You have heard the hype, the endorsements from legendary players such as Tommy Emmanuel, Joe Bonamassa and Steve Vai telling us that he is “the future” of guitar. We have all heard his debut album, The Journey, making good on both. But now you have the opportunity to play the guitar like Matteo Mancuso – and he is going to teach you.
Available now via Jam Track Central, the Matteo Mancuso Masterclass not for the fainthearted. If you've tried his 20 Next Level Fingerstyle Licks course this is the next step.
But Mancuso’s first masterclass on the online guitar lessons platform unpacks everything behind his unique fingerstyle approach, with a syllabus that shows you how he applies classical techniques on electric guitar, the building blocks of his contemporary rock fusion sound, and the theory behind his note choices.
Zoom out and Mancuso’s songwriting follows a simple philosophy. Speaking to MusicRadar last year, he said he always contrasts the simple with the complex.
“If I have a complex chord progression, I play a really simply theme on it, a really simple melody,” he explained. “It’s the same thing the opposite way round. If I have a really static chord progression, I try to write a complex melody to it. I always compose my songs in this way.”
And he typically uses the major tonalities as a launch pad. But where next? Well, that’s the sort of thing you will learn in his masterclass. Mancuso offers a grounding in his foundational techniques – “the nuances between Matteo’s ‘rest’ and ‘free’ strokes” – and how you can apply fingerstyle to legato, tremolo picking and arpeggios.
Jam Track Central says the lessons are aimed at players of all levels, with introductory lessons taking you though the basics. But a little music theory will go a long way.
“Matteo’s harmonic approach is surprisingly simple,” reads the blurb. “He uses familiar rock and blues concepts, with a mild dusting of jazz-inspired chromaticism, meaning this Masterclass is perfect for anyone with a foundational knowledge of music theory.”
Theoretical elements of the course will expand your scalar knowledge in the Dorian, Lydian, Locrian, and Superlocrian (or dominant altered) modes, and old favourites such as the Minor Pentatonic and Blues scales.
You can pick up the Matteo Mancuso Masterclass as a standalone lessons package from Jam Track Central, priced £49.99, or add it to your JTC+ subscription.
Packages include a PDF study guide, 12 Lesson Videos, 20 exercise videos at fast and slow speeds, 20 lick videos and three solo videos – one of which, Crossing The Ford, you can check out above. Interactive tab comes as standard.
Sign up for the masterclass before 30 August and you could win a set of DiMarzio PAF 36th Anniversary electric guitar pickups. For more details, head over to Jam Track Central.
