Request resources for learning mandolin crosspicking combined with chord-based improvisation, plus country/folk-style songs to practice (including for octave mandolin).
Concept
Pick Technique
18 hand-picked videos and articles for guitar and mandolin, each with a short summary so you can choose where to start.
Demonstrate and unpack 36 mandolin scale exercises across open and closed positions with subdivisions to build speed, cleanliness, strength, and fretboard familiarity.
Demonstrate basic mandolin pick direction: down on beats, up on offbeats, alternating fastest subdivision, and keeping the right hand moving, with tune examples.
Teach a step-by-step mandolin tremolo method using rest strokes and metronome drills to build clean, fast right-hand technique beyond 100 BPM.
Teach four core lead-guitar practice concepts—pentatonic box, extended shape, triplets/blues note, and alternate picking—to strengthen rock/blues soloing and fretboard fluency.
Demonstrate how to smoothly switch between mandolin chord comping and melody/solo lines using the tune 'Cindy,' with practical practice tips and chop-chord considerations.
Teach a Jethro Burns–inspired mandolin arpeggio warm-up covering G–Am–D shapes, position shifts, and alternate picking to build fretboard fluency and hand synchronization.
Teach strategies to synchronize fretting and picking hands using rhythmic subdivision, coordination drills, and practice tips to clean up both lead and rhythm guitar playing.
Offer Tommy Emmanuel's insights on thumbpick fingerstyle, boom-chick rhythm, and practice tips in an interview-plus-lesson format.
Outline five common beginner mistakes when learning guitar online, with demonstrations of proper strumming from the elbow and wrist-supported single-note picking.
Offer Tommy Emmanuel’s thumbpicking masterclass advice on precise tuning, metronome use, thumbpick selection, and building independent thumb and versatile fingerstyle technique.
Teach the Cherokee Shuffle melody in A on mandolin, with tips on single-string versus double-stop picking and insight into the tune’s chord progression.
Show how to “gear-shift” your picking by accelerating to tremolo, capturing the relaxed motion, then slowing while retaining it; includes a brief exercise and tabs.
Demonstrate a short picking study to correct and clean up picking lines for better accuracy and consistency.
Teach Chris Thile’s Magnet on mandolin, covering the E7#9 intro chord, G minor to A minor lick, and percussive right-hand staccato technique.
Teach how to play Bill Monroe-style Southern Flavor on mandolin using constant eighth-note right-hand technique to embellish a skeleton melody.
Share complete mandolin fingerings for Bach's D minor Partita Gigue as played by Chris Thile, with pull-off/hammer-on indications and adaptation tips.
Present six straightforward economy-picking guitar exercises with clear pick-direction notation to relax your right hand and play smoother, faster.
