In 2011, we welcomed mandolin icon, Mike Marshall, to our esteemed faculty of bluegrass instructors alongside upright bass virtuoso Missy Raines, legendary fiddle player Darol Anger, Grammy Award-winning guitarist Bryan Sutton, and world-renowned banjo player Tony Trischka. Together, this amazing group of master musicians made up our collective of ArtistWorks bluegrass teachers, and, since then, we’ve ushered many more fantastic artists into our program.
We’re excited to announce that, after ten years as one of our premier instructors here at ArtistWorks, Mike has just completed his 8,000th Video Exchange with students from around the world.
“I love the personal guidance I can give these players when they send me a video. My video responses are valued advice that teaches everyone in the course who watches them,” says Marshall.
Congratulations Mike on reaching this outstanding achievement, and thank you to all of his wonderful bluegrass mandolin students for consistently submitting videos!
To celebrate this fantastic milestone, our cofounder Patrica Butler sat down with Mike to conduct an in-depth interview as part of an exclusive episode of our ArtistWorks Music Series podcast in which they discuss Mike’s experience teaching on the ArtistWorks Video Exchange platform over the last decade. This exclusive interview is available wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can listen here at ArtistWorks.
“I have regular students from the Czech Republic, Australia, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Panama, Iceland, Tasmania, pretty much every country you can imagine,” Mike explains. “That’s the most exciting part about this way of teaching—I’m able to connect with students from all over the world.”
Mike’s online community has become a digital hub for mandolin and bluegrass enthusiasts from around the globe. Throughout the last ten years, it’s become a place that welcomes players of all levels and facilitates positivity, encouragement, and musical growth. Nothing promotes this more than ArtistWork’s unique Video Exchange Learning platform.
“These last ten years working with ArtistWorks have been tremendous because they’ve enabled me to see so many people and players of all ages, levels, and styles,” Mike explains. “It’s forced me to grapple with these questions—how do you teach a young child? How do you teach an older student? How do you teach a twenty-something virtuoso? I’ve learned I need to take vastly different and unique approaches with each of my students.”
Judging by this fantastic Video Exchange milestone, Mike has clearly had the opportunity to meet, mentor, and guide a vast array of mandolin players worldwide, and help mandolinists of all levels grow as musicians! Click here to join today, and become a member of Mike’s online community. He looks forward to seeing you there!
Listen to Mike’s exclusive ArtistWorks Music Series interview here: