"So You Want to Play the Mandolin?"--a Workshop by ALAN EPSTEIN

Saturday , February 11, 2006
01:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Location: Elderly Instruments
workshop ($35.00)

The mandolin....what a cool instrument! 'Cool' is one of talented instructor Alan Epstein's own adjectives for the eight-stringed instrument he has played and taught with enthusiasm for years. We've also heard "What a sweet instrument!" Bright. Plaintive. 'High and lonesome.' However you'd describe it, if you've considered wanting to learn to play it but didn't know where to start, look no further.

This hands-on workshop is specifically designed for novices--for those who may have never held a mandolin but who are ready to take that first step. Mandolins will be provided to all students for the workshop, and you'll begin making music during the session. By the end of class, you'll be playing your first tune on the mandolin.

The workshop will cover an introduction to the mandolin, examples of different types of mandolins, and a general overview of the instrument. The course includes a survey of various playing styles, and both live and recorded examples will enable Alan to aptly demonstrate the mandolin's diversity...jazz, blues, classical, gospel, avant-garde, tango, pop, folk, and of course bluegrass: the mandolin was the instrument of choice for Bill Monroe, the acknowledged Father of Bluegrass.

Then the real fun begins. With Alan as your skilled and patient coach (we know--we've watched him), you'll learn some playing basics, including how to hold the instrument, how to use the pick (also provided), your first chords.... [Let us hasten to add, for those who have never had a close encounter with a mandolin: we mentioned that it has eight strings, but don't let that scare you--you can pretty much pretend you're playing only four!]

Since his recent move to Michigan, Alan has become active in various musical endeavors. He has coached several Bluegrass Ensemble Workshop courses at Elderly, where he is a popular mandolin instructor. He's a member of the bluegrass band The Hop-Ups. Alan has been and will again be a special guest mandolinist with Neptune Quartet, who are offering a free in-store concert at Elderly (at 1 pm) and also a full-length concert at the Creole Gallery (at 8 pm) on Saturday, January 21.

Alan was the founder and a former director of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra and has been a contributing writer for Mandolin Magazine. A humble fellow, he did not share the following information with us; we learned of it recently in a letter from Glenn Wolff of Neptune Quartet: In 2004, Alan was a recipient of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Apprenticeship in Traditional Arts, studying mandolin with world-renowned Gypsy mandolinist Charley Rappaport.

Alan has taught at various prestigious places like Augusta Heritage Workshops in Elkins, WV. In November he conducted a successful "hands and picks on" mandolin workshop at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, sponsored by GLAMA [Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association]. Elderly's novice mandolin workshop is Item # EPSTEIN-MANDOLIN.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Alan Epstein