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Rocket Science Banjo News Views and Videws to say nothing of articles and audios - The Clawhammerer's Free Resourc.

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This is a new file drawer for all the various RSB related material that will not fit on http://www.rocketsciencebanjo.com

151 Members, Created 1/6/2012 -

Administrators: oldwoodchuckb (owner)

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From MajArcher on 1/12/2012 6:51:36 PM

Thanks for inviting me! I am a beginner and trying to find my way. A little confused about something. In your book you say

"Rocket Science Banjo is a supplemental method. Do not use it exclusively. If you are just starting out on the banjo I highly recommend Ken Perlman’s “Clawhammer Style Banjo” which is the best single method I know."

I just picked up that book and his DVD's and downloaded RSB at the same time. Should I try doing both at the same time? Yours first? His first?

I don't have the time for one on one lessons right now, though there is a great guy in my area. Any help to get me going in the right direction would be appreciated.

2 Comments
	oldwoodchuckb says: 1/12/2012 10:22:59 PM That is indeed somethign I should cover better in the introduction. I recommend most people start with the RSB chapter titled "Basic Strokes", doing just the basic strokes until they start to feel natural. While doing this physical practice, I recommend reading the entire book through, cover to cover, like a novel - just skip the parts that are all technical.. Also while you are in this stage get your main book out (Perlman, Levenson or others) and read it through too, or start looking for a local teacher, or start hanging out in places (like jams) where you can meet other banjo players and find what I call casual teachers. Worst that can happen is you meet new friends. Once you have the RSB basics going relatively smoothly then I suggest starting on your Perlman or other book, or your teacher, right from the first lesson. You can use the tunes in RSB as you come across tunes in your main book of a similar difficulty level, as all the tunes are graded by difficulty in RSB. I cannot exactly correlate them to other books but you can sort that out as you go. If you want to get into more singing you might go to the RSB Chapter 11 by the time you are about 40-50 pages into Perlman, or when you feel you are ready for the material no matter where you are in your main studies. Chapter 4 of RSB is the advanced techniques section, and it is best to check out what RSB says on those techniques as you are reading about them in your main book. RSB has variations, and a different take on learning them. I don't see learning a musical instrument as a straight course type of action. It is not like Geometry, where you start with a few "givens" and build a whole world from them. You will always be interested in exploring the side roads and differing styles in teaching, and many learning materials. Your path will be anything but a straight line over time.
	jorta says: 1/13/2012 5:03:31 AM Hello Tony! I had a close friend just pick up a Zeppified Goodtime as a Christmas present based upon my recommendation. I just wrote this email to him minutes before signing on to this site. He had the exact same question as MajArcher - but I see from the Avatar, it's not the same person. Instead of cluttering up your blog with what I wrote to him - what the email won't show is that in our previous correspondence, RSB is the place I sent him to get started. Let me see if I can link to it --- OK, I don't know how that works. It looks like I linked it to this blog. Let me know if it's fussing things up.
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