I grew up during a time when players like Sam Bush, Barry Mitterhoff, Doyle Lawson, Frank Wakefield, Tim O’Brien and David Grisman were bringing new sounds into bluegrass. And yes, Monroe was still alive and well, laying down the bluegrass law. Progressive bluegrass was coming of age and the term “new acoustic music” was coined. I have always loved players that play outside of the box with some sense of fluidity, beauty and originality while combining these qualities with the sound and feel of rugged, driving bluegrass and old-time music.

As for my experience, I began performing at the age of nine with my brother, Troy in a bluegrass band.  We performed for six years on the national bluegrass festival circuit. I took lessons from some of the great mandolin players on the scene like Tim O’Brien, Barry Mitterhoff and Butch Baldassari. Throughout this time my main musical exposure consisted of bluegrass and church music.  I eventually received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mandolin Performance from Belmont University in Nashville. At this time, my musical experience began to incorporate the colorful sounds of jazz, classical, rock, swing, and various forms of world music. Of course, this was all a natural progression after hearing new acoustic players incorporating these sounds into bluegrass. Continuing to broaden my musical interests, I traveled to Savona, Italy in the fall of 2003 to spend a month studying classical mandolin with Carlo Aonzo (Acoustic Disc). For the last three years, I performed with the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet. I have also worked with the band Uncle Earl and with my own band from Santa Fe, New Mexico called Mary & Mars. I teach mandolin both privately and at the College of Santa Fe.

Our time together will be spent looking at both “the box” and what’s on the outside of the box. The focus will be on learning tunes from the new acoustic repertoire as well as studying improvisation. This will include learning basic music harmony and theory in order to find both traditional sounds and the more “outside” tonalities. We’ll work with arpeggios, double stops, modes and outlines on the fingerboard. One running theme will be how to make learning all of this as creative and fun as possible. If there’s time, we’ll look to musicians outside of the bluegrass genre for ideas to incorporate into our own styles.

To be prepared, it would be great for you to have a good repertoire of standard bluegrass fiddle tunes – Salt Creek, Red Haired Boy, etc. Also, it would be of great help for you to know the major and minor triads built off of each of the twelve western musical notes and where these notes fall on the fingerboard.

I will be prepared to teach from tablature and standard notation as well as teaching by ear. I would love it if you could read standard notation on the mandolin – even just a little bit. I’ve found you can learn so much more about the tunes you are playing, as well as improvisation and the fret board if you can read music. However, it certainly isn’t necessary and I’m no stickler about this or anything else – well, I don’t eat lima beans.  If you are interested in learning to read, I highly recommend the Hal Leonard Mandolin Method by Rich Del Grosso. This is a great book and CD combination with a very systematic approach to learning how to read music.  I’ve never seen reading music on mandolin presented so clearly and easily.

Bring any recording devices you like and some pencil and paper for taking notes. Bring staff paper or tablature paper if you like. You can definitely bring some good, dark chocolate, green tea, local produce and/or any cool or obscure music recordings, articles, books and such to share with the teacher!

I look forward to seeing you all there,