Most of our mandolin students take private, one-on-one lessons (when comparing studios online over the internet, be sure to clarify whether you are talking about private or group lessons.  Semi-private lessons are group lessons).  We offer consultations (one session without obligation to continue) and coaching sessions (multiple sessions without obligation to continue).  We also offer elessons, which are online lessons conducted through the internet.  We have gift certificates for all of these musical experiences.  And twice a year we have exciting music seminars (master classes, workshops) for all students that allow them to hear big ideas about music and their instrument.  These increase their knowledge and abilities to play.  In these music seminars (again, like workshops or master classes, in-depth teaching on your instrument) we might talk about improvisation, or ear-training, or specific skills for the instrumentalist or how to playchord-melody (solo) pieces – but all to give you, the performer and player, teaching you can use right now. And they’re fun!  About 40% of our students are adults and 60% are children, kids, and teens.

As teachers, we know it is essential musical coaching be enjoyable.  This is a key for all students, not just children.  That’s one of the reasons we let students pick their music within a few guidelines and why, along with playing by note and reading music, we encourage students to playby ear and/or improvise.  We don’t want to be a stuffy academy or music conservatory; we want our school of music to be filled with happy, amazing performers having a blast.  Whether reading music, playing by note, learning to improvise, or learning songs from their iPod, our students steadily learn things that interest them, coached by their instructor.  We believe it’s best to allow students to playtheir favorite music, not their instructor’s.

Our teachers take your goals seriously, so, as the wise mentors they are, they look ahead to teach you all you'll need to get where you want to be.  It’s vital that musical educators coach each learner on how to grow as much as possible, whether that person just wants to learn simple songs, just goof off at home, be in a band, or be Tony Rice's new mandolin player.  So, coming from Addison, Allen, Carrollton, North Dallas, Farmer’s Branch, Frisco, Garland, Lewisville, McKinney, Park Cities, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett, Wylie or anywhere within 50 miles of here in Texas (or worldwide over the internet online through elessons) we are committed to your personal success.

Mandolin as an instrument has a unique and haunting timbre that adds to many styles of music.  As teachers we recommend it for many musicians of all ages, children, kids, teens, and adults.  We think it is best that a student begins mandolin playing the kind of music they love: blues, bluegrass, classical, classic or modern rock, country and western, folk, jazz, pop, R&B (rhythm and blues) or whatever.

Any kind of mandolin player has the ability to play 3 different ways, as a rhythminstrument (strumming or picking as more or less the background to another instrument’s melody or a voice), leadplaying (where the guitar has the solo over a band’s or other instruments’ rhythm, and “complete” pieces (where the mandolinist is a true soloist - doing the entire piece alone). 

We have mandolin teachers at Promethean Studios for beginning, intermediate, advanced, and professional mandolinists.  Our instructors customize our teaching to the music each player loves, with personalized instruction going on right now in bluegrass, blues, classic and modern rock, classical, country and western, folk, fusion, latin, pop, praise & worship, R&B (rhythm and blues), and smooth and traditional jazz.  You might think the mandolin can't do all of those, but just listen to Dave Grisman sometime!  Each lesson includes learning technique (to make the learner’s fingers work for them), instruction in music theory (to use the learner’s brain to help make music easy), and half of each lesson is devoted to the student’s songs.

While we never require anyone to play in public, we believe performing is one of the most important factors in producing someone who can actually play instead of someone who just takes lessons, and so we provide two opportunities a year to be in a recital or concert.  We also put bands together with current students and people who don’t take courses with us, with a coach to mentor and lead, in country and western, jazz, classic and modern rock, R&B (rhythm and blues), praise & worship, and blues styles.  Dedicated students of all styles may also be eligible for our performance clubs, in which students perform for their fellow learners with a master musician to critique, advise, and mentor on improving abilities.  We also encourage all our musicians to participate in any musical competitions, concerts, contests, festivals, improvisations, master classes, and performances we can find – BUT we never force anyone to perform.  Performing is great to improve your skill level, but we encourage you to do it, not demand you do it.

Our goal for mandolin players is to allow students to playby ear and also by note, and for them to be able to improvise if they want to (make stuff up); to be able to read music, or just pick music out from a CD or play spontaneously with another musician just by listening.  This is a well-rounded instrumentalist.  A school of music should enable instrumentalists to be able to be the soloist or play in the rhythm section, or to just sing and play at the same time – but at our “academy” we base everything on what you want to and how to best get you there.  Therefore, the technique exercises players do in our courses fit the kind of music they like and the way(s) they want to play as a performer.

Music theory (brain work) is one of the most misunderstood and undervalued short cuts in the world of learning.  Usually educators ignore it entirely, treat it as a necessary nuisance, or act like it’s the entire purpose of music.  Basically it’s one of the three easy tools you can use to make your kind of music as quickly as possible (the other two tools are your ear [ear-training] and your fingers [technique].  And this isn’t just for beginning mandolinists, but intermediate, advanced, and professionals as well.

Though slow starting at first, in a few months students with an understanding of music theory will begin to surpass their peers and continue to progress more and more over students who don’t actually comprehend what they’re doing - and oddly enough many classical players don't really know what they're playing, they're just sort of an animated ipod, just reproducing what they see on the page.  Knowledge actually makes even performanceby ear or improvising easy, explaining what to do and what to listen for.  The parts of theory we commonly work on in lessons are ear-training, sight-reading, rhythm counting, and music knowledge.  Reading music is just the foundation; we’re talking about knowing what chords are normal in each key or cool style, or being able to use one scale pattern to play in all keys and modes, etc – that is, taking a little info and making it go a long way, for playing and improvisation.

To the student who says “teach me mandolin", we would say this is the best school of music in the Metroplex.  Our educators have made your success and enjoyment their goal.  We are trying to cross the attitude of a music conservatory or guitar academy, even a university, with just jamming with your buds or playingby ear in your room – getting better and having fun.  Coming to lessons, improvisingat home, impressing yourself and your friends, attending cool workshops and music seminars, learning great songs, cutting albums - we want to produce students who learn and enjoy, all across Texas.

 For more information about classes and our teaching philosophy, click the buttons on the left.  All the pictures on this website are our students and teachers.