Building speed?

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Two Finger Pickers

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For the eclectic banjo player who counts 2-finger styles among their tools of the trade.

515 Members, Created 1/31/2011 -

Administrators: stigandr5 (owner) , Marc Nerenberg , revellfa

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From tucsonsean on 1/30/2017 8:42:42 AM

I've played clawhammer for 25+ years, and just recently started to try two-finger style (I've fingerpicked two-finger on guitar even longer than I've played clawhammer on banjo). Anyway, I worked out a TFIL version of "Girl I Left Behind Me" (a lot like John Hartford's on YouTube) in double-C tuning, but no matter how often I play it, I can't seem to play it up to speed. I know: practice, practice, practice. But how long should it take? I've been working on this for a couple months, off and on, already.

4 Comments
	Picking Dick says: 1/30/2017 8:47:58 AM Well, i hear ya. Learnin' takes a long time, especially when you're an old geezer like me. I guess all ya can do is keep hammering away at it. That's what i'm doing with my banjoin'.
	vic rawlings says: 1/30/2017 9:25:06 AM Please forgive the horror of my teacher talk here, but I can't resist-- There's a very common misconception that playing something a lot of times will translate to progress. This is not the best measure, though. To make the best use of practice time, you actually gotta get it right (no flim-flam) when you're practicing- that's the trick. The trick to that trick is choosing your battles- find things to play you can successfully execute. Usually this means working on fundamentals, playing short 4- and 8-beat loops from a new piece, or just simply slowing down a bit. Most people start at a safe tempo and then speed up and crash- it's common- I do it when I'm not paying attention- Big picture: playing a piece in its entirety hundreds or thousands of times is not the key. The key is getting the technique clean and hitting it clearly. Do that for a couple of months and I bet you'll be steadily nailing it. Work smart and you'll get it- some say dig the hole in the right place---
	chip arnold says: 1/30/2017 12:32:57 PM 2-finger, Index lead is much like clawhammer. Just pick up, instead of down. there are many variations, but that is the basis. Try playing a tune you are comfortable with in clawhammer style. Do the right hand exactly as you do in c'hammer only pick up with your index, instead of down.
	MountainBanjo says: 2/1/2017 6:56:36 AM I've been playing clawhammer for 10 years, although I never got very good at it primarily because I'm impatient and want to play up to speed before I'm ready. Over the last few years I've spent most of my banjo time (which isn't much) on oldtime 2 and 3 finger styles, with similar but slightly better results. Then last summer I decided I was going to learn to play and sing a Dock Boggs song AND play it right, taking as much time as necessary to play without mistakes and building speed slowly. That was about 6 months ago and I'm almost there. YMMV; not everyone will be as slow (or as fast lol) as me.
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