Hi there!

OK now.

I finally decided to make it happen.
I want to play banjo good.
I started learning how to do that 3 times in my life and never succeeded.

I play classical and acoustic guitar since I was 14 but not banjo though.
I bought my first banjo probably in 1978. I always had a passion to country music and I just wanted to try to play something like that. Unfortunately those days I lived in Russia and nobody could teach me and no musical literature was available.

My first banjo was 4 strings “Musima” from Eastern Germany - the only one model available in Russia those days. I did not even know that Americans use 5 strings banjos to play their wonderful country. Everything american was restricted and it was really hard to find even the music itself.

So I tried to play 4 strings. I knew that it should be tuned as a violin – that was written in the manual. So I was able to figure out some cords but I did not have a company to play, because everybody was creasy about rock and heavy metal, but not country.

As a result my banjo was somewhere between other junk for about 20 years.

The second attempt was when internet popped up. I’ve read about Earl Scruggs and Bela Fleck. I found out some information about American banjo. It was 5 strings! And one string was short and thinnest one on the top! And there was a peg on the neck! Can you believe in that? But still this kind of instrument was unavailable.

Somewhere in 1997 I got the old version of GuitarPro. There were some scores of banjo music. So it was so close but I still could not play.

And I decided to rebuild my Muzima.

I came in repairs and ordered to change the fret board with the new one but about 3.5 mm wider on each side. Then I put the 5^th peg right in the middle of the head and made an extension for the peg head. The problem was that the neck peg was unavailable too, so I tricked the whole thing. Then I did a hole in the neck by the 5^th fret and glued the nut in. And finally I made a small aluminum capo for one string only screwed to that nut and got 5 strings Russian made monster-banjo, which actually still works but has a really short neck.

So little by little I started playing some stuff that was between those Guitar Pro examples and some tabs from the internet, but I did not have enough time because I actually was preparing to immigration.

In 2001 right after September 11 I immigrated to Canada. I could bring only one musical instrument in the plain with me and that was my guitar, so my monster-banjo was disassembled in my baggage. As a result I got arrested twice. Once in Moscow and once in Toronto. The reason was the same. When police officers scanned my luggage, they saw something made of metal, really round and having screws all around. That looked like a bomb or something.

Then I was busy with English language, looking for the job and stuff.

Now, after 10 years in Canada I’ve got everything I wanted. I even have lots of time. I started playing banjo again. I’m kind of unique guy – the only one Russian who actually plays banjo in GTA. Some Russian friends even invited me to play with them in a group and we actually played at some festivals.

My monster is pissed off and sad resting on the wall now. I bought Recording King RK-R80 recently and it makes the sound that I was waiting for all my life. And I want to play really good. I want to learn how to play properly. I want to find Canadians who don’t have the allergy to my accent and let me play with them. I want to play its majesty COUNTRY.

And that’s why I’m here.

I'm looking for new friends who wants to learn and jam together. Just to have fun and some beer.

Thanks to everyone who’ve read this silly text this far.