swamplunker - Posted - 10/04/2013:  22:12:30

Just a half hour tonight, because 'm so sleepy from staying up late yesterday. Got the two books I ordered today, Ross Nickersons' Banjo Encyclopedia and Advanced Studies in 5-string Banjo by A.B. King, got up to the melodic section of the Nickerson book tonight, about 80 pages in, the A.B. King one looks tougher to read, sorta handwritten but I didn't spend enough time with it yet, at least the tab in it is written on the lines, not the spaces in between. Short term plan is go to sleep and tackle this tomorrow afternoon.

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/05/2013:  08:16:45

90 minutes this morning: The usual 15 minutes on scales and backup, then I spent an hour working on Foggy Mountain Special, slowing it down with Song Surgeon. Earl's ideas are so cool!  It's well worth the time to slow them down and listen to what he's doing.  When you bring the music back up to speed, it's  even more amazing, because now you realize everything he's squeezing into that short span of time.  I'll get to the ear training/theory later.

Have a great day, guys!

schlange - Posted - 10/05/2013:  17:57:51

Couple different sessions today, totalling around 2 hrs. Playing through my songs, as well as playing back to some of Janet's tracks from the backup book.

Also started working on "How Great Thou Art" from Janet's "Ultimate Banjo Songbook." Thought this would be. Good one to work on for "special music"
at church sometime. It's a cool arrangement, and a slower song so it's
something a little different.

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/05/2013:  18:40:16

Good Evening Gentlemen,

Got in about 45 minutes today, between 15 minutes this morning before work, and 1/2 hour tonight after work. Worked on C major scale. Been staying on that for awhile now. I can almost play it without looking at my fingers. Trying to do it without thinking much about it. Also my usual list of songs, FMB, Cripple Creek, etc. Focusing on slower, cleaner picking. Going to a 3 hour jam tomorrow afternoon, all bluegrass and old country. Always a good time. Rain in the forecast here for tomorrow, so a few hours practicing tomorrow morning is a good possibility. I want to start on the Pat Cloud book Nestor recommended. Also ordered and received the 'Hatfield by Ear' book this week. You have pick some winners Nestor!! Good books!

Good night all!

andspence - Posted - 10/05/2013:  18:45:36

Hey guys.

Did about 40 minutes of noodling around on familiar tunes and licks. Sort of an extended warm up session.  Then, today in the mail I got my new banjo mute (from mikes banjo mute). Tried it out a bit and was pretty impressed. The true test will be in the evening or morning when all the women in the house are asleep...

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/05/2013:  19:14:04

Hey Andrew!

Welcome Back. Good to see you.

Dave

swamplunker - Posted - 10/05/2013:  22:09:58

I don't know, Dave, reading the Cloud book with rain in the forecast.... We used to do Storms are on the Ocean (before I found out Roland White did it) then it would rain, but it was mid-summer, mid-afternoon, in Florida. Back to my regiment, as one guy called it: I did an hour tonight, including chapter 6 of the Nickerson book, it's about melodic style, which I like to mess around with, later I worked out (finally) a fingering for the four-note part I wanted to put in Arkansas Traveler that avoids the one-finger bar chord that was easy enough to go to, but so time-consuming to come out of, so now that the fingering is finished, the metronome can come out to play again.

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/06/2013:  17:48:40

Good Evening Gentlemen,

A full day of playing! Half an hour noodlin' this morning to different songs and exercises. 3 hours at a BG jam this afternoon! All sorts of songs, from Bluegrass to Folk to Old Country. I didn't bring my book of chords and songs. I wanted to play by "ear". Just listen and figure out chords and progressions. It was a learning experience and I know I need to rely a little less on TAB and printed material. It was a nice afternoon.

Then another hour tonight, 15 minutes on JD Backup book, 30 minutes on JD scales book C major, 15 minutes on 1st and 2nd break of FMB.

All in all a very good day. Have a good evening!

Dave

schlange - Posted - 10/06/2013:  18:21:40

Just about 1/2 hr of loose practice today.

Question: those of you practicing major scales--what are you practicing actually? And how are you using what you've learned?

I may not be able to practice or post in the next few days, as I'll be in Southern CA at a conference until Thursday. I'm going to bring my banjo and attempt to practice, but we shall see!

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/06/2013:  19:48:18

90 minutes today, all of it working on tunes.  I'll get back into the regular routine tomorrow.

Eric, about your question - for my part, I'm practicing G Major/E minor pentatonic scales and scale exercises all over the fingerboard. The Pat Cloud book is a "home improv workshop".   I've had the book for a couple of years.  When I first got it, I learned the 5 pentatonic shapes, then had so much fun noodling, that I set the book aside and just used that bit of knowledge.  So, I have used it in my playing - either to fake a solo, or just to help me find melodies more easily.

This time around, I wanted to actually work through the book.  Right now I'm working on a series of scale based exercises to build dexterity and fingerboard knowledge.  Haven't overtly applied it in my playing. I'm sure I will eventually.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/06/2013:  23:43:41

This afternoon I spent an hour and a half working on Arkansas Traveler, over and over just to get the speed up to 100, the next thing I want to do with that is learn a version in G, hopefully with different variations/decorations, then to C, leaving a whole step to return to the original key of D. This is a tiny bit of using the circle of fifths as an arrangement device, I tried it out faking the melody in a crude finger-and -thumb picking style, the key changes sort of give the melody a fresh, less repetitive feel. I went from something I'm feeling under control with to the scale search which took two different forms: First, I looked at a couple-page note I'd printed about scales by our own Texasbanjo, I was especially interested in a D scale she described using all 5 strings, but with one shift:1st string,open/3rd,9th fret/2nd,7th fret/5th,open/(shift)2nd,10th fret/5th,11th fret/1st,12th fret. I can combine that with the 5 string melodic G scale I learned in Splitting the Licks, it has the advantage of no shifts, both share the idea of no two consecutive notes on any one string, while minimizing left-hand shifting, now I've gotta start looking for ones that have those features plus a closed position,they may not exist! The second scale thing I did was start the A.B. White book, did a bunch of his scales, these have as many as three notes on one string before switching strings, so they don't flow in the Melodic style, but I think they'll be good for learning my way around the fingerboard. Hopefully this answers part 1) of your question, Eric, like Nestor, I'm doing more learning than applying at the moment, but about a week ago I made up a little instrumental bit in G minor, and about a year ago I made up another thing, around the time I learned the melodic style(5-string, no shifts) G scale to keep that interesting, the scale itself with some bluesy riffs added for the "A" section ,then a corresponding "B" section, more like an exercise than a tune.

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/07/2013:  05:47:16

An hour and 45 minutes this morning (couldn't sleep).  15 minutes each on scales and backup (Cumberland Gap and Salt River), half hour reading in the Hatfield book and 45 minutes on tunes.

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/07/2013:  18:06:05

Hello,

1 hour tonight, 30 minutes on C and G major scales, 30 minutes on back-up from JD book. Worked on splitting back up chords while vamping. Was a bit off time at first but then got it further on. A cool idea for simple back up. I need to do more of this instead of just plucking chords. It will come with time.

Good night,

Dave

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/08/2013:  20:38:19

An hour and a quarter tonight. The usual routine, plus an additional 15 minutes on Foggy Mountain Special against a slowed down recording of Earl.  The man had amazing time.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/08/2013:  22:04:06

I did two hours today, trying to make up for none yesterday, worked through 28 pages of Janet Davis' book called Bluegrass Melodic Style, from Fire on the Mountain to Cuckoos' Nest, practiced Arkansas Traveler, more for steadiness than speed, not trying to go over 100 yet, an original I mentioned before called Spring Tension, and also Alan Mundes' version #2 of Wildwood Flower. Dave, when you say splitting back up chords, do you mean part of a chord, then the other part? That's probably not it. I also tried some of that A.B. White book, it's a bit frustrating to read.

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/09/2013:  20:28:48

I had a long day today, but still squeezed in an hour and a quarter of practice time. Same routine as yesterday: worked on the next scale pattern in the book, read further into the ear training book, started a new section of the backup book and spent another half hour with Earl on FM Special. Looking forward to the weekend.

Goodnight, all.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/09/2013:  22:13:55

Also an hour and a quarter here, started without the metronome, ended as a metronome fiend, going over and over Arkansas Traveler, seeing if I could get it to 110, just barely did, then kept doing it there, to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Never did 110 in Arkansas, did in Florida, on the metronome,of course. That's what I mean. Since the Banjo Newsletter came today, I worked on the back-up article for Lonesome Road Blues by Eddie Collins, after I was done I found a version of Gold Rush by Marty Cutler along with a very interesting article about how he turned a mistake to an advantage, something Murphy Henry said one can do ,in some ancient copy of the same newsletter, he also mentions the idea of composing directly to tab without holding a banjo, which sounds like an interesting challenge. Anyway, by the time I got to that article the banjo was back in the case ,so probably tomorrow......

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/10/2013:  16:49:31

Good evening Gents!

Sorry for the absence, but been a bit busy the past few days. Going to post before I play tonight due to time constraints. Plan to play an hour. Will work on JD back up book, more splitting the back up vamps. Sean, what I meant by that was to do 1 vamp in F position G at 5th fret, then slide up to D position G at 9th fret and so on. Same with C and D up and down the neck in a progression. Basic stuff but sounds cool. Helps to master moving around the neck quickly.Than I'll do more C and G major scales, and work more on the 2nd break of FMB from Jack Hatfield book. You guys gotta trust me that I'll do it.

That's all for tonight.

Dave

andspence - Posted - 10/10/2013:  16:53:55

Hey Everyone - 

Like others...I apologize for my absence.  I seem to either have the time to practice, or to post (the next day) but not both usually.  The banjo mute has helped the situation, but "life" has been busier than usually lately.

schlange - Posted - 10/10/2013:  17:09:54

Back from my trip this afternoon, so it's back to the banjo grindstone tomorrow morning!

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/10/2013:  20:16:54

One hour tonight - all of it practicing tunes - mostly FM Special, and a few others.  Welcome back, everyone!

schlange - Posted - 10/11/2013:  09:37:05

Around an hour today, playing through my site list to my drum machine metronome.

Talking to a local guy about getting together to jam--hopefully it'll happen soon! We don't have any regular ongoing jams here locally that I know of, so it's a bit of a challenge finding folks to play with. But it's one of my goals!

swamplunker - Posted - 10/11/2013:  11:30:51

Good to see everyone around. just did a day rather than late-at- night practice, we have a folk festival this weekend in Eustis, I play violin(even sometimes fiddle) with three different groups, I go from work to an open mike tonight at a place called Olivia's, then tomorrow the festival officially begins, but it really starts tonight, because cats are in town. And a few folks...so I worked on sightreading Marty Cutler's new version of Gold Rush in the latest Banjo Newsletter, the craziest thing you have to do is a stretch from fret 6 on the b string to 10 on the high g, never even thought of doing that before. Sight reading is a skill in itself, a good brain exercise for figuring out the notes right in front of you while looking ahead a little bit. And Marty promises more variations, I think he makes the point about keeping flexible and thinking of a "recipe" rather than the only solo possible. I guess my belief is everyone should work on doing it both ways; on violin, for instance, when it comes time for a break, I have some that are the best notes I feel I've thought of so far, and I'll do them note-for -note. Other ones, I know the chords, but god knows what notes I'm going to do until I do 'em. Which is better? Apples and oranges. So anyway I practiced 45 minutes and also worked on Powder Creek and messed around with moveable scales, trying to think of my own, mixed results....

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/12/2013:  05:48:38

Logged an hour last night.  Starting a series of melodic style pentatonic exercises in the Pat Cloud book.  I'm getting through the scale exercises OK, but I need to internalize them more so I can lift segments to insert into my playing (like licks). At least I think that's where this is going - besides learning the fingerboard and building some dexterity.  Still chipping away at FM Special, trying to play smoothly at speed.  In the Hatfield book, I spent last night's practice focusing on a summary chart of chord relationships, playing every possibility of chord change (well, at least every possibility shown), to see how they sound.  I think I'll spend a few days with that. There was a lot of information to absorb.

Hey Sean, have fun at the folk festival!  Eric, great that you found a jam buddy. Good luck!

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/13/2013:  08:22:10

Logged one hour and 45 minutes yesterday. Worked on FM Special for an hour - trying to bring it up to speed, and the 45 minutes was reading in the Hatfield book.

This morning, I practiced for an hour:  I got back into the scale exercises in the Cloud book for 15 minutes, and forged ahead in the Davis book for another 15, and just finished working on FM Special for a half hour.

It's Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, so I'm wishing you guys a Happy Thanksgiving! (a month early for you, I know)  While I'm at it, thanks Eric, for starting the BHO and thanks guys, for starting this post and helping me stay on top of my practice. 

schlange - Posted - 10/13/2013:  09:12:32

Happy early Thanksgiving to you as well!

Logged 80 minutes last night. Working in my song list, and also working on playing a new worship song up to speed. I'll probably post it here soon to see if anyone has any ideas to offer.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/13/2013:  23:07:41

Happy Thanksgiving too, Nestor, do you guys do the turkey now, too? anyway, I got an hour and a half in just now, found versions of Ark. Traveler in G (Trischkas' melodic book, Bill Keith version) and in C (Alan Mundes' Great Pickin' Tunes), had to rewrite the Trischka version because it's Spacetab rather than line tab, It's not just dislike, I just can't read Spacetab with any accuracy. So now I'll be able to have a "D" version, go to G with different notes, then C with a third variation as well as key, before returning to D. But I'm lots of practice away from learning the two new keys and putting it all together, which is my new short term goal#1. I also revised some more short term goals: 2) Find closed position scales, and 3) incorporate Collins' backing (latest Banjo Newsletter) into my version of Lonesome Road Blues. Goodnight Gentlemen across the continent.

schlange - Posted - 10/14/2013:  08:21:32

About 15 minutes last night, just getting some quick playing in for the day since I somehow missed it the rest of the day!

An hour today. Worked mostly on playing the backup stuff laid out in the JD book for Wabash and John Hardy. I can't play it at the speed she recorded it (John Hardy is around 260!) so I ran it through Song Surgeon (like ASD but I got a copy for free) at about 75% speed and could pretty much hack it.

Got a question for anyone who wants to take it on--I'm working on a new worship song for my church band. You can listen to it on YouTube here: youtube.com/watch?v=2ANkzlpi_ew

I would probably play it just a smidge faster. I've attached the chord chart in F.

My question is--got any ideas for playing this on banjo? My best idea is just fast rolls through chords--and man, that'll be fast. I'll have to speed up what I can play cleanly for sure.

Anyway, thought you might have fun checking out the song.

I'm Going Free (Jailbreak) by Vertical Church

andspence - Posted - 10/14/2013:  08:36:17

That's a cool song Eric. I wouldn't mind taking a shot at it. Are you kicking it off or taking a break? Or just want ideas on backup?  Also wondering why you want to play it faster? It seems like a good speed especially for a worship song.

I've been using ASD for a while, but have been seeing a lot about song surgeon.  What are your initial thoughts on it compared to ASD?

schlange - Posted - 10/14/2013:  08:53:09

No plans to take a break or kick it off at this point--just want to provide some banjo fun on it. I may or may not do it any faster when it comes to a live band situation--I just know I heard them do it live and it seems like the recording was lacking some of the energy from the live one--it seems a smidge slow. Not much. Could just be a dynamics issue, too.

I haven't used ASD enough to really compare it to Song Surgeon. SS seems to work quite well for what I want, though!

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/14/2013:  13:21:16

Attended a jam hosted by a local group. We meet once a month and play everything from bluegrass to old country to folk. Played for 3 1/2 hours. I sat out of the inner circle to try and continue to work on inserting rolls, licks and tags where appropriate. It's not easy when playing a song at full speed. I nailed a few, and bobbled a lot! But, it's getting better every month. Good training for the ear. Being able to anticpate chords changes more and more.Wahoo!

Been doing back up stuff in JD book and working on 2nd break of FMB.

Keep pickin'

Dave

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/14/2013:  21:49:46

An hour and a quarter tonight.  Usual routine: 15 minutes on each of the Cloud, David and Hatfield books and a half hour trying to keep pace on FM Special - not quite there yet.

Hey Sean, yes we had roast turkey this weekend with all the trimmings.  :-)  Very much enjoyed!

That's a nice song Eric. Are you going to play it in F on the banjo, or are you thinking of playing it in G?

Hey Andrew, I use Song Surgeon and I think it lives up to its promises very well.  I have ASD, but I haven't used it much, so I can't really weigh in on that product.  I really do like Song Surgeon though.

schlange - Posted - 10/15/2013:  10:00:24

Based on this thread I've contacted the Song Surgeon and ASD folks, and they're going to supply 3 review copies of each (I think) so the crack Banjo Hangout review squad can do a side by side review. Cool!

Re: the song, Nestor--not sure what key I'll do it in. F is a weird key for worship--I can't think of ever doing a song in that key. We do a lot in E and G... so it would probably be one of those.

55 minutes this morning, playing through songs and some backup stuff. Building up speed is sometimes a slow and frustrating process. 

polarbeardave - Posted - 10/15/2013:  17:09:46

Eric, Andrew, and Nestor,

For the low-tech computer person that I am, can you explain what Song Surgeon and ASD are and how you use them. I'm curious about them.

Thanks

schlange - Posted - 10/15/2013:  17:17:43

Song Surgeon and ASD let you slow down song files and/or change their pitch. So you can download an MP3 to your computer (or pop a CD into your computer) and change the song's speed or pitch, which is a handy thing to do when you're trying to play along or learn a part. Kind of like how Pat Cloud used to press his hand on the turntable to slow down the records so he could hear what Scruggs was doing (but this keep the pitch the same even when you slow it down!)

swamplunker - Posted - 10/15/2013:  23:25:54

45 minutes tonight, still working on my 3-key arrangement of Arkansas Traveler, only have the D-part well in hand, I wont be documenting for a few days as I'm going up to Magfest near the Georgia line, unfortunately also low-tech as Dave said he is, no hand-held computers or anything like that, but I can write down a couple practice details and anything else of interest, and I'm bringin' the instruments so I will practice. See y'all soon.

schlange - Posted - 10/16/2013:  08:44:48

65 minutes today. Played through my song list, then worked on Salt River (from the Murphy Method DVD 2).

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/16/2013:  10:03:46

I had a busy day/evening yesterday, so I only logged about 45 minutes: 20 minutes on a melodic scale exercise (which sounds really cool when I get it - I'm just not consistent yet), and practicing tunes (FM Special and a Kruger Brothers tune called Night Sky).

I'm looking at my calendar and I see we have been doing this for a month now. 

schlange - Posted - 10/16/2013:  10:46:50

Yup, today is the one month mark!

I'm going to continue doing this thru the end of the year--that's my next commitment :-) What do you guys think? If you want to keep doing it let me know. I may ask if a few other folks want to join the group thru the end of the year, depending on how many we have who want to keep doing it. I think 4-5 folks posting regularly is a good amount.

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/17/2013:  21:15:33

I had another busy day and evening yesterday, so no real practice logged, but I did play for a bit.

Today was better. I logged an hour and a quarter, with the usual routine: 15 minutes each on scales, backup and ear training, plus a half hour on tunes.

The last couple of nights notwithstanding, this thread has been keeping me on track with practice, so I'll stay on.

schlange - Posted - 10/17/2013:  21:39:41

Delayed practice until tonight.... got in about 40 minutes. Finished learning the parts to Murphy Method's Salt River--just gotta keep playing it now to get the phrasing down.

schlange - Posted - 10/19/2013:  12:01:32

I'm staying on the coast this weekend, leading worship music for a retreat. This means i get some extra banjo practicing in! About 45 minutes last night, and an hour this morning. Finally got "Salt River" down with the phrasing and all--now I can add it to my list of songs that I just need to play through more and more to build up speed. (I've added 5 songs to that list in the last month, so that's good!)

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/21/2013:  20:42:20

 Limited practice this past weekend.  Saturday I worked on scales for 20 minutes and then I worked on figuring out the chords for Night Sky, so I count that as ear training, and also worked on the tune.  That lasted about 1.5 hours.

Sunday, I read ahead in the Hatfield book about 10 pages.  I'm going to have to review that material with an instrument in my hands, so I can hear it.

Didn't have a chance to practice today.  Tomorrow I should be able to get in an hour.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/21/2013:  21:43:36

Just got back today, had no internet until I called to see what was wrong, apparently these things have all the sophistication of a rusty hinge, they quit working when you quit using them, learned the unplug -the -modem-for-a-moment trick, anyway I like doing this if for no other reason than it makes me practice, additionally, I get to see how other folks are approaching "the five". Being at a festival makes me a little more erratic, I sat on my pickup tailgate for about three hours Friday, went over my memorized set ---brought books, didn't use 'em-- My friend Dave was also there so we got Arkansas Traveler pretty good, showed him the key change idea, suffice it to say we do well so far in D. But the rest of the time, it was more like jamming in circles rather than a sit-down, specific objective type of practice. Just now did about 45 minutes in Janet Davis' Bluegrass Melodic style book, no metronome(!), have to start using it again tomorrow, see if anything "clicks".....

schlange - Posted - 10/21/2013:  21:50:31

About an hour and 15 tonight. Started working on the high break for FMB. Getting that choke to sound good will be a fun challenge that just might drive my ears crazy!

schlange - Posted - 10/22/2013:  09:43:57

45 minutes today. Worked on a couple basic tunes from another Murphy Method video I have, and worked on the tunes I'm learning.

picker51 - Posted - 10/22/2013:  12:32:02

My banjo is back together and ready to go thanks to Richie Dotson at Acoustic Box.com for doing a great job on my frets. Practiced 2 hours today. Basic stuff and then worked on Foggy Mountain Chimes with the tuners and chimes.

swamplunker - Posted - 10/22/2013:  20:19:59

75 minutes today, mostly going through Janet Davis' melodic book, working on Bluegrass vs. Melodic versions of Sally Goodin, also went through some of the exercises in the Ross Nickerson book, and got the metronome out for Cumberland Gap, Wildwood Flower, and Arkansas Traveler. Routine re-established.

winnipegbanjoman - Posted - 10/23/2013:  21:29:23

45 minutes last night - scales and tunes - FM Special and Night Sky.  Today I spent a couple of hours exclusively on those two tunes. I tried recording myself, and that sure brought my mistakes to fore.  I'll try recording again this weekend.

Messed around with RealBand tonight to create a backup track for FM Special. It is such a cool program.