Picking-Hand Technique

from: Bluegrass Mandolin: Beginning to Advanced with Sharon Gilchrist

This lesson is part of the course Bluegrass Mandolin: Beginning to Advanced with Sharon Gilchrist.

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About This Course

Learn bluegrass mandolin with Sharon Gilchrist in this collection of essential lessons from her Peghead Nation courses, designed to take you from beginning technique and must-know bluegrass tunes, to intermediate fretboard theory and songs, to advanced soloing techniques, and much more.

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Intro to the Bluegrass Mandolin Fingerboard Method

Once you know the arpeggios based on the L shape, you can easily find double stops to harmonize the melodies of the songs you’re playing. Sharon shows you two handy double stops in the L shape for D, G, and A, and gives you a couple exercises using them.

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The Bluegrass Mandolin: Beginning to Advanced Subscription Includes:

60 beginning-to-advanced bluegrass mandolin video lessons
More than 40 great bluegrass tunes and songs to play
Extensive right- and left-hand technique lessons
Notation and tab provided for most lessons (all but the first five tunes)
High-quality video with multiple camera angles so you can see close-ups of both hands in action
Play-Along videos so you can practice what you’ve learned
Downloadable audio MP3s of each tune

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Mandolin Basics

Holding the Mandolin

Tuning the Mandolin

Picking-Hand Technique

Fretting-Hand Technique, Part 1

Fretting-Hand Technique, Part 2: Exercises

Picking-Hand Technique

Sharon demonstrates her approach to picking-hand technique, which involves using the forearm to move the pick from string to string, and the wrist doing the finer picking at the string. You’ll learn some simple exercises that will help your forearm learn where the strings are, and then you’ll learn to add wrist movement to the forearm’s motion. You can download a PDF of the exercises at right.

Previous Lesson

← Tuning the Mandolin

Next Lesson

Fretting-Hand Technique, Part 1 →

Previous Lesson

← Tuning the Mandolin

Next Lesson

Fretting-Hand Technique, Part 1 →

Previous Lesson

← Tuning the Mandolin

Next Lesson

Fretting-Hand Technique, Part 1 →