p1ss3d0ff - Posted - 03/19/2026:  07:51:41

Very pertinent topic! After playing bari sax in an amateur jazz band for about 20 years, I got interested in banjo and dobro. Found an old time learning jam. (No sheet music in old time jams; just listen, right?!)

After sort of getting up to speed, I too am frustrated by how little attention is given to performance style, dynamics, and the different rolls the assembled instruments play. Banjoists get little help, and dobro/acoustic lap steel guitar are, well you know, just for bluegrass or Hawaiian music.

I really like my jam. The people are friendly, much more so than the jazzers, whom I left. Yet I sense that while the fiddles are making progress, the rest of us are not taught or encouraged to move much beyond just “chunking out the chords.”

Mikey333 - Posted - 03/19/2026:  07:56:07

Im with you on that. Only after many, many times running through the tabs can I get the tune ingrained in my head, but once it is there, I can pick up the banjo and run through it flawlessly without even thinking about tabs. When learning, I dont quit until the flow and timing is just right.

earlstanleycrowe - Posted - 03/19/2026:  08:41:00

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Originally posted by p1ss3d0ff

 Yet I sense that while the fiddles are making progress, the rest of us are not taught or encouraged to move much beyond just “chunking out the chords.”

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I feel like "large-jam" old time is really only fun for the fiddles, which could be why there are more of them than anything else at the old-time jams I've been to.

Bluegrass, for all its faults, is based on the idea that no one instrument or voice is the star of the show the whole time. If done correctly most instruments will be playing in the background the vast majority of the time.

SebastianRogers - Posted - 03/25/2026:  09:18:25

I love jams. I love them when they are full of beginners and I love them when I am way in over my head with people who can actually play.

Problem is here in Kent they have open mics, and whilst these are fun especially if its a group of mates who have a couple of tunes well rehearsed, they don't have many jams.

So I started one.

However I've been that uncertain newbie hanging around the outside so the jam I run is a little different. First off anyone who turns up we ask them their name and say hello. Secondly we have a well practiced set of two and three chord songs complete with chord and lyric sheets lying around so people can get up to speed, we play a lot of the two chord songs. Thirdly everyone gets a break, people are probably tired of me saying if you can't pick a break just strum loudly and we'll all back off, I also make sure my breaks are very simple, and that at the end of everyones break I nod at them and smile.

Somethings working because there is a lot of smiling and laughing and by the end of the jam we'll be playing Folsom Prison Blues or Fireball Mail at a decent crack. I've had semi-professionals turn up, people who've only ever played medieval or early classical music, someone with a bass recorder, someone recovering from nerve damage, a person who'd picked up a guitar six weeks before hand, and they come back.

We often play the same song twice, or thrice, because someone will pipe up and say I think I'd like to try something out now I've heard it.

In terms of learning, and this is I think obvious, jams don't teach you technical stuff but they teach you something far more important how to listen and mesh with other players, how to be generous and appreciative, how to deal with imperfections and make them part of the whole.

So whilst playing with yourself is fun its always more fun playing with someone else.

EEB - Posted - 03/27/2026:  06:29:28

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Originally posted by jsinjin

I have really liked the comments in this feed. I literally play banjo like a computer. I memorize the songs note for note rarely getting the melody and certainly not recognizing the changes or subtlety. If I get better at flow and sound it’s only because I practiced that specific timing to sound more in the flow. I practice the song thousands of times until I can pick it up at any point in it like a recital for solo and ensemble that my kids used to do in middle school band. There is no way I could pick up a song simple or complex by just hearing parts of it and trying to adapt and certainly not in a group all trying to play. I simply think too much about what notes they are playing and what notes I should play.



When I listen to music and it’s only when I’m coding a set of things that are repetitive and boring I listen to Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninof and then only in the background quietly like rain.



But I’m very glad to learn there are a few people out there with similar or unique reasons they don’t like to play banjo in groups for pickup or have other ways to learn to play.

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Fascination works both ways. You've  widened my understanding of how the banjo can be enjoyed by folks who are drawn to different aspects of music.. Thank you.

Banjogirl8 - Posted - 04/02/2026:  15:15:10

I really liked your question. It sounds like your brain really just likes the process and details of learning in all the ways you've described. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. It also sounds like you are an introvert big time. I imagine well meaning suggestions for how you might like jamming don't make sense. I would think that you could find people on this sight to talk about all the ins and outs of three finger playing. There are probably plenty, introverted or extraverted.

Mikey333 - Posted - 04/02/2026:  18:56:41

I think you nailed it. I am definitely an introvert. I do not do well within any group, even if they are closely aligned with my interests. Whatever the setting I feel that I am being measured and others present are constantly deciding on my qualifications to even exist. I am in no way pushy or condescending, which is quickly picked up by everyone. They talk over me when I attempt to contribute to conversations. So, I avoid people except as it relates to those contacts I must involve myself with. My career was that of a cop and closeness to other cops was vastly important and easy. And the public heard me out of necessity. So what does that have to do with banjo playing? Everything in my case. I learned to play many years ago, and I always found a place where I could be alone. I figure that the music I make is mine and no concern to others, and no one has the authority to decide on its quality. I only play in the presence of friends if it is requested. Good grief, I did not intend to say that to you or anyone, but I feel better for it.

GS - Posted - 04/03/2026:  05:59:40

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Originally posted by SebastianRogers

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So whilst playing with yourself is fun its always more fun playing with someone else.

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Totally agree! Are we still talking about banjo?!?!