About Me

My name's Mike Giverin and I'm a professional mandolin player based in Chester, UK. I first picked up the mandolin at the age of 14 after seeing one in action in the hands of Chris Thile at a Nickel Creek concert. Over the last 15 years, I have established myself as one of the leading mandolin players working in the UK. I'm in two actively touring bands, the first is a group called Jaywalkers, who reached the finals of the BBC Young Folk Awards in 2009 and placed 3rd at the European World of Bluegrass 2012. We are an Americana & Bluegrass band who have release 4 full albums and a covers EP. The second is a modern, progressive folk band called 4Square who I joined about 4 years ago. With them, I have released an album and an EP and we are working on our next release. You can see a few videos of me in action with both bands below and head over to the Workshops & Tour Dates page to see where can see me live.

Jaywalkers

4Square

My style strongly reflects my earliest influences of so called Newgrass mandolin players such as Thile and Mike Marshall, but I range anywhere from Bluegrass standards, Scottish fiddle tunes to Jazz, Brazilian and even the odd Russian folk tune. I strongly believe that the best musicians are open to any form of music and your playing can only benefit if you learn as wide a range as music as possible. For my last birthday, I was bought a book of transcribed Charlie Parker solos ... it has been really interesting to try and adapt them to the mandolin and has already started to make me think about my own mandolin playing and improvising.

As any one who has been to one of my lessons or workshops before will testify, I believe good mandolin playing is all built from a solid technique base and understanding of the instrument. Areas such as right hand techniques, body position and scales/arpeggios are often forgotten about when learning tunes and jam techniques, but have a huge impact on how much you can progress on the instrument. But more important than anything else is enjoyment! My lessons - whether in person, via skype or the Free Lessons - will all be centred around having a great time with the mandolin, in conjunction with improving your playing by learning tunes and techniques.

Performing Credits

Jaywalkers