Yes london is amazing as well; like nowhere else ive been but i wouldnt like to live there, can make you feel small if that makes sense? But great to visit (although i'm not that far travelled) the best thing about london for me was the underground system - it is a wonder of human engineering

If any are interested, I will be teaching a workshop in Wyandotte Michigan, Saturday, November 12th, at 4:00 till 6:00.

I will be teaching basic musicality, fingerboard theory, as well as my arrangement of Little Maggie.

The cost will be $25.

734-283-4221

bourassastudio@gmail.com

Edited by - Rob Bourassa on 10/13/2011 00:23:22

I would buy the musicality cd if you make one,  my wife enjoyed the guitar primer and thought it was a big help .  

I'm glad she could use it.

I will actually have a DVD. It should be ready soon.

A banjo dvd?

Yes, it will cover exercises in basic musicality up the fingerboard, as well as building an arrangement around a melody, (Scruggs Style.)

I am also going to show variations on rolls, that will allow adjustment to the metrical parameters of a melody, without interrupting the roll. Variations are very useful in preparing folks to ad lib and change things on the fly to suit the melody.

I will also cover syncopation and backup.

Count me in on that DVD! I found it quite exciting teaching myself how to play happy birthday and throwing in a couple rolls. If only I knew what a key was or how a scale worked I believe I could be more creative, to me that's some fun stuff.

Also would still love one of those CD's of yours featuring Mike and Kira , if you ever had a chance to re-master that one.  

Butch B.

Butch,

Sorry, busy week. I just moved into a new studio, and am trying to get unpacked and settled.

I will respond later.

Rob,
Thanks so much! As a longtime tech school teacher I know the value of hands on, demonstration instruction. You have done a masterful job for this old fat boy.

I have only owned this old pawn shop Harmony el-cheapo banjo for a couple of months. I tried the tab books, and just couldnt make any headway. So I enrolled in a beginning banjo class, and just couldnt get Cripple Creek down, at all. After nearly giving up I stumbled across your you tube video. After a couple of weeks of plunking (and being banished to the back room)... I am now being let out of the closet with a very slow, jerky, not yet synchopated version of Cripple Creek...

The speed will come, it will take a lot of time to get the muscle memory down for these 52 yr old fingers, the synapses do not fire like they used to... but I am having a blast, and minimal success... thanks to you.

I really, really appreciate your effort in sharing your gift. I highly recommend Robs methods to other beginners. Just give yourself plenty of time and practice. It will slowly begin to happen.
Larry Killebrew

Nice fish Larry !

Glad to help Larry. It sounds as if you are on the right track.

Some day, I will have a fly fishing / banjo group. I can't imagine much better than eating freshly caught pan fried trout.

Did you ever end up doing the videos for the "up the neck" part of Foggy Mountain? The first part was amazing...I play it all the time now. Wish I knew the rest. Thank you.
aliza

I think a couple of Skype lessons from Rob would get the high part learned quickly. It is great that he does these FREE lessons but he also needs to pay the bills. :)

Thanks Russ.

Actually, I have explained it before, but I'll do so again, because I haven't talked about it much.

I am not going to do the high part of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, because I was simply using that song, to introduce a method I use for practicing and learning tunes without tab. It is built on cycling small sections over and over again, and then moving on and plugging into the next part, once they are tight.

I used Foggy Mountain Breakdown, and actually changed a roll a bit to make the song more accessible for the intermediate player. Earl Scruggs has a book he sells, and it includes the whole tune, with tab, and a recording I believe, so I would use that for the high part.

Earl is one of my music heroes, and I don't want to cut into the business he has worked so hard through his life to build.

Language very logical, as always, Rob. I look forward to the DVD! I think it is a good way to learn and also pay in some way of free classes that I have received! One question: Is it really compatible scruggs book to complete your lessons? What is the title? to that level? I hope to get it in Spain...

Rob, Thanks for the lesson on Skype last night. We'll have to do it again. :)

Thank you for the lesson too Russ. I loved hearing all of those old chromatic tunes I never learned.

For those who don't remember Great Lakes Banjo, they made a beautiful instrument in the 70s, and Russ just scored one without a tone ring for under $300. The old co-owner of Great Lakes has a some tone rings left, and he is going to get him set up.

I doubt if anyone could find a better $500 banjo.

The Liberty will no longer be an only child.

Infoncundible,

http://earlscruggs.com/book.html

Earl's book was a big part of my learning process. So was Peter Wernick's, "Bluegrass Banjo" book.

I also listened to Doug Dillard and J.D. Crowe a lot.

I probably never would have gotten to be a good picker without a good banjo teacher though. That doesn't mean it's impossible. I would just too stupid to learn from the book well, until I had learned to play.

I would try whatever I could.

Thanks again Rob! In Spain it is very difficult to have a good banjo teacher near, so at the moment I will work with books and dvd ... Sometimes I think what would happen if there were not this website!

quote: Thanks for the explanation. I for one, ran across the Foggy Mountain Breakdown lesson purely by accident. I was amazed at the teaching method. I think we all know this is the way to do it but for whatever reason we don't.  But Rob, you did the hard work and did all those videos and proved anyone can grasp the toughest licks by mastering small sections instead of trying to memorize too much at once. Amazingly, I had FMB in one week. Not up to speed mind you, but had it without any assistance and without looking at my hands or the instrument.

Your contribution on youtube is inestimable and I respect your motives in protecting Earl's intellectual property even though all we player's should own the Scruggs Book "Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo." It is worth the price of admission just for the biographical information to say nothing of all the tabs and the CD version.

I really love your videos and your attitude toward teaching and helping others learn. You have inspired me to practice with a purpose and constantly learn new parts a little bit at a time, both with guitar and the banjo. I of course, work on too many songs at the same time and need to get rid of that habit and I will be home free. Even Tommy Emmanuel himself says when you are working on a new song, only work on that song. I need to get that in my head, because sometimes it hurts when I work on too much in the same day.

I really look forward to your future videos. Now I am going to try to learn the high part to FMB.

Rob, thanks for all your efforts.  Nick Schepis 

---

Originally posted by Rob Bourassa

My goal was to give away my method of isolation, review and memorization, so I picked the most popular tune I could think of, which is Foggy Mountain Breakdown. I also wanted to show how to keep a forward roll going by using your index at the 4th string, which seems to help beginners pick up their speed.

I don't write out tab for anything. Some folks have gotten angry with me because I won't write out tab for them, but my whole purpose in my free Youtube lessons is to show people how to memorize without tab. It has been said that there is no difference between memorizing with tab, or by ear, but that is simply not true for beginners. I have been teaching banjo since the 70s, and I have seen many students who are unable to figure out a song by ear, after years of playing, simply because they became reliant upon tab. Once a person can learn by ear, tab is fine.

Some folks are also angry with me for not doing the high part on Foggy Mountain Breakdown, but I truly have been feeling strange about that. Earl Scruggs wrote the tune, and sells instruction books and videos. I hadn't considered it at first, but it would be like giving away free hamburgers outside of someone else's burger joint.

My goal was not to cut into Mr. Scruggs business, but to teach people how to break down a piece, isolate, cycle and review, memorize and increase technique and tempo, and then apply that system to any tune they work on.


The only thing that stops folks from figuring out things on their own, is the fact that they listen to big sections, instead of isolating small segments of 3 or 4 notes at a time, then review and internalize them before going on.

I don't want Mr. Scruggs to say, "this guy's giving away the kitchen sink, and I'm trying to sell books." He is a hero of mine, and I want him to make the money he deserves off of his intellectual property. I don't think I would feel comfortable teaching the whole song unless I can work out a professional DVD for sale and give him royalties.

I would give him royalties for what I have done so far, but I don't make any money off of my videos. I have almost two and a half million video views on my Youtube channel, and it seems almost as many people e-mail me and ask me for tab. I don't sell DVDs, books or tab on my channel.

I simply give away free lessons. If someone wishes to read a long novel, they may continue and I will tell the reason why I do so.

I was having a conversation on a guitar forum, and was discussing teaching pedagogy, when I was berated by several folks who obviously couldn't play a radio. Rather than do a tit for tat, knock down drag out argument, which is not only distasteful but a big waste of time, I decided to start a Youtube channel and post a video, showing them that I actually could play the guitar.

This resulted in questions concerning my method, and also in the production of several videos. What I didn't expect was the amount of people who kept asking for more videos, nor did I expect to somehow feel obliged to do so, yet for some reason, I did. When it comes down to it, most of us feel obliged to do something when it is asked of us for some reason.

I also had requests from students who saw my guitar lessons to do the same with banjo and ukulele. So, here we are. Now, I have other teachers complaining that I am giving away too much for free, and that it cuts into their business, though I have hundreds of teachers that use my videos for their lesson plans, so I guess it evens out.

My goals are to keep putting out more free videos, that do not infringe upon anyone else's intellectual property. I have been teaching songwriting workshops in public schools for the last month or so, and have no time at this point to do much of anything till May. I hope to get a banjo this summer and do some more vids. If people weren't so critical, I would use the Goodtime with the broken neck, but it sounds like a whammy bar at times, and I would have a ton of negative comments.

It will all come together I pray. In the mean time, I don't want a fund to be raised for a new banjo. I do have my pride. I will do a video at some point, and sell it, and buy the best banjo I can get with the money I make off of the video. When I get to the point where I can make a good living off of guitar videos, I plan to do a ton of free banjo vids for Youtube.

---

You are welcome Nick.

I have not been here much. I started a new studio in Downtown Wyandotte Michigan, and have spent every waking hour getting the place set up. I have been able to make some good recordings from there, but unfortunately, I have been without a banjo. I only borrow one from my buddy Russ for short amounts of time, and would feel pretty guilty if I kept it for too long. I was doing a series, but moved to the studio during the middle of it, and got busy with the whole process, so my Clinch Mountain Backstep revisited is on hold till I get another banjo.

I thought about using the little Goodtime that I teach with to finish it off, but the wobbly neck would get too many bad comments. People are picky on YouTube.

I hope to have some more out before spring.

Edited by - Rob Bourassa on 12/14/2011 08:14:01

Rob,

I finally made it through your version of FMB...thanks, it's fantastic training.

Great. Congratulations.

BHO it rocks!!