Tuesday, March 23, 2010 @7:17:20 PM
I want to play the banjo!
What do I do?
BANJO HERO, THE FIRST YEAR, AND THE SHORT LIST
(A lesson planning guide for the self-taught banjo picker)
If you are reading this manual, then I guess you are interested in two things. One is the 5-string banjo and the other is bluegrass music. Maybe you liked the banjo first and bluegrass came along with it, or maybe you liked bluegrass and that turned your attention to the banjo. Either way, the two fit together closely as the BanjoHero Guide begins to form the novice Scruggs-style banjo player. You are encouraged to give as much, or more, attention to the music as you give to the instrument. In a short time, if you put all the right pieces together you will be the Banjo Hero. This is the basic idea: 1) learn minimum banjo technique 2) turn these skills to learning to play music 3) later come back and learn the rest of the banjo technique in a musical context.
The best plan for a beginner is to find a good teacher. Many lost beginners don't really know much about that music stuff other than that they like it and want to be able 'to play the banjo like those guys who pick in the local bands down at the VFW'. Finding a good teacher is the first thing you should do. (Mel Bay has a teacher's directory: http://banjosessions.com/) But sometimes sitting down with a real live teacher is not an option. The next good plan is sign up for the big broadband cable and the free Skype videoconference. Buy those Skype lessons from Glenn (http://www.pickersacademy.com/), the KIDD (www.myspace.com/johnkuhnbluegrass), John (http://hstrial-noteablerepair.intuitwebsites.com/index.html) or Fiddlin' Al (www.fiddlin-al.com), just to mention a few of the available teachers. That won't work either? What do you do then?
Take the BanjoHero Path.
To reach that place where you are actually playing the bluegrass banjo, you will have to learn how to do these three things:
1) make notes
2) choose the right notes
3) play them at the right time
The BanjoHero Manual helps you understand what banjo techniques and which musical skills you need for these three big steps. As a part of this general understanding of what you are getting into, BanjoHero puts your first year on the banjo into a beginner's context and also gives you an understanding of some of the wider issues that will play a big role in your musical journey (like rhythm, repertoire, how to play music, time expectations, blah-blah). Plus selected appendices are there as quick-start guides to important knowledge resources not found in the average DVD. As well as explaining the 'what' of banjo playing, BanjoHero also tries to make sense of the 'why'.
A DVD can show you things to learn, a teacher can show you the right way to execute the things you learn, but who's going to show you what else you need to study so you can actually PLAY MUSIC on your banjo? BanjoHero won't dwell on those things a teacher or a 'Learn the 5-string Banjo' DVD might give you. Instead BanjoHero tells you which pieces to grab for right now and what to leave behind for later. Then it explains how to develop your musical abilities and finally, how to combine them with those few banjo techniques so that you have what you need to really and truly play the banjo.
With the seven appendices, the BanjoHero Manual has outlined the answers to all the important questions the beginner non-musician has when he first picks up his new banjo. "Sure, I can learn to play tabs in first position G easy enough, but how do I play what's in my head in any key anywhere on the neck? And since nothing is in my head, how do I fill that up?" Questions on important details, like "Which way do the picks go on?" and "How does the strap fit on the banjo?" These questions are answered in your teaching DVDs (try http://www.homespuntapes.com/) or through other resources like the http://www.banjohangout.org/.
Age is no barrier. You can start when you are too young to lift the banjo or when a worn out back or knee finally gives up and you must purchase a banjo stand. Young or old, the banjo skills and the music skills are still the two things you have to possess. None of these individual skills is very big deal when you look at them one-by-one. You just need to be able to put the right musical skills together with the right banjo skills. You can't get around this simple truth. And the quicker you bring your musical skills up to par the better, because right now you are probably behind where you ought to be musically.
Sooner the better is especially true for those who are picking up the instrument in their senior years and have no patience for a leisurely approach to learning the banjo. And there are also some of you who are noticing your fingers slowing up as time takes its toll on aging joints. The approach discussed in the following pages might provide you some extra advantage (maybe as much as 20 BPM) in both the left and right hand moves. One technique reduces your finger motion by transferring part of that hindered motion to other places (i.e. from the picking fingers to the hand/wrist/arm--see the discussion of overall control scattered through the Manual) when you follow some of the BanjoHero suggestions about rhythm and how your picks should hit the strings.
Now, preparing the ground for your first steps on the BanjoHero Path, here are some inconvenient banjo truths to take on your journey. Let them puzzle you along the way and maybe when you reach your goal, they will make some sense.
1) Musicianship is a must, most banjo stuff is optional.
2) What the student really needs, the teacher doesn't really teach.
3) If you gotta have chords, then why do some of those fingerless pickers sound so good?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc0eU8EsJvg
4) Most memorization is a waste of time.
5) Twiddling, fiddling, and spending money is mostly a waste of time.
6) You don't learn to run by walking a little bit faster every day.
7) Banjo players like to perform but audiences prefer to be entertained.
8) If Ralph Stanley can play two licks and you can play 200 licks, it doesn't mean you are twice as good as he is.
9) Most people hear with their eyes.
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for the complete 33 page illustrated manual (with Appendix A: Bluegrass Rhythm) download here: http://files.me.com/richarddress/rkt8gn
Or you can read it on the web here: http://web.me.com/richarddress/Site/BanjoHero_Manual.html
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