New Zealand looks a beautiful place. I have always wanted to visit there, but maybe some day.

I am planning on doing guitar workshops in Manchester, London and Edinburgh next year. My wife has always wanted to take a trip to Europe, and though it will be a working vacation, I won't be able to afford it otherwise. 

I haven't planned on a banjo workshop, because I am not sure if I would have enough attendance to book one. I have only done a few here, but that was before my Youtube page, so who knows. Most of my workshops are guitar or ukulele.

I would like to do some for banjo as well, and if I can ever make an excuse, Australia and New Zealand are high up on my lists for travel destinations. Photo journals do not lie. I look forward to the historical and architectural beauty of England and Scotland, but the natural beauty of New Zealand is something else. 

I'm glad the videos are useful, and hope to get more done this summer.  

I haven't got around to even finding out where the banjo players hang out here in Auckland, NZ, but I know there must be a few of them because banjos are selling like hot cakes. 

I haven't got around to even finding out where the banjo players hang out here in Auckland, NZ, but I know there must be a few of them because banjos are selling like hot cakes. 

I have seen a great influx of Skype banjo students coming from the U.K. for some reason as well. It is great to see 5 string pickers sprouting up all over the world.

Rob:

Just wanted to say thanks for all your video work.  You make learning the banjo easy and it's great to be able to go back and replay the video if I'm struggling with a certain section.  I'm not sure how you do it, but  this method seems to work for me.  Keep posting and I'll keep learning.  I may have to skype you for some lessons one of these days.  Teaching a left brained engineer to play banjo is challenging!  Foggy mtn is a bit much right now but I'm working my way through Old Joe Clark 1 day at a time and enjoying it.

regards and thanks,

Jim

I'm glad to hear it Jim. I have a lot of students who are lawyers, (many right brained) and a lot who are engineers; (left brained.)

I see that the lawyers are making analogies, looking for concepts and trying to get the big picture. The engineers are focusing on the minutia and not going on till they understand how every little bit fits in.

They both get to the same place somehow. I truly enjoy working with both types. It is funny that they understand their pre-dispositions before we begin and warn me. 

I'm glad the lessons are helpful.

This is a great tutorial. I've been working on it the last couple days. Awesome!

A U of M man? Hail to the Victors. 

In all of college sports, there is no finer fight song. The Victors is hands down, the finest ever written, with Notre Dame a distant second. Not many others are all that memorable. 

When The March King, John Phillip Sousa had retired from the Marine Corp. Marching Band, he was approached by many Ivy League colleges and offered a post as music director. He turned them all down and contacted Michigan, because he said that they had the finest fight song ever written, and he could not bear trying to compete with another band on the field with inferior music.

It unfortunately has not helped the football team as of late, but it is still my favorite too. I used to pick this on the banjo too.

Glad to help out Chewer. 

If you have a TAB for The Victors, that would be outstanding!!

Most of the U of M team likes Coca Cola I think.

I see you like Spam too. 

For the curious, we had a guy who was posting links to websites foe purchasing gold. It was removed.

I wonder if he took a hit yesterday? I had a friend that made hundreds of thousands on that over the last 5 or 6 years. I have never had the moolah to invest in the first place. It would have been smart.

When you have to play dueling banjos by yourself... :)

At least I wasn't swinging your Liberty around like that.

I did use it for the National Anthem at the Tigers game tonight, and it sounded great. We had 47,000 in attendance, and Justin Verlander struck out 14 players. It was a great game, and they gave us comp tickets as usual.

The Liberty definitely has a prewar ring to it.

That's very funny...what were you really carrying 2 banjo's for anyhow ? lol to much....

Dueling Banjos. :) Sometimes banjo and guitar sometimes two banjos.

http://youtu.be/Xi5XNC-fC0c

Arghhh.

My mom requested that one. I really can't pick at that angle and shouldn't even try. Just a party trick gone too far.

Remember when you did that Beatnik poetry reading gig and did "Dueling Bongos?" 

I picked 5 string a lot in the 70s. I hadn't played since 80 or 81, and I was offered a gig on a steamboat, entertaining. They wanted a dixieland banjo player, but my tenor playing wasn't great, so I got a 6 string. It actually worked out great for a solo act, because I could play bass lines over my chords. I could also play ragtime fingerstyle, as well as Django type rhythm and get that Louis Armstrong, Hot 5 sound.

I would always get some guy who had probably just had a 5 string laying around the closet saying, "Do they know you can't really play the banjo?"

I would explain, "I actually won 5 string contests back in the 70s, I just haven't had a 5 string since then." When they would look up in the air, I realized it would be better to let them think what they wanted to.

I was doing a workshop for Gretsch Guitars and Deering, (I was demonstrating 6 string) and one of the people asked if I played 5 string. They brought me the little Goodtime, and it was truthfully like riding a bicycle. The store gave me the banjo, and just told me to refer people to them for sales.

I took the banjo and threw it in the sea chest at the back of the boat, and when a wise guy would tease me about not playing banjo, I would ignore him, then go to the opposite deck from where he was and pick the 5 string. They would usually crane their necks to see over the railing.

I developed a repertoire with the 6 string that made it the perfect strolling instrument, because it was louder than any guitar, and very versatile. When I would entertain off the boat, I used to take the little Goodtime along, so I could field requests from every genre. I still do that wherever I'm asked to play.

It is goofy, but you are going to get requests from all around the block, and having two banjos makes it easy to fill the bill.

I do enjoy picking 5 string more, and have actually been practicing since borrowing Russ' Liberty again. I am doing a few videos before I give it back.

Nice!
Ive been struggling with getting the correct feel on traditional banjo songs. Ive played mostly rock guitar for the past 25yrs and have struggled with getting the correct timing for chord changes on bluegrass songs.

Last night I went through your series on Cripple Creek with amazing success!! Im so excited I just want to call into work today and watch the rest of your videos and play banjo! Dam life getting in the way of play! Lol.
Thank you!!!!
Dan

So glad I'm watching your videos!
I've been doing a lot of recording lately of my own songs, both on guitar and on banjo. But my wife went away for the weekend, and took with her the laptop with my recording software. So I decided to really study FMB this weekend.
I found another video on YouTube that was pretty good, and then I remembered seeing this thread. So now I've watched your first two, and they are excellent! I've been an English, reading, and journalism teacher for 16 years, and I appreciate your style as a teacher and as a musician.
I've been playing banjo for almost three years - mainly got it as an instrument I could add to the mix of my own acoustic music, and to accompany other local musicians who play in my style. And I can work my way around the melody and chords of FMB fairly well. But lately I've decided that I really want to learn how to pick properly, and I'm starting with your fine videos.

Rob,

I just wanted to say that I think all your banjo lessons are great!! I have looked extensively on the internet for lessons and I think yours are the best by far. I plan on getting a banjo this month and start as soon as I can. I've played guitar, bass and drums in bands that I've been in over the years and I am very excited to start banjo, it's such a cool instrument and sounds amazing. And I also wanted to say thank you for posting your banjo videos, I just can't understand why anyone would complain to you about not having tabs, your lessons are so much better they are perfect for the way I learn.

Thanks
Don

Dan, Chip and Don,

You are very welcome, and thank you. I have become overwhelmed by correspondence concerning tab. If I thought tab was as effective as what I am doing for the less experienced banjo player, I wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to isolate and cycle measure after measure of whole songs.

It takes forever, and lately, I have had trouble finding time for any of it. I get as much as 150 emails a day, and a lot of them are questions about my guitar, banjo or uke lessons, which I try to answer, but I have a lot of folk who almost demand tab, and are upset with me for giving them a teaser, and not delivering the goods.

Tab, is not "the goods." Learning to develop the ear is. It has been said often, that there is no difference in being spoon fed a tune by someone else note for note, and reading it with tab, and that is a great oversight. The truth is, a student who learns by tab, incorporates the eye, which is how people normally learn and retain. The ear is not exercised at all.

Musicians, learn in a different way. By ear. Even if that process is developed slowly, over years of learning tab, it eventually has to become all ear, or that person will not be able to arrange, improvise or just pick up and play a song they aren't familiar with.

I have found the fastest way to open up the ear is to get rid of all the visual aids. We use every sense we can when we're learning, and if the eye is cut off, the ear picks up the slack. Tab makes no sound until you play it. If the tab is showing you where to put your finger, the ear doesn't have to be involved, at all. Take away the tab, and all you have is direction. I don't use split screen close up shots, so people have to rely upon their ear, matching the note that I play to a certain extent. I cycle it over and over, so that after awhile, they can hear if it doesn't match up.

They also learn how to memorize this way. I had students when I was young that needed tab to play, even after practicing for a year or two. Isolation and repetition on a small segment is the trick. If you get used to slowing down a part and isolating it, repeating it, and gradually pick up the speed, the ear eventually reverses the process, and you are able to recognize faster patterns and instead of hearing a blur of notes, you hear patterns that make sense to your fingers.

And then you won't need tab anyway.

Dont sweat anyone bugging you for the tab. There is much more value in watching your lessons than can be gotten from reading tab (in my opinion). Obviously some people prefer to learn from tab, but if thats what they want there are plenty of other sources out there where they can get it. I actually learned guitar from tab back when I was 13, never having taken a lesson. After taking lessons on jazz and theory Ive learned more in the past 5 years then in the previous 15! I now look back on my first 15 years of playing as almost a complete waste of time. Sure I knew a bunch of songs but I didnt know what I was playing. Now of course sitting in front of a computer watching your videos isnt exactly the most ideal way for a day one beginner to learn either, but for an intermediate player who has proper technique and mechanics, it is perfect.

Just keep doing what your doing and dont give second thought to what others want you to do.
Thank you again!!!!
Dan

Hi, Rob: I just want to pass along a big thank you for this series of lessons. After playing banjo for a year, I finally decided to learn FMB and even though I read music and tab, your videos make it much easier to really get the feel of the tune.

Gratefully,

Donna