Joe03 - Posted - 04/27/2025:  14:01:37

Novice here, I practice 2 finger and I wee bit of claw hammer and only when time allows. Only been at it a couple months.

I practiced today and it was great, all the way through my practice session without a mistake…I was a happy camper.

Now, I practiced yesterday after work and I couldn’t do a darn thing right. It took me 3 times as long to get through my practice session I have set up for myself and I was downright discouraged. Right hand and left hand.

You all think this just the learning process, does happen to others? I wondering if a time will come when all just goes right, maybe a bloop now and then but for the most part right.

Anyway, thanks. Joe

Texasbanjo - Posted - 04/27/2025:  14:04:18

Perfectly normal, whether you're a beginner or advanced. Happens to everyone. My practice today was terrible. Couldn't seem to do anything right. Yesterday was great, no problem, sailed through all my tunes with no problem at all. It comes and goes.

Joe03 - Posted - 04/27/2025:  14:08:08

Maybe being new it’s a bit more disappointing.. Anyway, I’ll just keep rambling on. Thanks

jdeluke137 - Posted - 04/27/2025:  14:29:57

Good days and bas days are normal. What’s important is to practice every day no matter how it goes.

Wayne2001 - Posted - 04/27/2025:  14:30:52

Sherry is right. Somedays you can play everything mistake free and other days it is hard to find the right note. You can expect those days to happen so don't let them get you down.

Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 04/27/2025:  15:35:24

I agree with Sherry. I've been playing more than twenty years and there's the occasional day but, the more experienced and regular your practice, the rarer these days are.



I will add that sometimes you can be plateau-ing. If you find yourself hitting one thing too hard or too frequently that you stop progressing or worse, erring more, you may need to step away for a little bit and focus on something else.

Edited by - Nic Pennsylvania on 04/27/2025 15:36:21

Joe03 - Posted - 04/27/2025:  16:16:42

Thanks all, I kinda figured it would be like this, but hearing from the experienced ,,,,, it helps.
Joe

NNYJoe - Posted - 04/28/2025:  02:33:15

Good days & bad days, eh?
That’s not exclusive to music.

Are your expectations to be perfect every day?
That’s only human nature.

Screwing up more than being perfect?
That’s just reality.

As long as you’re having fun, the rest will take care of itself.

Bob Buckingham - Posted - 04/28/2025:  03:46:32

Play with your banjo. Have fun. Life is too short. I know a fellow who loves the way he plays banjo and it doesn't sound bad, just unorthodox. Nothing wrong with that if you don't want to play in a band. Mike Seeger and Art Rosenbaum collected, tabbed, learned and published some mighty unorthodox banjo that they collected from true folk musicians who were just people like you and me.

Joe03 - Posted - 04/28/2025:  04:53:38

I like the thought of just have fun.
Thanks all. Joe

jsinjin - Posted - 04/28/2025:  05:20:30

I find that yes there are days where it is absolutely on point and days where I feel like nothing aligns. And I’ve watched my son for years in his running (college athlete) have the exact same thing happen for his practice.

First, to quote the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, “is is unwise to seek prominence in a field whose routine chores you do not enjoy”, not everything about an activity will be inspiring and synched up as though improvements will somehow just roll in. A lot of the development is routine. This also means that major advancements will occur less than routine slight changes. The key to almost every success in a field is long term commitment to the boring parts. This means commitment to the parts that feel like no success is occurring at all.

But if you don’t enjoy it, it’s unwise to keep doing the activity.

Rusty - Posted - 04/28/2025:  08:21:26

I play a tune slightly different each time, they are not mistakes, it is folk music. Any good teacher will tell you the same thing. It is folk music, find your voice with each tune while preserving the melody.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 04/28/2025:  14:46:07

I've been at it closer to 60 years than 50.  I don't "practice" as much as I get the banjo out and just play.  After all of this time I still make the occasional stumble.

I'm guessing you're still working on repertoire and technique. So... If folks like me still make the occasional bobble on tunes they've been playing for over half a century, don't let a  "bad day" now and then get you down.

As you continue on, one secret is to play through your mistakes-  that is, don't lose the timing or stop playing.  Just keep going until you can get back on track.

Joe03 - Posted - 04/29/2025:  04:31:40

Good advice. Thanks

Nic Pennsylvania - Posted - 04/29/2025:  05:09:08

Last thing I'll add...

I once heard Bob Brozman say, "if you don't make a mistake, you're not trying hard enough".

I thought this was good advice. If you're always trying new things, even in a tune you've been playing for ages, you're bound to do something you're not 100% about. But, if you never make a mistake, you're likely playing it too safe.

It's a phrase I say to students all the time.

Owen - Posted - 04/29/2025:  06:14:09

'Way back I had a construction boss who expressed ^^ as: "He that ain't made a mistake ain't made ****-all!"

Having said that, for me the band between what some refer to as "good" days and "bad" days is much narrower than I gather from ^^ posts.  For me it's more like borderline crappy and not quite so borderline crappy.

Tongue-in-cheek Rusty, does "preserve the melody" come before or after I find / figure it out?  

P.S. None of that ^^ is a plea for referral to a method / teacher/ program / book ... just some C'est la vie! stuff that's come to mind.

SatCotM - Posted - 05/03/2025:  07:57:57

My "solution" for bad days in music is to drop the formal practice for that day and just do something, anything with the instrument. Usually finding a tuning I feel like playing in and just improvising at a relaxed pace for 20-30 minutes, playing around with a song I'm comfortable with. Then switch to another song or tuning and repeat.

This won't directly refine any of the tunes you're working on, but it helps with the frustration and I end up finding most of my best riffs this way.

Joe03 - Posted - 05/04/2025:  11:09:05

My practice days have been going great…. Until yesterday.
Just had to put her back in the case.

dfstd - Posted - 05/05/2025:  06:13:03

Happens to most people. When I'm playing badly, I change what I planned to work on and play music that's simpler, easier, slower. I keep dialing it back until I can play correctly. Then I try to gradually bring it back to where I hoped to be, but go no further than a point when the mistakes start creeping in again. I think it's helpful to learn how to adjust on the bad days and fix what's wrong, even if just a little bit.

Joe03 - Posted - 06/11/2025:  11:13:54

Well practice has been going well lately so I decided after practicing 2 finger I would visit the world of clawhammer. I had such a hard time I gave up. So today after my 2F I tried again and wala, clawhammer went great. I always had a tough time with striking the single strings but today, could do no wrong with that. What the heck gives? I sure don’t know. Anywho it’s a step forward.

wrench13 - Posted - 06/11/2025:  12:03:38

What works for me, after 50 or so years of BG music:

. Keep practice sessions short, say 15 min or so, as opposed to just playing thru tunes for funnzies.

. Dont practice mistakes

. Segregate the section giving you issues and just work on that.

cow_tools - Posted - 06/11/2025:  12:49:29

Progress isn't linear, and this has been true for any endeavor in my life from fitness to education to banjo playing. Think of it like a stock market chart, it has peaks and valleys, but with persistence over time will trend upwards.

Joe03 - Posted - 06/11/2025:  13:57:19

Yes, but so nice when you hit those peaks.

Rusty - Posted - 06/12/2025:  06:29:10

Here is my perspective, playing and practicing are two different things and both are important. I practice working on problem areas on tunes or techniques. I play for enjoyment, if you make a mistake, you play through it. Perfection is a black hole, no one plays a tune the same way each time and no one plays it perfectly, it is folk music.
Once I understood this I enjoyed making music a whole lot more.

Dan Gellert - Posted - 06/18/2025:  11:53:16

No matter how long you've played, or how good your chops get, everybody has times when it feels effortless, and others when it's a struggle.

If you think you made it through a whole practice session (or one whole tune!) without making any mistakes, you weren't listening intently enough.

If you're actually trying to make music (as opposed to just playing all the right notes), your ability to understand what you hear is growing right along with your developing technique and repertoire. If you think your playing has regressed, consider the possibility that your ears have outpaced your hands and are just showing you how to make your playing more musical.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 06/18/2025:  15:34:23

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Gellert

 If you think your playing has regressed, consider the possibility that your ears have outpaced your hands and are just showing you how to make your playing more musical.

---

Dan makes a good point.

I've found that an improvement in playing skill is always preceded by an improvement in listening skill.  Until you've become aware of more nuances in the music (through improved listening), you can 't begin to implement them in your own playing.  That's why listen, listen, listen.

Joe03 - Posted - 06/18/2025:  15:44:11

I know no one is perfect, well maybe my wife thinks so, and mistakes are made. I like the fact many have stated just play through them, as I usually stop and start over.
Well on the good side my right hand I functioning on its own and letting me concentrate on my left… yeah.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 06/19/2025:  14:30:56

The advice I have given for years ad nauseum is play no faster than you can without mistakes.

It is one thing to make the occasional bobble, but "practicing" mistakes programs them into muscle memory.