Posted by thecowpokepicker on Monday, May 31, 2010
Playing banjo is like a bottomless pit. You can go down deeper into the banjo, but you can't climb back out.
We all know banjo is an addicting, yet relitively difficult instrument. It must be addicting because it's difficult.
When I think of banjo, I imagine a bottomless pit. I imagine three kinds of going in to banjo.
Type 1: Careful Entrance. This type crawls down, making sure they can get back out if they don't like it. This is the explanation why some start playing banjo, then stop because they find somthing better or get bored. Whoever this is just wasn't meant to play banjo.
Type 2: The Dive. The beginner takes a running start, jumps in screaming, and enjoys the ride as they are sucked in deeper around the learning curves of the pit. Some scream harder than others, some wish they haven't have made the plunge. Some start with Type 1, then let go. Once you're in like this, there's no getting back out. You are sucked in forever and nothing will get in between you and your banjo.
Type 3: In-and-out. In this variation, the picker goes in and out to thier own heart's desire. Using some kind of 'cyber-rope', they are able to climb back out after The Dive and still be able to dive again and come out and so on. Some eventually stay, others ponder and then leave.
Sometimes the pit gives us other instruments with the banjo. For me, I got plenty of them, as well as keeping guitar that I started with. We meet other players on our journey down the pit. There is no bottom of the pit- we will never stop learning banjo. If someone does... It would be a sad day when they learned everything about everything on banjo (or other instruments).
There are different depths through the pit, yet someone that has just jumped can make contact with someone deep down in the pit.
So learning is a good thing. How'd you all get in the Pit? How deep are you? I think I did Method 2 and am somewhere near halfway down.
However we got here... I think it is impossible to forget our moment of jump-in. It was such a memorable experiance, wasn't it? I still remember mine. "Dang, how do ya play this thang?"
4 comments on “The Bottomless (Banjo) Pit”
banjosis Says:
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @3:55:06 AM
I think I'm a little bit of all 3. :) Good post!
sharakeet Says:
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @3:58:52 AM
Hugely grinning here Bailer, as this is a very interesting insight!
I NEVER tried Type 1, but I DID try Type 2, and quickly became a screamer...until I started feeling guilty about not really learning music theory the way "professionals" do...so then I turned into a Type 3 and started a collection of toys (piano, sax, guitar, didjeridoo) which I could never play well. So, having pondered the 'jo for oh so many years, I eventually got around to Type 4, the one where you get stuck near the psuedo bottom of the pit for the rest of your life, only to learn on a daily basis what you already perceived...there is no bottom! And you're in the middle of the heap? Well, welcome, young'un, and have a GREAT life with dem en-struments!
racer Says:
Tuesday, June 1, 2010 @4:06:25 AM
you have been blessed with a gift run with it i dont seem to have it everyday is a struggle for me i keep hopeing that one day i will pick it up and one song will come together i am hooked and cant let it go some one should give me a pill to put me out of my misery ron
Moonpie50 Says:
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 @8:01:54 PM
I found the same thing with the banjo. It was something that I clicked with rather easily. But can see that I will always be a perpetual student. But I think that this is a good thing. I can't seem to set the crazy thing down either.
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