I don't have a website. I just have a YouTube page, which has been a great source of exposure for my free guitar instruction videos. I get tons of e-mail every day, asking for ordered links to my lessons. I have found that to be a part time job, and it would be a full time job if I answered all of the questions. I get hundreds of letters every week, asking questions about certain spots in videos, or people wanting to know if I have transcription give aways as well. I have come to the point where it is impossible to answer everyone. People think that I am rude, but I am just overwhelmed.

I was asked by several folks that remembered that I used to play banjo, if I would do the same with some banjo instruction videos. My first thought was NO. I just didn't want the extra e-mail. Then, a student suggested that I could put my links on The Banjo Hangout, and direct people who watched my videos to join the forum, ask questions here if they couldn't figure them out by reading other's questions, and devote a place for people to secure the links to the lessons in order.

I wish guitar forums were as civil and low key as this place was. I rarely visit forums, due to time constraints, but I have found this to be a very good place for folks to talk. (Maybe I just don't dig deep enough. I'm sure that there are problems everywhere.)

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great 2012.

Hey, Rob, how do we pick up the CD on musicality?

PS. Looked at a ton of your vids the other day. Super nice work. You should get the trio in the studio?

Rob do you have write a book?

Sorry, I just got over a flu.

No, sorry; I have no banjo materials to sell.

People generally think that they are above basic musicality, and are often offended if you suggest that they learn the most simple and basic elements of music, before developing a repertoire. It would not be popular enough to warrant the production costs or the time involved to make it, because it would be so poorly received.

I don't have to listen long to a player, before I can tell if they are playing musically, or simply regurgitating something they have memorized. They want to study with me, and when I suggest that we learn to play a melody through a scale with the I, IV, V chord progression as a template, I am looked at as if I am trying to put them in front of their co-workers in a pair of diapers.

I have seen musicians "tearing it up" on stage, and when asked to play Happy Birthday, the wheels fall off. They don't need to learn Happy Birthday, they need to learn how to play any song they hear in their head, right away without searching for notes. I learned how to do that on my own, before I started memorizing arrangements, but when I started teaching, I became aware that people don't want to actually be musicians, they just want to memorize banjo tunes.

If you would like to discipline yourself in this, you don't need an instruction video. Just learn a G Major Scale, and start using it as a template for melodies. Finding the first note of the tune is where you begin.

Once you have the scale, give each note a number. G-1, A-2, B-3, C-4, D-5, E-6, F#-7, G-8 (Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do)

e.g. London Bridge; The melody begins on the 5th of the scale.

5-6-5-4-3-4-5 2-3-4 3-4-5 5-6-5-4-3-4-5 2 5 3-1

Mary Had a Little Lamb begins on the 3rd note of the scale.

3-2-1-2-3-3-3 2-2-2 3-5-5 3-2-1-2-3-3-3-3-2-2-3-2-1

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star begins on the 1st note of the scale.

1-1-5-5-6-6-5 4-4-3-3-2-2-1 5-5-4-4-3-3-2 5-5-4-4-3-3-2 1-1-5-5-6-6-5 4-4-3-3-2-2-1


Learning these melodies and pefecting them would take no time at all, yet so many players can't. Anyone who says that most players can, hasn't been teaching banjo for long, or maybe just assumed that most people can do this. I know, they can't.

Happy Birthday starts on;

Either the 1st, the 3rd or the 5th. If you have these simple little exercises down, it would be a lot easier to tell which one it begins with. I work students through these little ideas, and watch as they learn to memorize bluegrass tunes at 3 times the rate they did previously. All the melody notes we play in an arrangement have their place within a scale, be it major, minor, chromatic or whatever.

Knowing your banjo well is a simple as picking it up and goofing around with a little melody until you have it. Repeat that process a hundred times and you'll have it down.

Then, begin with the I,IV,V progressions up the fingerboard. You have a root and two inversions of these progressions. You should be able to transpose the melodies, and add chords to them up the fingerboard in the root, and both inversions.

This is the part that can use a little elaboration, and the next time I get a banjo, I will lay down a video on my YouTube channel covering this. It will be wildly hated, and seen as being beneath the players who might be out there watching instruction videos, but I have found that the real pros never look back and laugh at the basics. They understand that this is the only thing that got them where they are.

Edited by - Rob Bourassa on 01/10/2012 16:58:20

Thanks, Rob . . . I'm going to do as you suggest.

Sheldon

I think that you would have a lot more sales of this type of video than you think. There a quite a few of us just beginning or intermediate that want and need this help.
Reading what you have wrote is pretty much greek to me without seeing or hearing it.
i would much rather pay 30 bucks for a cd or more for a set of them , learn at my own pace , than try to find a teacher that would even consider teaching classes for that + all that time and expense.

I first of all with the previous post of yours on 1 - 10= 12, would ask is this a strumming exercise on the banjo? how would you incorporate a picking technique into it, if it a strumming exercise. Is this method used by making chords or playing individual strings? Roman numerals , progressions ? I'm lost.
Unfortunately I missed out on the music classes in Elementary school because when trying out for the band i was so called (selected ) to play a horn that I had NO interest in !

Danny

Rob,
This is awesome information......
I am anxiously awaiting your next video covering what you have just explained.
Till you get it recorded and on you tube, Is there any way we can work on this now?

Is this something that you would cover in a Skype lesson?

Great Scott! Something that I've told myself it Rocket Scientry just might be maintainable if I understand your recent explanation of the note progression. Can't wait for the video, I'm a subscriber on YouTube so I'll be looking for it. Till then, where's my banjo. Happy Birthday, here I come

Rob,

Your videos are the best I have seen.  I had given up trying to learn to play.  Thanks to your videos, I'm giving it another try.

Posted - 1/10/2012 4:55 PM 

hey not bad man...

sorry to hear about you havin the flu, I didnt even know it was going around again...it sure sucks getting any flu, we never

know what variety its going to be and some  varieties last a long long time, so its good you have a healthy system to fight

off any flu. dont think we can afford to lose orb to some flu right peepes ?

so Im looking at the latest post and for sure Im practicing the lesson just to make sure i got it right, that im reading,playing

the way you have it posted up. I started out playing the dang thing like a guitar lol and it manifested itself into something

unrecognizable as banjo playing instead its a van halen banjo lol and i dont want that at alll...im happy to learn all

over again and again because i want to play it like a banjo, sound like a banjo, instead of some rip off of guitar playing

on top of banjo. if i am going to play banjo 

I have been busy with my new studio and promoting group guitar lessons there, but things are finally calming down a bit.

Rob, Just spent about 5 minutes converting a song that was in the key if C to numbers and it worked out great. Made it very easy to play. 11335566653. Thank you for taking the time to put this on the site.