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The first time I heard a banjo play was a 30 second sketch on Sesame Street, with some rough animation behind it. I was very young, not even five years old, but it may have been the first time I really felt music affect me. It was another 35 years before I found out what that piece of music was. At some point in between I must have realised it was a banjo playing it.
That tune never left, it was always there somewhere in my mind. I played guitar. At one point got a mandolin. Eventually I accepted that I really wanted a banjo. So I started listening to banjo and researching banjos. I discovered that the style I wanted to play was called "clawhammer" (but I also found I really liked bluegrass). Before I got a banjo I'd joined the hangout here, read Old Woodchuck's rocket science banjo, and thought about what it all meant. I got my banjo on my 40th birthday, present from my wonderful wife. It's a Deering goodtime special openback, full gumby.
I started playing through some of the tunes in rocket science and the very first tune was the tune that had been haunting me for those years. Cripple creek. I learnt to play it until it was recognisable. But I had some unfinished business with the guitar, particularly with Dowland's Fantasia no. 7, so I put the banjo down and it was in danger for a while of going the way of the mandolin.
Then, nearly a year later, the wife sort of cracks it, says I never play her present. Yeah, ok, fair call. So I dust it off, and make another start. It all goes a bit better, and I build up a few tunes. By this time I'm really starting to enjoy playing the banjo. I build up more tunes and have even ventured into another tuning, double C.
Just learning from tab and Old Woodchuck's rocket science banjo. Here in Sydney clawhammer banjo is pretty uncommon. It happens here, I know because open back banjos are sold in music shops, but the fact is I've never seen another live person play clawhammer banjo, only on the internet. So there it is, my journey so far.
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