Peghead Nation’s Irish Mandolin instructor Marla Fibish took over our Facebook feed recently for a wide-ranging hour-long discussion, answering questions from her students, talking about picks, increasing playing speed while maintaining the proper feel for the music, and much more. Watch the whole video here. Due to the vagaries of Facebook Live streaming, the video is a little jumpy in spots, but we assure you the material is top-notch!
Sign up for Marla’s Irish Mandolin course and get your first month free when you use promo code “MarlaF” at checkout.
ABOUT MARLA FIBISH
A San Francisco native, Marla is one of the prominent voices of the mandolin in Irish music. She brings a deep and distinctive sensibility to the tradition on one of its lesser-heard instruments. She is a dynamic performer and a sought after teacher. Her playing is featured on her 2020 release The Bright Hollow Fog, on the 2017 Noctambule release A Sweetish Tune, on the eponymous Three Mile Stone recording with San Francisco favorites, fiddler Erin Shrader and guitarist Richard Mandel, and on The Morning Star, a duo CD with legendary Irish singer and bouzouki player Jimmy Crowley released in 2011 — an all-instrumental project that features Irish music on an array of mandolin-family instruments: mandolin, mandola, mandocello, bouzouki, and dordan. She has performed and taught nationally and in Ireland, and was a featured performer at the 2018 Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry, Co. Cork.
In addition to the mandolin, Marla plays mandola, tenor guitar, and button accordion. (She had the singular honor to be featured as Miss March in the 2011 Accordion Babes Pin-up Calendar.) She also sings and writes music, and is known for her musical settings of works from a variety of poets. In addition to playing and writing music, Marla is a textile artist. For a look at her work please click here.
Marla teaches privately, and in group classes, online with Peghead Nation, and has taught at many music camps, including The Swannanoa Gathering, Lark Camp, California Coast Music Camp, The Mandolin Symposium, Colorado Roots Music Camp, Portal Irish Music Week and O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat.
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