The Greg Madison Music Studio teaches students on mandolin from 8-years old through adults of all ages and beginners through professional levels of learning. I have been fairly successful with students that haven't done well in the past as well as with learning disabled and slow learning students. Visit our testimonial page to see what our students and/or parents have to say.
The studio is located in Bergenfield, NJ and students have come from the entire Metropolitan Area. Our studio is one of the best equipped studios around. We have a selection of high end, top of the line, professional music software and also many types of audio, visual and electronic equipment. See our Studio page for more detailed information.
Private one on one instruction on the mandolin is offered in the studio with home lessons also available. All aspects of music will be taught, including technique, theory, harmony, improvising, arranging, music transcription, reading, music writing, rhythm, ear training and more.... Wherever your musical interests lie, Greg Madison Music Studio can...
help you realize your greatest musical ambitions!
shape your future in music!
discover the music in you!
express the music in you!
fulfill your dream of musical expression!
fulfill your life long endeavor. it's almost never too late learn an instrument!
help make music give you a lifelong reward!
Whether you are a beginner or advanced banjo student, your lessons with the Greg Madison Music Studio will improve all aspects of your mandolin playing from basics and fundamentals to advanced harmony, reading and improvisation. Whatever the student's musical needs are, our mandolin lesson program will strengthen those needs. Come and be enriched by the power of music through our mandolin lessons.
The musical styles taught are rock, blues, R&B, rockabilly, jazz, classical, country, bluegrass, Latin, Broadway, pop, and more!
Mandolins are used in small bands and in orchestras, to play in the styles mentioned above. The mandolin is a small instrument with four pairs of double steel strings. It is used mostly in the styles mentioned, but other styles are played on it also. You can play single note melodies or solos done with double notes (Lead mandolin), rhythm mandolin, or chords with melody (chord solos). A pick is used to pluck the strings. Mandolin's can be played as an acoustic instrument, or an electric instrument (if equipped with a pick up). There are a few types of pick up choices to choose from. Mandolin's come in several styles. They come with a hole under the strings like an acoustic guitar, or with an F hole like violins, and they come in different shapes. The F hole style is shown in the graphic above the M in Madison at the top of my web site page. This instrument played acoustically is not as loud as the guitar or violin. Student model mandolins start around $175.00. An instrument in the $175.00 to $275.00 is what is recommended for a beginner instrument. This instrument has a lot of tension on the strings making them a little harder to press down to play. The slightly harder pressure required to play this instrument is caused by the double strings.
I teach this instrument like you would learn guitar. It plays from the same music clef as the guitar, trumpet, clarinet, flute, and saxophone. All the usual fundamentals, music reading, theory etc., can be taught with this instrument. In the styles of country and bluegrass music, another method for notating music is used a lot. This notation is called tab, which is short for tablature. This system has four lines on the page to represent the four strings of the mandolin. Numbers are then put on these lines to represent what fret you should play in. What I mentioned so far is basic tab. A more advanced tab is written closer to regular music notation. The more advanced tab uses numbers for where the note heads would be to represent what frets to play in but also adds stems, flags and beams to these numbers in order to illustrate the type of time value that this note is worth. The rest of the tab notation is notated very similar to standard music. Other types of symbols and notations are used under the notes to illustrate the different musical effects used in music. I use regular music notation most of the time but do use tab for some of what I teach.
Greg Madison Music Studio is a place where continual teaching improvement, expert music instruction and quality customer service are the highest priorities. I provide the very best instruction available through innovative teaching methods, fun learning concepts and an ongoing expansion of services, including student teacher jams and ensemble classes. I provide musical experiences that are versatile, fun and repeatedly elevate my students' passion and desire for playing music.
Group jam/theory sessions with 4 to 9 students are available in different styles of music with other students of same abilities two times a year. The instruments in these sessions will depend on the student ability and availability These sessions are for people who have played with me and demonstrated that they have the knowledge, ability, dexterity, and can play in time. Another prerequisite is that they have had the basic writing of music notation with us prior to the start of these jam/theory classes. The first level type class works with written music or riff type play in different styles. The more advanced classes are improvisation classes in blues, rock, jazz etc.
Our FAQ page will hopefully answer many of the questions you may have.
It is my hope that you find a lot of useful ideas from the vast amount of informative information on my site. You may need to go through the site several times in order to benefit from all that's written here. This site will be expanding constantly, so come back from time to time |