Mandolin

My dear friend Shrinivas has died today at the age of 45. He had undergone a liver transplant and complications ocurred.

What a loss to our mandolin community. He was one of the most incredibly talented and yet humble musicians/people I have ever encountered.

Our musical world will not be the same without what he would have continued to give us. He was too young.

Shrinivas and I met first in 1990 at the Rudelstadt World Music Festival in Germany. It was a week putting together a show with 10 mandoinists from all over the world. After that, I would go to see him perform with John McLaughlin's Shakti group whenever we were in the same town and each time we spoke about doing a project together. Sadly that had not happened yet. Rest in Peace our Dear Mandolin Brother

Read more about "Mandolin" U. Shrinivas here: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/mandolin-shrinivas-the-child-prodigy-is-no-more/article6426324.ece Read More

Mike recently sat down with two fantastic mandolin players for some free-wheeling discussion and fun performances. First we have Matt Flinner, of The Modern Mandolin Quartet, hitting on all things mandolin including picks, style and tone.  Then we have uploaded an interview with John Reischman when he sat down with Mike at Swannanoa. They go over tremolo, songwriting and finish it up with a fun jam.  You can check out the multi-part interviews in the Special Guest section in +Music or click on the pictures below to go directly to the videos. Enjoy!

Join us LIVE on Wednesday, July 9th at 5:30 PDT for an online mandolin workshop featuring Mike Marshall along with ArtistWorks Dobro instructor Andy Hall. We did one of these last year which was a lot of fun (click here to watch if you missed it), and we look forward to another great workshop which we're calling "Mando Magic with Mike Marshall." Mike will be joined once again by Mandolin Cafe founder Scott Tichenor to talk about his own history playing mandolin, plus they'll also be some jamming as well as discussion about techniques and playing tips.

This is a rare opportunity, so click here to Pre-Register for "Mando Magic with Mike Marshall"! You'll be sent a reminder to tune in live when the event happens on July 9th. 

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Annie is a musical sign language interpreter who started off her musical journey tone deaf and discouraged at the idea of learning an instrument. She overcame her hesitation by teaching herself to play violin, and now takes Mike Marshall's mandolin lessons here at ArtistWorks. 

AW: How did you get into playing mandolin?

Annie: I was playing violin and you always play by turning to the left with your chin on the instrument, and you never get to play in the other direction. I wondered how good that could be for your body. I wanted to play more, and mandolin has the same fingering [as violin] and it's one less instrument because you're not dealing with the bow. So I tried mandolin and fell in love with it.

Annie is a musical sign language interpreter who started off her musical journey tone deaf and discouraged at the idea of learning an instrument. She overcame her hesitation by teaching herself to play violin, and now takes Mike Marshall's mandolin lessons here at ArtistWorks. 

AW: How did you get into playing mandolin?

Annie: I was playing violin and you always play by turning to the left with your chin on the instrument, and you never get to play in the other direction. I wondered how good that could be for your body. I wanted to play more, and mandolin has the same fingering [as violin] and it's one less instrument because you're not dealing with the bow. So I tried mandolin and fell in love with it.

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American Public Media has featured Mike Marshall's "Mandolin Concerto No. 1" on their program Performance Today. In Hour 2 of the broadcast, they play the full Mandolin Concerto which Mike composed himself for the New Century Chamber Orchestra and was influenced by his love for bluegrass as well as Bach.

For more information on the New Century Chamber Orchestra visit their website at ncco.org.

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Couldn't make it to Wintergrass this year?

Now you can attend Mike's mandolin workshop. It's a free-ranging conversation between Mike and the audience covering all things mandolin. The mandocello makes an appearance, too! Head over to the +Music section and click on "Performances & More" or you can click the picture of Mike to open a new window. Enjoy!

Here's a new 7-part mandolin lesson on using the Circle of 5ths. Mike breaks down the logic of how to use the circle of 5ths for mandolin and how to find common patterns to use and gives you some new ways to work out relationships between keys. He's also put together 2-5-1 patterns for every key around the circle, giving you an expansive way to practice and familiarize these concepts. There are useful diagrams attached to the lesson page for you to print out and use in your own practice spaces. 

This is also a new VE category, so feel free to submit your 2-5-1 and Circle of 5th related questions and performances directly to the topic now. Find it in the Additional Lessons & More sections of the lessons!