• Facebook
  • Youtube
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Mail
Contributor Login
  • 0Shopping Cart
FolkWorks
  • Home
  • Events
  • Features
  • Resources
  • About Us
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • DONATE
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
Marla_Fibish_Irish_Mandolin_Basics|Marla_Fibish_Irish_Mandolin

MARLA FIBISH – MARLA FIBISH IRISH MANDOLIN BASICS: TUNES AND TECHNIQUES (DVD)

CD Reviews

ARTIST: MARLA FIBISH

TITLE: MARLA FIBISH IRISH MANDOLIN BASICS: TUNES AND TECHNIQUES (DVD)

LABEL: MARLA FIBISH MUSIC

RELEASE DATE: 2012

By Annette Siegel

Marla_Fibish_Irish_Mandolin_BasicsSo you want to learn some Irish mandolin basics, but don’t know where to turn? Irish mandolin traditionalist Marla Fibish, the mandolinist behind the Three Mile Stone and more recently The Morning Star CDs has a great solution. She’s put together an instructional Irish mandolin DVD. Usually you would have venture out to find a local Irish session (still recommended) to pick up these tunes. (It would be helpful to have a basic mandolin/music theory background to understand some of the language she uses.) But lucky for us fledgling Irish mandy players, Marla has given us a leg up by being able to learn some Irish tunes in the comfort of our own home. And I don’t know about the rest of the mandolin learning population, but it sure helps me to learn when I have a visual aid.

The DVD opens with Marla and her trademark Vintage Gibson A Mandolin (early 1920s) playing the tune Humors of Bandon and explaining how the mandolin has only been involved with Irish music in the last 40-50 years…and that it’s still finding its way. This sort of makes you feel like a pioneer. She also talks about how to develop your own “Irish” music ear by listening to different musicians and various instruments used in Irish music to develop a “feel” for this type of music.

And anybody that’s plays, or tried to play, the mandolin can tell you how important tuning it is. Marla explains this further in detail by having your “pairs” in tune as well as the octaves on the fifth fret sounding together. She covers the left hand technique and how in Irish music the mandolin’s strength is the sustain and how very important the right hand is, as well as the selection of the pick you use…these are all covered fully. It’s truly amazing how many nuances of sound you can create using different pick shapes, thicknesses and where you place your fingers on the mandolin.

Marla_Fibish_Irish_MandolinNow – on to the tunes. She divides the tunes into three categories: reels, jigs and waltzes. You’ll learn that the picking patterns with the right hand are oh so important. Marla jokes that the notes are almost optional as long as the patterns are right and you keep your right hand moving, down on the downbeat and up on the upbeat! The reels are a fun way to start. The tune structure is AA/BB and the melodies are simple but easy to remember (the first ones, anyway!). My husband (on the guitar) and I were playing them together in no time. Marla presents the tune in a very easy, understandable manner; breaking it down and then playing the tune up to speed, showing a close up of the left hand fingering. Then she plays the tune at a “practice” pace for you to play along. I found it easy to stop the DVD and play the instruction over and over again, till I got the part or musical phrase. There are just the right number of tunes to get your feet wet and whet your appetite for more! This DVD is a delightful way to learn to play this style. I certainly hope it is only the first of more to come from Marla on Irish mandolin instruction!

This recommended DVD may be purchased by emailing Marla mfibish@gmail.com or by visiting herwebsite.

Annette Siegel is one half of Living Tree Music & The Seagulls with her husband Nowell. She also holds a “day” job working for the Bob Hope Estate/Family for the last 18 years.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Marla_Fibish_Irish_Mandolin.jpg 229 600 Steve Shapiro https://folkworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FolkWorks-logo-large.png Steve Shapiro2012-12-23 23:56:212020-11-02 14:42:10

MARLA FIBISH – MARLA FIBISH IRISH MANDOLIN BASICS: TUNES AND TECHNIQUES (DVD)

  • Book Reviews
  • CD Reviews
  • Concert Reviews
  • Film Reviews

FolkWorks Partners

Join our E-mail Community

As a valued member of our e-mail community, you will receive updates on events, stories, performances and more in our monthly newsletter, along with the occasional special announcement to give you the latest news in folk/roots. We promise your e-mail is safe with us.  We don’t sell or share our database with any third-party vendors.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

  • LIKE US ON FACEBOOK
  • JOIN THE FOLKWORKS FACEBOOK GROUP
  • BECOME A FOLKWORKS DONOR
  • ADVERTISE WITH US
YOU TUBE INSTAGRAM TWITTER EMAIL PRIVACY POLICY

All Material Copyright © 2001- 2021 FolkWorks. All rights reserved. Website by: Integritive

Scroll to top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website, analyze site traffic, and show event times in your timezone. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Privacy Policy