Mandolin Lessons
Equally at home in bluegrass, Irish traditional, swing, rock, Italian, Venezuelan, Greek, or practically any other genre you can think of, the mandolin is a staple instrument in the lexicon of modern popular music. Nassau Bay Music Lessons proudly offers mandolin lessons in Clear Lake Texas to students young and old, both beginners and veterans of the instrument. We regularly teach sight reading, technique, maintenance, improvisation, theory, or we can design a curriculum around your own particular education desires. If you already play violin, then adding the mandolin to your repertoire is a fairly simple operation as the strings and scale length are the same, similarly guitar players will find themselves perfectly at home with the basic mechanics of performing on this delightfully light hearted instrument.
More closely related to the lute than the acoustic guitar, early mandolins were bowl backed and featured pairs or courses of gut strings, which produced a pleasing but muted tone. Many classical composers made frequent use of, and indeed enjoyed playing the instrument, with Mozart being a particularly avid fan, going so far as to write them prominently into the accompaniment to the famous aria Deh vieni alla finestra from Don Giovanni. With the advent of modern bracing and metal strings in the early eighteenth century the instrument came into its own, finally able to compete with louder instruments in an ensemble.
The list of famous (or infamous) modern mandolin players reads like a who’s who of seventies rock royalty, in particular tracks like Led Zeppelin’s Going To California & The Battle Of Evermore, Alan Parson project ‘s Pavane, Steve Miller band’s Dance dance dance, Rod Stewarts Maggie May, Yes’ Wonderous stories or Bruce Springsteen’s I’m On Fire prominently feature mandolin parts. Even more recent bands like REM, Blind Mellon, The Goo Goo Dolls, Death Cab For Cutie, and Muse have added that signature bright plucky sound the mandolin offers to their tunes. So if you have caught the bug, and want to join the legions of tremolo happy pickers out there, then consider calling us for mandolin lessons in Clear Lake Texas!