Matt Flinner & His Real-Time Online Mandolin Instruction Classes
Photo by Eleanor Wilkie
Matt Flinner was touring nationally in a bluegrass band as a pre-teen. Around 1980, Ted Shupe of Ogden, Utah formed a band of 10-year-olds around his fiddle-playing son, Ryan (now with Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband) and they called themselves the Pee Wee Pickers. The band’s talent earned them spots performing at festivals far from their Utah home. I caught the band’s show in 1982 at the Festival of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Kentucky. They were a very impressive group of young pickers.
Matt, now known for his mastery of the mandolin, was the banjo player in the Pee Wee Pickers and in 1990, at the age of 21, won the banjo contest at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. He went back in Winfield the next year and won the mandolin contest. Since those early days, Matt has gone on to tour and record with many top-notch bluegrass groups and has recorded a couple of solo CDs and three Matt Flinner Trio albums for Compass Records. Most notably, Matt has recorded and/or toured with David Grier and Todd Phillips, Tim O’Brien, Frank Vignola, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, Darrel Scott, the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Dave Douglas, Leftover Salmon, Alison Brown, The Ying Quartet, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.
In addition to performing and recording, Matt has also been a mandolin teacher for over 36 years. In 2013, Matt’s wife, Wendy, was involved in a weekly webinar program produced by a group of juicers. Matt witnessed the program and thought, “Why couldn’t I do that with mandolin classes?” In the Fall of 2013, using the “Go To Meeting” platform, he launched a weekly mandolin group class. He advertised it to his email list and on mandolincafe.com and received a good response.
The first course Matt offered was an eight-week curriculum that consisted of a one-hour instructional class every Monday and a follow-up 45-minute review session every Saturday. In addition to the online class, Matt provided extra downloadable mp3 audio tracks, written material, and short practice videos. The group class videos were also captured and uploaded to the website so that people who could not make the scheduled class time could still go online and watch the class. This also gave the individuals who did attend the class an opportunity to review the class if needed. That first class was a huge success and now, over seven years later, Matt is still at it and his class offerings continue to grow.
During the class session the class members cannot see or hear each other. The focus is on Matt. However, class members can ask questions via a chat stream that appears on the screen or via their microphone. Matt also answers email questions during the week and he will listen to MP3 recordings or watch YouTube videos that students make of themselves playing and he then provides detailed feedback.
Today Matt utilizes the Zoom platform for his classes and teaches an eight-week winter session, an eight-week spring session, two four-week summer sessions, and an eight-week fall session. During each session he will typically offer three separate courses. For instance, this spring his three eight-week classes include “Fiddle Tunes for Mandolin 101,” “Advanced Fiddle Tunes for Mandolin,” and “Octave Mandolin Techniques.” For each session throughout the year Matt changes the course offerings. Some of the courses that he has offered in the past include “Bluegrass Jamming,” “Mandolin Technique,” “Swing and Blues Mandolin,” and “Swing Jamming.” Each of these courses are usually offered for a variety of learning levels.
In developing his classes Matt drew on his decades of experience as a mandolin teacher. One of the strengths of Matt’s online group lesson approach is it’s complete step-by-step curriculum. He has designed each class so that there are no missing parts or pieces. Matt said, “People have a program that they can follow that moves along logically. They can always come back and revisit it too because they can download the videos and keep all of the material. They have access after-the-fact any time that they want it.”
One of the benefits of Matt’s approach to teaching scheduled group online classes is that people are motivated to show up for class and to practice. He said, “Showing up for the learning session and the practice session means that at least twice a week they have the mandolin in their hands. Since they want to be ready for the practice session—so that they get more out of it—they are more likely to practice during the week too. If they have a regular schedule where they have to show up, they will get it done. They will practice. The feedback that I’ve gotten is that people notice improvement.”
A lot of people today are learning to play music on their own using books, videos, and YouTube posts. One of the possible problems that students can encounter when learning on their own involves not getting feedback from an instructor. Also, many times, they don’t have an organized step-by-step method to inform them. Sometimes this can lead to gaps in the learning process or a slow development of one or more fundamental skills.
When asked if there is a common problem that he encounters with the students who join his class after previously being self-taught, Matt said, “The biggest thing that I notice is getting consistent picking. I tell most students that it is important to establish a consistent down-up-down-up picking technique. It may not be for everybody, like McReynolds crosspicking, Monroe style, or swing players. So, there are always exceptions. It seems to me if I can get them to play a down stroke 0n every down beat that it straightens out a lot of issues. If people are stumbling on a fiddle tune always in the same spot it is because they are crossing strings in some weird way. If they can take the time to focus on consistent picking to where they don’t have to think about it anymore, that seems to be the biggest help to a lot of people’s playing. I’ll tell them to go watch a Sam Bush video. He has a command of the beat like no one else. You need that groove and that rhythm in your picking hand.”
The other common problem that Matt notices is tensing up. He said, “When I see people tensing up, we will take the time to focus on what it feels like to play relaxed. We start out slow and recognize tension. What it really comes down to is patience and taking the time to go slow, tempo-wise, and don’t rush into being able to play a tune until you feel solid with it. It is human nature to want to learn the tune as quick as possible so you can go play it at the next jam session. The biggest thing is patience.”
I recently sat in on the first class of Matt’s “Fiddle Tunes for Mandolin 101” course. I found Matt to be clear, articulate and relaxed in his instruction, friendly, patient and encouraging with student questions, and enthusiastic about the material he was teaching. It was a very informative and enjoyable class.
If you are learning to play the mandolin and feel as if you’d like a well-organized curriculum with regularly scheduled classes and direct feedback from one of the world’s top mandolin players, I highly recommend that you check out one of Matt Flinner’s online classes. It is well worth the time and effort.
For more information on Matt’s online mandolin classes, please go to his website: mattflinner.com
