Overall Comments

I bought this book about 2 weeks into owning a banjo. It breaks techniques down into easy snippets. You learn things a little at a time then string them together into songs. The CD is great, and makes it really easy to pick up things by ear. At about 3 months into playing banjo, and about 20 lessons in, I'm amazed at how much I can play. I own several other popular banjo books, and this one is by far the easiest to learn from. I recommend it to anyone thinking of taking up banjo.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I highly recommend this book for any beginning student of the Banjo. I purchased the Book, CD and DVD combo package. Janet writes this book with the beginner in mind. She does not jump to Intermediate Level after 2 or 3 lessons like other instruction books do. She gives you bite size morsels to start off and digest and the lessons follow a logical progression with each lesson building on the previous lesson. The basic roll patterns (and their ALTERNATIVES) are clearly demonstrated and explained. The roll patterns are taught in such a way to help the student build dexterity for more advanced techniques later on. I have met teachers who were professional musicians who use this book for their entry level students. I have since progressed from this book and am now studying Janets more advanced books. I highly recommend this book for the entry level student of the Banjo.

Overall Rating

10

Overall Comments

I am really enjoying learning with this book. I have spent two months with it and my Goodtime Crow and am loving every moment. I find the lessons are arranged with clear goals and it means I can tailor my practice to as long or as short as I want.

The accompanying DVD is very clear although not every aspect of the book is covered (e.g. not all songs, unless I am missing something). The split screen to show what left and right hand should be doing is invaluable.

I did take a brief look at other options and as the reviewer below suggests, these are written by 'great banjo players'. Well great banjo players don't always make great teachers and I think Janet Davis is a great teacher if she can communicate so well through a book.

To be fair on the point on learning roll patterns, she is not unequivocal with them and variations are introduced early on.

I have written a fuller review of my experience so far on my blog:

http://tehmina.org/

Overall Rating

9

Overall Comments

Hello Everyone,

I'll add my experience on the Janet Davis book, "You Can Teach Yourself Banjo" which may create some controversy but so be it... I do NOT recommend this book and would highly suggest something else.

I was/am a beginner and it was the first book that I started working through. The book starts early on with the forward roll as "IMTIMTIM". I put a lot of hours into learning the roll this way, only to find out elsewhere that the "preferred" way for the forward roll is TIMTIMTI or TIMTIMTM.

The latter 2 ways create a different, and I'll say better, tone, because you are using a downstroke instead of an upstroke on the string where the approach differs. The thumb also is stronger and creates more "drive" than an upstroke.

So, having just gotten up to what I felt was good tempo with the JD approach to the forward roll, I am now trying to re-learn it. It is not fun to retrain your fingers to a new primary way to do a roll, automatically, when they already do almost the same thing automatically another way. It is not that I will never use the JD approach, or the fingering ability that I learned with it, just to find the right strings, etc., but it is not insignificant nor an insignificant amount of time or motivation to feel like you need to relearn a roll, or get your thumb to automatically do the forward roll the preferred way. I want my primary way of doing the forward roll the "preferred" way which produces better tone and more drive.

So, it's up to the player and what he/she wants to accomplish with playing the banjo. But for me, and for the amount of time invested, I want to learn the best or better approaches. I wish I would have known at the beginning to learn either of the second or third listed ways to do the forward roll.

Had I known ahead, I would not have chosen this book, or at least not as the only one. I now cross-reference with several books that are put out by professional players who each have made a living playing the banjo, Bill Evans, Pete Wernick, Earl Scruggs, Alan Munde, Tony Trischka. (Yup, none of them show the forward roll pattern the way that the Janet Davis book does.)

Rockyjo

Overall Rating

3

Overall Comments

This is the best book I've seen for the beginner. It's laid out clearly and paced nicely with the each lesson building on the previous one. There are many good books out there but a lot of them either go too quickly - adding 2 or 3 new techniques with every tune - or spending way too much time covering the basics of timing, waiting until the last few pages to even cover the 3 finger roll. This book proceeds slowly which seems to suit almost all of my students, yet with each tune you learn a new technique. Very well thought out.

The only gripe I have about it is that after she introduces the 3-2 pull-off, she ignores it and goes back to the simpler pull-offs for several tunes. Personally I think that pull-off may be the most difficult technique for any beginner to master, so to not concentrate on it any more than she does is a mistake.

Overall Rating

9