jsinjin - Posted - 07/26/2025:  08:29:07

I have learned that the songs I enjoy have the “reel” or “jig” style to them. The patterns of chords are timing reproducible and the songs don’t have much in the way of “free” playing which I am terrible at. I can memorize the song because the pattern typically repeats which makes it easier on my amusia to memorize note for note.

If I listen to myself play with a recording and compare the song to another recording (an example is highlanders farewell) my version accentuates what I would call the wrong notes. Somehow the person playing the song who has more experience than I do seems to accentuate the loudness of certain notes while my version is either flat or I have to guess what notes to make louder to softer or with more sustain.

A tough problem I have is that I can’t remember how a song sounds from listening to it. It’s like it just evaporates in my head. I compensate for that by literally memorizing every note fret and finger position. But it’s very hard to convert what someone’s playing into loud and soft and the way the song plays to make it sound like what a reel should sound like. I find myself having to guess and just try “maybe this upcoming note of C as the bum on that upcoming ditty should be louder”

Before everyone says to just listen more I have a very rare but diagnosed condition called amusia. It makes me sort of ignore music. I can’t hum popular songs like happy birthday or twinkle twinkle little star. Listening to a song and hearing it doesn’t help me very much. I have to convert songs not by note into my notebooks and a special tab that I write to help me play like one would play piano and I literally memorize every note in a song. But this concept of loud soft is new in what I’m trying to learn and it’s a totally different feel to the music.

Any thoughts?

heavy5 - Posted - 07/26/2025:  10:47:51

Lots of headphones that record & play back out there ?

gbisignani - Posted - 07/26/2025:  14:35:14

I am familiar with evaporation !!!

clackyfingers - Posted - 07/26/2025:  15:03:34

Difficult to say, given that I don't know exactly how your experience of music is, but if you are transcribing the songs in a notebook, then you might be able to add some symbol of volume. Maybe a contour line for the volumes of notes in each phrase.

Also, I think it's likely that the notes you want to emphasize would be the melody notes, and so you might benefit from learning how to do just that melodic line with no ornamentation, so that you know which to hit harder on when you are playing the whole thing. This is how I first picked it up.

One last thing that might help is learning the general patterns of rhythmic emphasis for the song you are playing. You might be able to find out more about the pattern they follow, and this can tell you which notes you might want to emphasize within a count, like one, TWO, three, FFOOUURR, if that makes sense.

I'm a very low-level musician, so I'm no expert and might be wrong about some of these ideas being legitimate, but I hope they help you.

Best of luck.

Robert BB - Posted - 07/27/2025:  05:25:24

Most players have a preferred finger with which they play the melody. When such a player writes a tablature, they usually place the melody notes on that finger. That's how I do it, too. From this, you could deduce that certain tablatures are played more with the index finger and others more with the thumb.

My tip is: delete the unnecessary notes from the first few bars – usually everything with 0 – and pay attention to the pattern of the melody. If it is often played with the same finger, you could emphasize it. It is also usually good to emphasize the chord change. I often emphasize the first beat in the new bar.

Good luck with practicing!

jsinjin - Posted - 07/27/2025:  05:51:04

I’m unsure about the finger. In the way my teacher taught clawhammer I use only my middle finger and then thumb for either fifth string or drop thumb. About 40 percent of the notes played are with my middle finger. Then about 30 percent with my thumb as either fifth string or drop thumb and the remaining 30 percent are hammer on pull off or slides etc.

Owen - Posted - 07/27/2025:  10:48:33

Are your "songs" songs that you sing?   Or would it matter?

jsinjin - Posted - 07/27/2025:  11:03:10

No. There aren’t any words at least not in the ones I like. An example of what I’m learning now is highlanders farewell

m.youtube.com/watch?v=J9zfeIxF...lcg%3D%3D

I can play it all the way through end to end now but when I listen to the first measure or part 1 or the a part by this guy and I listen to myself play going back and forth between the two, his is “bouncier”. That’s sort of the way I describe it. My version moves like a bulldozer going at one speed and his kind of bounces along up and down louder and softer. And I can’t try to make certain notes louder or softer or longer or shorter but it’s kind of random guesses that I’m trying to do. I don’t know if it sounds good or not but I don’t think it does.

Robert BB - Posted - 07/27/2025:  12:36:35

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

I’m unsure about the finger. In the way my teacher taught clawhammer I use only my middle finger and then thumb for either fifth string or drop thumb. About 40 percent of the notes played are with my middle finger. Then about 30 percent with my thumb as either fifth string or drop thumb and the remaining 30 percent are hammer on pull off or slides etc.

---

Sorry, I didn’t really understand your post. My tip is not suitable for clawhammer. Unfortunately, my knowledge about clawhammer is about -0.2%.

banjopaolo - Posted - 07/27/2025:  14:54:24

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

No. There aren’t any words at least not in the ones I like. An example of what I’m learning now is highlanders farewell



m.youtube.com/watch?v=J9zfeIxF...lcg%3D%3D



I can play it all the way through end to end now but when I listen to the first measure or part 1 or the a part by this guy and I listen to myself play going back and forth between the two, his is “bouncier”. That’s sort of the way I describe it. My version moves like a bulldozer going at one speed and his kind of bounces along up and down louder and softer. And I can’t try to make certain notes louder or softer or longer or shorter but it’s kind of random guesses that I’m trying to do. I don’t know if it sounds good or not but I don’t think it does.

---

I don't understand exactly which is your problem (maybe also because I'm not English speaking) but maybe this piece is too difficult for your level? It is a great piece of course, very nice tune lovely played (I don't know this banjoist but he's really good!) but it is not easy at all! 

jsinjin - Posted - 07/27/2025:  15:23:02

I can play it. And many other songs. It’s not the song that the specific problem. When I play it’s quite boring. I can play the song through each note is about the same speed and loudness as every other note. I guess like a computer would play.

I have a lot of trouble knowing what notes in a given song are the loud vs soft to make the song sound happier or more up and down. Mine sounds like a computer playing each note the same.

In piano there are accent marks and areas of loud and soft but the songs I’ve been taught by my teacher in banjo are not tablature supported. Even with tablature, banjo doesn’t show much in the way of accentuation or loud vs soft. I guess one way is just to listen tot he song and write down the parts that are loud and soft in my transcription. I was just curious if there is a way to know for a song what the loud and soft notes from the type. Like a waltz accentuates the third note or something like that.

adamINmn - Posted - 07/27/2025:  20:43:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

I can play it. And many other songs. It’s not the song that the specific problem. When I play it’s quite boring. I can play the song through each note is about the same speed and loudness as every other note. I guess like a computer would play.



I have a lot of trouble knowing what notes in a given song are the loud vs soft to make the song sound happier or more up and down. Mine sounds like a computer playing each note the same.



In piano there are accent marks and areas of loud and soft but the songs I’ve been taught by my teacher in banjo are not tablature supported. Even with tablature, banjo doesn’t show much in the way of accentuation or loud vs soft. I guess one way is just to listen tot he song and write down the parts that are loud and soft in my transcription. I was just curious if there is a way to know for a song what the loud and soft notes from the type. Like a waltz accentuates the third note or something like that.

---

You may want to read about "dynamics" which are essentially visual instructions written out in sheet music to tell the player exactly how loud to play certain sections or notes. I am also relatively new to claw hammer banjo and have never seen dynamic notation in the tabs I play. But you may be able to use some of these concepts or even alter them in a way that makes sense to you. Here is a basic Wikipedia article that talks about dynamics: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics_(music)

Wobba - Posted - 07/28/2025:  19:40:06

Jsinjin, the point of playing is not to play exactly like someone else but to discover your own style. Accentuate whichever notes sounds good to you. If it doesn't sound good for another player that doesn't matter. That it sounds good for you is the important thing. Similarly swing in the playing, you can try to do that your own way. That makes the music your music.

Robert BB - Posted - 07/29/2025:  03:41:55

An alternative approach might be helpful.
In most songs, the accentuation depends on the lyrics.
Try singing along with the original lyrics or even with some lyrics you make up yourself.
This has the advantage that you can emphasize whatever seems important to you in the text.

carlb - Posted - 07/29/2025:  03:53:49

Since I mostly use sound recordings to learn tunes, when I feel comfortable with what I end up playing, I playing along with the original recording. It's not that I play note for note with the original, but it should fit together in character.

dbrooks - Posted - 07/29/2025:  15:02:25

I think we all struggled with finding the melody to tunes and how best to play them on the fretboard, but I doubt many of us have wrestled with amusia. Our experience may offer little help to you without that knowledge. 

 

On the other hand, we have all struggled with getting the "sound" and flow that we want. We focused on learning the stroke and techniques. The swing and emphasis on melody notes usually come later. Part of that is discovering what WE want to sound like. That's where a lot of the joy of music comes from. I might suggest you continue to focus on technique and allow for the possibility that you will find the sound and rhythm that bring joy. You have done this to some degree with reels and jigs (most find jigs difficult in Clawhammer). I most enjoy playing waltzes. Give that a try.

 

David 

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 07/29/2025:  15:29:04

Carl's response above is the one that resonated most with me.
I have to admit I'm a bit puzzled by your amusia. It seems that if you can hear the difference between your playing and the recording of the tune you're trying to learn, you should be able to attempt some level of emulation.

My own experience with this challenge came when I was trying to learn Wade Ward's version of Mississippi Sawyer from Bruce Molsky's teaching on Peghead Nation. I struggled with getting the accent on the right beats. I went ahead and learned to play the tune in a rather flat and dull fashion by following the tab. Later when I got the tune "under my fingers", I played along with Molsky's track until I figured out the accent thing.

I don't know anything about amusia, but I hope this helps.

Hoosieroldtime - Posted - 07/30/2025:  18:29:01

I'll echo Jon's message. For me, the feel of a song comes long after learning the tabs. Once able to get a good clean note, it's super easy to not do that. Sometimes it feels right to make it clear, and other times it doesn't

jsinjin - Posted - 07/30/2025:  18:46:17

I can listen to a few bars of my playing and either overlap them or play the same three bars from a you tube. Mine sounds very flat and robotic. Now I admit that’s how I practice. I have to work pretty hard to memorize every note and fret and I wasn’t really accenting anything.

When I listen to the song being played by a better expert than me their music sounds lilting. Like a brook getting louder and softer.

When I play it, record it and olay it back it sounds like a different song especially when played right after each other. I have a really hard time with melody-picking out a melody in a song-but I assume the person playing highlanders farewell or “Polly put the kettle on” or something else that I’ve learned is accentuating the melody.

I honestly didn’t know what amusia was or that I had it until I started playing banjo and had a lot of trouble with different methods. I tested a thing on the brainjo website and it played two versions of songs like “twinkle twinkle little star” and I sort of guessed which one was right. They both sounded ok. The result was always “are you sure you were paying attention, you didn’t do better than random chance”

I read a bit more and got a test done at children’s medical center in Dallas where they have a Calgary test for amusia and I scored pretty low. I can’t remember songs or pick up a melody or drum out a tune and certainly can’t play by ear. I can’t even tell when chord changes occur. I can tell two different pitches right after each other but I’m hopelessly guessing from three or more choices or someone just playing one note. At one point during brainjo the instructor played a lick with the fingering hidden and everyone seemed to be able to play it. I was guessing “ok I have about 20 frets and 5 strings that’s nearly 100 choices for each note and I have no idea where to even start”.

I love practicing and really enjoy my banjo but the common methods of learning by playing. With others and hearing a songs format and joining in is hopeless for me. If it wasn’t for strict memorization I wouldn’t be able to even play a song I have played thousands of times “Polly/molly put the kettle on” as a melody or song. I just have the frets and strings and notes completely memorized from start to finish and I mumble each fret and note under my breath while playing.

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 07/30/2025:  20:06:32

Can you remember super common tunes like... say... Happy Birthday or Silent Night and hear them in your head?

jsinjin - Posted - 07/30/2025:  20:08:43

No I can’t. I can remember the words like a poem but I’ve neber been able to just sing songs. I always thought it was because I hadn’t taken choir or something. I can’t even hum a simple song. Again. I didn’t know this was even a thing. Turns out a small but real percentage of the population has this and fakes it with music their whole life.

Owen - Posted - 07/30/2025:  20:19:04

Calgary??  Montreal??  

Strictly for interest's sake, can you differentiate the difference in tone/pitch when a person speaks in either a scolding OR an endearing tone .... eg.  to a dog?

[Our daughter, SIL and family have had a dog for many years: he's now quite deaf.   My wife used to, and still greets him with a few pats and an endearing, "Oh Kirby, you're such a good dog, etc., etc."  Typically I'd follow, and still do, also in a fairly endearing voice as I administer a few pats, "Don't listen to her Kirby.  You're useless and ugly and good for nothing ... but other than that you're okay."   Regardless, Kirby seemed equally glad for the attention, or was happy to see us, or ???   I suspect it was the tone that mattered.]

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 07/30/2025:  20:25:40

Wow. I can't even begin to wrap my feeble brain around that!
I mean... How the heck can you actually play without audiating? That's incredible.
Hats off to you for being able to play at all!
I can clearly hear tunes in my head and I STILL struggle with dynamics and accents. I think everybody does to some extent but... yeah... Your like one of those dudes that climbs mountains even though they don't have legs!
Or maybe it's more like... you sit down at a word processor and hammer out a copy of War and Peace in a foriegn language with your eyes closed. I dunno...
That's wild!

Robert BB - Posted - 07/31/2025:  11:52:43

Dear John,
It took me a little while to understand how serious your difficulty is. I'm a music teacher in Germany, and I first had to do some research on the topic.
I understand that you're struggling to hear and reproduce pitch, melody, or rhythm accurately. But there are still ways to improve your playing and expressiveness.
Here’s a short guide to help you add more expression to your music:

Dynamics: Emphasize the first note of a phrase or measure – this creates tension.
Phrasing: Use small pauses or slight delays to make your playing feel more "alive" and breathing.
Technique: Add slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs to vary the tone and add movement.
Structure: Play the first repetition neutrally, then vary the second – like a musical call and response.

These four elements can help make your playing more expressive and interesting.

Take this line, for example:
Goin' up Cripple Creek (short pause), goin' in a run (pause).
Goin' up Cripple Creek (short pause) to have some fun. (pause)

Here’s a tip I like to use: get three markers – red, green, and blue.
Use red for accents, green for pauses or delays, and blue to underline slides, hammer-ons, and pull-offs.

That’s it from me for now – I hope this is a little help to get you started.

jsinjin - Posted - 07/31/2025:  12:14:32

quote:

---

Originally posted by Owen

Calgary??  Montreal??  

Strictly for interest's sake, can you differentiate the difference in tone/pitch when a person speaks in either a scolding OR an endearing tone .... eg.  to a dog?

[Our daughter, SIL and family have had a dog for many years: he's now quite deaf.   My wife used to, and still greets him with a few pats and an endearing, "Oh Kirby, you're such a good dog, etc., etc."  Typically I'd follow, and still do, also in a fairly endearing voice as I administer a few pats, "Don't listen to her Kirby.  You're useless and ugly and good for nothing ... but other than that you're okay."   Regardless, Kirby seemed equally glad for the attention, or was happy to see us, or ???   I suspect it was the tone that mattered.]

---

I tell my dog all the time "you're dumb, you're a moron" in the same voice as "you're such a good girl".  My wife says the same sorts of things to me.  I listen just as well as the dog does.

pinenut - Posted - 07/31/2025:  13:00:37

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert BB

An alternative approach might be helpful.

In most songs, the accentuation depends on the lyrics.

Try singing along with the original lyrics or even with some lyrics you make up yourself.

This has the advantage that you can emphasize whatever seems important to you in the text.

---

This has produced consistent results.  I learn to play the notes of the tune until I don't need to look at the tab and then use the spoken phrases to accentuate the notes.  It's mechanical and adequate...

note:  This method requires a good deal of time invested to find out if the tablature was legitimate or if I need to start the process over.

Dan Gellert - Posted - 08/01/2025:  16:24:25

I hate to be discouraging, but the truth is you will never be able to make music if you cannot perceive music.

If I were totally blind from birth, I could learn to move a pencil on a piece of paper so as to produce marks that most sighted people would recognize as, say, a face. That would not mean I had learned to draw. I'd just be doing a trick.

An absolutely essential part of learning any complex skill is sensory feedback, and continual refinement of how that feedback is perceived and understood. If you accept your diagnosis of amusia, and that the condition is not treatable, what are you doing here? Really. You seem sincere, but I can't get past the feeling that our collective leg is being pulled.

R.D. Lunceford - Posted - 08/01/2025:  21:33:50

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

If I listen to myself play with a recording and compare the song to another recording (an example is highlanders farewell) my version accentuates what I would call the wrong notes. Somehow the person playing the song who has more experience than I do seems to accentuate the loudness of certain notes while my version is either flat or I have to guess what notes to make louder to softer or with more sustain.

---

 

The fact that you can differentiate between sounding "right" and "wrong" means that you can hear the difference.  Maybe you're not as amusical as you think!



 

 

Robert BB - Posted - 08/01/2025:  22:57:17

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dan Gellert

I hate to be discouraging, but the truth is you will never be able to make music if you cannot perceive music.



If I were totally blind from birth, I could learn to move a pencil on a piece of paper so as to produce marks that most sighted people would recognize as, say, a face. That would not mean I had learned to draw. I'd just be doing a trick.



An absolutely essential part of learning any complex skill is sensory feedback, and continual refinement of how that feedback is perceived and understood. If you accept your diagnosis of amusia, and that the condition is not treatable, what are you doing here? Really. You seem sincere, but I can't get past the feeling that our collective leg is being pulled.

---

Sorry, but you seem to misunderstand the purpose of music.

By your logic, people with only one leg shouldn't walk, and those without a sense of taste shouldn't eat.

It's a pity that you can only see learning an instrument from your own limited perspective.

Dan Gellert - Posted - 08/02/2025:  12:49:08

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert BB

 

---

Sorry, but you seem to misunderstand the purpose of music.

By your logic, people with only one leg shouldn't walk, and those without a sense of taste shouldn't eat.

It's a pity that you can only see learning an instrument from your own limited perspective.

---

You did not read what I wrote.  I said "totally blind from birth", IOW without any access to visual information, even via memory.   An extension of my analogy might be that someone without a sense of taste ought not to be looking for a job as a cook, and if they've never had a sense of taste, I cannot understand why they'd want to study cooking.   To be missing a limb is a very different sort of disability from a sensory/processing deficit, and I cannot see any way that is relevant.

This is only tangentially about learning an instrument.  I was addressing jsinjin's statement that he'd been diagnosed with amusia.  Look that up.

Robert BB - Posted - 08/02/2025:  13:16:50

He wants to learn to cook simply because he enjoys it.
Let him study the recipes, and let his grandma be the one to taste the food.
Who are we to judge what others like to do in their free time?
Still, it was nice to hear a different opinion.

LyleK - Posted - 08/03/2025:  07:02:28

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

I read a bit more and got a test done at children’s medical center in Dallas where they have a Calgary test for amusia and I scored pretty low. I can’t remember songs or pick up a melody or drum out a tune and certainly can’t play by ear. I can’t even tell when chord changes occur. I can tell two different pitches right after each other but I’m hopelessly guessing from three or more choices or someone just playing one note. 

I love practicing and really enjoy my banjo but the common methods of learning by playing. With others and hearing a songs format and joining in is hopeless for me. If it wasn’t for strict memorization I wouldn’t be able to even play a song I have played thousands of times “Polly/molly put the kettle on” as a melody or song. I just have the frets and strings and notes completely memorized from start to finish and I mumble each fret and note under my breath while playing.

---

I'm thinking you took the "Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia" (MBEA) as I don't know of any Calgary test.  For those who are offering advice here, I strongly recommend first downloading the *.zip file at peretzlab.ca/online-test-mater...ial/mbea/.  It has a couple of *.pdfs of journal articles about the MBEA, a scoring sheet, instructions in French and English for listening to *.wav files, the *.wav files, and everything given in standard musical notation (no tabs here!).  Mostly the MBEA asks the individual being "tested" to listen to two midis in succession and determine whether they are the same or different.  I would suggest taking the tests.  For someone without amusia the tests will be "easy."  Amusia varies in severity and type, and for someone with strong amusia there is no "learning by ear."  Banjo players often refer to "muscle memory," but this is likely a combination of both putting your fingers in the right place and getting the "reward" of hearing the correct pattern of sounds.  For someone with strong amusia, "muscle memory" would be quite literal. 

Given all of this, if someone with amusia enjoys playing banjo, then go for it.  But as someone without amusia, I have no suggestions on how to proceed.

Edited by - LyleK on 08/03/2025 07:04:08

johnedallas - Posted - 08/03/2025:  12:34:27

quote:

---

Originally posted by jsinjin

A tough problem I have is that I can’t remember how a song sounds from listening to it. It’s like it just evaporates in my head. I compensate for that by literally memorizing every note fret and finger position. But it’s very hard to convert what someone’s playing into loud and soft and the way the song plays to make it sound like what a reel should sound like. 



Any thoughts?

---

Just one thought: do you have the capability to hear inflections in a person's speaking voice? Can you recognize whether they're speaking tranquily or excitedly? Can you hear the regular stressed/unstressed syllables in a poem when it is recited?

I ask this, because jigs and reels basically use speech patterns. Many Irish musicians use verbal patterns to define dance rhythms - for example, a jig sounds like "Diddeldy, daddeldy." Just emphasize the first syllable of each word, as in "Did-del-dy, dad-del-dy", and you've got the jig rhythm going. Then emphasize the notes that correspond to the "Did" and "Dad".

Or, if you're more mathematically minded, think of a jig as  a string of "One-and-a, two-and-a, one-and-a, two-and-a ..." Count as you play, and emphasize the numbers.

FWIW,

Cheers,

John

Owen - Posted - 08/03/2025:  15:13:22

 

---

Originally posted by jsinjin.

I tell my dog all the time "you're dumb, you're a moron" in the same voice as "you're such a good girl".  My wife says the same sorts of things to me.  I listen just as well as the dog does.

---

But if/when two significantly different tones/pitches/?? of voice are used, can you hear the difference?

pinenut - Posted - 08/04/2025:  10:59:15

quote:

---

Originally posted by Owen

 

---

Originally posted by jsinjin.

I tell my dog all the time "you're dumb, you're a moron" in the same voice as "you're such a good girl".  My wife says the same sorts of things to me.  I listen just as well as the dog does.

---

But if/when two significantly different tones/pitches/?? of voice are used, can you hear the difference?

---

Owen, I think he's gone; the account is locked.  I hope all is well.

Jsinjin  "This member has locked their account."

Owen - Posted - 08/04/2025:  13:35:45

Thanks; how come I never thought of that ^^ ??    

The conundrum reminds me of back when we taught on the remote reserves.  Kids, some of whom had had their hearing assessed as sub-par, could actually hear quite well ... even "hear" a teacher simply mouth a word.    At one point I was volunteer EAing in my wife's K/JK class while awaiting an opening more to my liking.  Typically she'd mark a kid's birthday with Happy Birthday and cupcakes.  On one occasion, as the time approached she mouthed "get the cupcakes" [from the staff room] across the room to me.  Instantly several kids took note of it and excitedly "spread the word" around the room.

But, possibly more on-topic, several years back when I began my second crack at singing in public,  though I could hear variation when others sang, all I could hear of my "singing" was a monotone. However, an accomplished singer/musician said that she could hear significant variation [and I highly doubt she was trying to pull the wool over my eyes... or ears].  I can now pick up a bit of variation in my voice, but still nothing to write home about.  Fwiw, I tend to see it as "where there's life, there's hope" rather than that I'm "eventually" getting it.  

Banjogirl8 - Posted - 08/20/2025:  14:25:02

Its hard to get a sense of what you are talking about without hearing what you mean. I know it took me a LONG time to get a sense of the rythm of clawhammer and the syncopation. Probably that's not it. If you know other clawhammer players or your teacher you might have them listen and see what they think. I gotta hand it to you for your perserverance with something that sounds really difficult.

plchacker - Posted - 09/07/2025:  00:28:08

There is a musical notation above the section of notes. p for piano (quiet) F for forte, loud. The entire range is pp, p, mp, mf, F, FF. M is for mezo, or mid. This is either in Italian or latin. I’m not sure which. Also, there are accent notes, ^ and < > indicate getting softer or louder. Decrescendo, and crescendo. You can stretch the angles over a passage that gradually fades or gets louder. Hope this helps.

jsinjin - Posted - 09/07/2025:  07:48:17

Thanks! I actually use music notation and sheet music to help me. I’ve been teaching myself music notation and transcribing both tablature and watching someone play and slowing it down to see the notes they play on each fret and string and converting that to sheet music. It’s been fascinating. It’s not that difficult for me and I enjoy it and I’ve gotten faster and faster.

For a lot of people, sitting with a group and playing by ear and trial and error is the best way to learn to play banjo. I truly picked this up as a way to only learn some understanding of how music works.

I didn’t realize that the style of clawhammer or bluegrass has a history and culture of learning from each other, playing together and sharing the songs and improvisations. I thought all music was a system that composers sat down to write and discuss harmonies or arpeggios or whatever according to a formula.