Ethan Setiawan: “Capriccio do Carmo”

Our Weekly Mandolin Workout instructor plays a solo mandolin version of a piece based on Spanish folk melodies.

By: Dan Gabel

April 30, 2025

Ethan Setiawan is a busy guy. He performs and records with his contemporary bluegrass band, Ethan Setiawan and Fine Ground (with BB Bowness on banjo, Julian Pinelli on fiddle, Alex Rubin on guitar, and Brittany Karlson on bass), and with fiddler Louise Bichan in their duo Hildaland, blending their deep influences in Scottish, old-time, bluegrass, and Swedish music to craft original string music and fresh arrangements of traditional tunes from both sides of the Atlantic. He is also doing a stint teaching in the string department of his old stomping grounds, Berklee College of Music, this spring, filling in for his Peghead Nation cohort and former instructor, Joe K. Walsh. He also teaches at camps as wide-ranging as the Glasgow Mandolin Retreat, Ossipee Valley Music Festival, Ashokan, and Great Lakes Music Camp, among others. We’re pleased he also finds time to teach his popular Weekly Mandolin Workout course on Peghead Nation!

During last fall’s Great Lakes Music Camp, we asked Ethan to play a solo tune at sunset overlooking Lake Michigan, and he played this stunning version of “Capriccio do Carmo,” which he got from Brazilian master Hamilton da Holanda, on his Monteleone mandolin. Beautiful playing in a beautiful setting. And it is a great example of the technique that Ethan will teach you in his Peghead Nation course!

In Weekly Mandolin Workout with Ethan Setiawan, Ethan walks you through a series of workouts that will help you learn the fingerboard, strengthen and increase the dexterity of your fingers, expand your knowledge of chord and scale theory, and improve your picking and fretting techniques.

Ethan explores cross-picking, playing scales over chords, perfecting hammer-on and pull-off techniques, and much more, breaking up different mandolin concepts into bite-sized pieces that will help you steadily improve your playing. We are adding new lessons each month, so the course library continues to grow as you build your skills. The high-quality video includes multiple camera angles so you can see close-ups of both hands in action, and you get detailed notation, tab, and chord diagrams for each lesson.

Take a look at Ethan’s course introduction video on his main course page, and join us in Weekly Mandolin Workout. Use promo code EthanLand to get your first month free!