythm.
with Mike Compton
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 78 Lessons
• 74 Tunes
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Learn traditional bluegrass-style mandolin as exemplified by the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, with original transcribed solos and tips on reproducing Monroe’s sound, rhythm, and feel.
with John Reischman
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 64 Lessons
• 61 Tunes
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Learn great traditional and original tunes in a variety of styles—old-time, bluegrass, Latin, jazz, and more—from a modern mandolin master.
with Joe K. Walsh
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 92 Lessons
• 90 Tunes
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Explore all the modern mandolin techniques, from tremolo, chords and double stops, and soloing and improvisation tips, with plenty of bluegrass, old-time and swing tunes to keep you moving forward.
with Aaron Weinstein
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Advanced
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• 37 Lessons
• 30 Tunes
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Learn how to combine chords and melody to play jazz standards in the style pioneered by jazz mandolinist Jethro Burns and guitarists like Joe Pass and Bucky Pizzarelli.
with Sharon Gilchrist
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Intermediate
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• 9 Lessons
• 7 Tunes
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In this workshop, Sharon will use common bluegrass and old-time tunes like “Old Joe Clark,” “Whiskey Before Breakfast,” “June Apple,” “Angeline the Baker,” and more to demonstrate her method for teaching students how to embellish and vary melodies as a way to begin to improvise.
with Joe K. Walsh
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 14 Lessons
• 12 Tunes
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Learn to transfer what you know on the mandolin to its bigger cousin and how to exploit the octave mandolin’s potential for more complex, guitar-oriented accompaniment styles. For intermediate mandolin, fiddle, or guitar players with a basic knowledge of their instrument.
with Joe K. Walsh
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Intermediate / Advanced
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• 9 Lessons
• 8 Tunes
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Learn to improvise on fiddle tunes, create new melodies over chord changes, practice the arpeggios and scales you need to play jazz tunes, and more. Joe lays out his approach to improvising and practicing improvising, with exercises and solos that illustrate his unique, widely acclaimed, freewheeling style.
with Aaron Weinstein
Learn to play swing rhythm mandolin and how to create rhythmic chord solos, using eight classic jazz and swing tunes, with one of the world’s greatest swing mandolinists, Aaron Weinstein.
Mandolin Performances
Our Chord Melody Mandolin instructor plays the jazz standard introduced by Bing Crosby in 1936.
Peghead Nation instructors play a jazz-infused duo version of a classic Bill Monroe waltz.
All-star band of Peghead Nation instructors Bill Evans, Chad Manning, Sharon Gilchrist, and John Reischman, along with Darol Anger and Jim Nunally, play one of John’s new original tunes.
Mandolin Demos
Dan Bui demonstrates a Lloyd Loar-style F5 from Northfield Mandolins at the Music Emporium.
Aaron Weinstein demonstrates his new jazz mandolin.
Joe K. Walsh demonstrates his vintage mandola, which he set up with an old DeArmond pickup for playing electric.
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