You are all welcome.

I haven't been here in some time. I have been swamped with a lot of guitar sessions, as well as workshops, lessons and a lot of shows lately; More than I like to do actually. I wish I was getting rich for all of the work I'm doing, but that is unfortunately not the case.

I am changing the head on my buddy Russ' banjo, and will make a few quick vids and take it back to him soon, so I hope to have some more videos coming around the corner.

Thanks, Rob. Your Cripple Creek series has been such an inspiration and I look forward to more from you. If you haven't already, you should think about setting up a PayPal account so we can reward your excellence in instruction as is appropriate.

Thank you for the offer. I get a lot of people asking if they can send money, but the truth is, I wanted to make these lessons for free. There are a lot of folks who can't afford private lessons today, and the intent with these was to meet that need to a small extent, with a detailed video series that would show someone how to practice.

One thing that I would ask is that people will help the beginning guitarists they know, by giving them my e-mail and telling them to ask for my 7 Week Primer. It covers basic musicality for guitar, and has been the cornerstone of my teaching for over 35 years.

I hope to do the same on banjo. The problem is, I do have to eat, and I can only do so much as far as the videos are concerned. Michigan will be in the mid 90s today, and we have had a very humid summer. It has been impossible for me to record videos on many days, but we are going to be getting a break in the heat tomorrow, and I hope to make some time.

your not going to believe this! last week i had a heart failure gezzzz.....heart stopped pumping blood to my feet so all the water in my body collected in my feet they swelled up like footballs with tiny sausage sticking out for my toes....Go to the ER. Dr says run a hundred tests on him comes back nothgs wrong with me...nothing ! even my chlorestorol and everyhing is fine no problems at all whatsoever so everyone is just stading around starting at eeach other thinking what do we say or what can we say or do right ???? gives me a diueritc and some potassium pills and a little sntibiotic just in case and says go home take these if anything happens come back...SO WTF >>>>??????? what gives here man...anyone ever hear of this happening ? just stops pumping the blood to the feet ? and alll the water pools to the feet ? i was asleep when this happened so I wasnt doin nothing and Im a healthy person all i really do is smoke 10 cigs a day, i dont screw with drugs or booze or nothing but then this ? sorry bob but i had to let you know becase we friends a while now and way back trying to help you when you working on the apple video cam and drivers thingy and also you been such a goof pal helping me stop playing the banjo like a stratocaster lol and put it into perspective :) thanks man hope to see you around a few more years gezzzz this gots me worried

Wow. That is crazy Stony. You need to figure that one out. I will pray for your health to be better. I hope the doctors can do more for you than give you some potassium pills.

i'm a version my of foggy mountain breakdown

hi. I've been wanting to play FMB for some time now, and I just started learning from your videos, Rob, and they're amazing! Everything is so clear and precise, I'm really enjoying it. Thank you for making it so available, and for helping me recognize my dream.
aliza

Hi Rob,

I started learning FMB last week after I realized I needed a break from Cripple Creek, I had a string go under the newly formed callus on my middle finger, I think that was a sign that I needed to slow down a bit but, I don't think that I will be able to do it. Your video's are great!! I was following along fine until I got to the the 13th video, then I had to slow it down and listen to what you were saying because there was so much information crammed into that video. Is the book (Earl Scruggs and the 5 string banjo) a good book to learn the other parts of the songs Cripple Creek and Foggy Mountain Breakdown that isn't in your videos? Or if it isn't can you name one that is?

You are welcome Aliza.

dfanjoy,

I have not seen the Scruggs book since the 70s. I learned many arrangements from that book, as well as Peter Wernick's Bluegrass Banjo Book. Those are the only two banjo books I have ever looked at, and I haven't seen them since around 1978 or so. I learned from a teacher, who made me memorize without tab.

The arrangements in those books were great. I learned quite a few after I learned to memorize by ear. I recommend that first.

Rob,

Thanks for the advise, I too would rather learn by ear but your videos are the only place where I can get that. I'm going to get the Earl Scruggs 5 string banjo book and it comes with a CD, I know where I can still get it on the way home from work. Thanks Rob, I'm having a lot of fun learning to pick.

Remember Picking and driving at the same time is fun but can be hazardous to your Health !!  LOL 

I hate to admit it, but for years, I kept my ukulele in the front seat. I played a lot in heavy traffic.

i have tried learning FMB with your lessons and i just can't get it to sound right,maybe it would help if i knew where to put a break and where to start the roll and what notes to emphasize could you maybe post something on that

quote: maybe you are just not getting enuff exercise.that happened to one of my cousins  he didnt exercise and he checked out at the tender young age of 50

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Originally posted by StonyRivers

your not going to believe this! last week i had a heart failure gezzzz.....heart stopped pumping blood to my feet so all the water in my body collected in my feet they swelled up like footballs with tiny sausage sticking out for my toes....Go to the ER. Dr says run a hundred tests on him comes back nothgs wrong with me...nothing ! even my chlorestorol and everyhing is fine no problems at all whatsoever so everyone is just stading around starting at eeach other thinking what do we say or what can we say or do right ???? gives me a diueritc and some potassium pills and a little sntibiotic just in case and says go home take these if anything happens come back...SO WTF >>>>??????? what gives here man...anyone ever hear of this happening ? just stops pumping the blood to the feet ? and alll the water pools to the feet ? i was asleep when this happened so I wasnt doin nothing and Im a healthy person all i really do is smoke 10 cigs a day, i dont screw with drugs or booze or nothing but then this ? sorry bob but i had to let you know becase we friends a while now and way back trying to help you when you working on the apple video cam and drivers thingy and also you been such a goof pal helping me stop playing the banjo like a stratocaster lol and put it into perspective :) thanks man hope to see you around a few more years gezzzz this gots me worried

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I wish it was that...I do exercise as much as possible. I was in an accident in 05 i fell off a cliff on a search and rescue in the sierra madre's, i suffer a traumatic brain injury, a shattered shoulder and a few fractures...i was paralyzed for a long time but finally im on my feet and i can walk talk and i learned how to do everything all over again. I even got my guitar and banjo skills back though i play a little funny the way I have to hold my guitar/banjo to the side so my arm goes straight across my stomach to the fret board...maybe it is because i went from a mountain climber to a bed ridden paraplegic for a few years but I think not...i do  a lot of walking now and I walk every day almost 5 miles...no it has to be something else

quote:

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Originally posted by StonyRivers

I wish it was that...I do exercise as much as possible. I was in an accident in 05 i fell off a cliff on a search and rescue in the sierra madre's, i suffer a traumatic brain injury, a shattered shoulder and a few fractures...i was paralyzed for a long time but finally im on my feet and i can walk talk and i learned how to do everything all over again. I even got my guitar and banjo skills back though i play a little funny the way I have to hold my guitar/banjo to the side so my arm goes straight across my stomach to the fret board...maybe it is because i went from a mountain climber to a bed ridden paraplegic for a few years but I think not...i do  a lot of walking now and I walk every day almost 5 miles...no it has to be something else

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 i know from where you speak..i have been butchered up in several wrecks,my latest was 05 as well almost killed myself on a motorcycle took about a year of therapy and praying to the almighty to get back close to my old self..keep struggling and praying we will all return to dust one day just see to it that you have things right with the one who will return you from the dust the 2nd time to give account of yourself..good luck to ya

Rob -

Thanks for this generous contribution! You're making my passage from a lifetime of 6-strings to 5 a little more bearable.
Dan

Thanks for doing thses lessons. You are truly a genius. I have attempted to learn the banjo for a year now with little success. Your videos accomplish what tabulature or other instructors fail to do: exlpaining each note as it should be picked at a slow, "per-pluck" speed. This allows me to see and understand how what I am picking "fits in" with the rest of the song. I have been playing the tabs and listening to tableedit, but it isn't the same. Sure, I can play all the NOTES, but I can't play the MUSIC. Your method allows me to see per-pluck (so to speak) how a section should be fingered and then shows how it should sound at intermediate and then full-speed.
Thanks for adding the MUSIC to the NOTES.

You should create an instructional DVD and put it on the market.

I'm glad to help. I am always getting comments, wanting me to cover certain tunes, and show how so and so did this or that exactly.

That is not my goal. My goal, (or one of them) is to show people who have had trouble with traditional tab learning, how to memorize efficiently, and how to develop technique.

My other goal is to develop the student's overall musicality. (Not by wearing overalls, but by learning to play melodies through the chords and scales.) This might be something that I actually work out as a banjo DVD, because I have noticed a particular animosity among some players toward the idea of developing basic musicality by learning and transposing simple tunes. I have more jazz guitar students who currently study at a university level than I can believe, who are unable to play a simple song like Happy Birthday. They are working towards masters degrees in music, but I would not call someone a master of music who is still unable to play a simple chord solo by ear.

It is no different in the banjo world, and I have received a lot of negative commentary from teachers who insist that I am over exaggerating the problem. I was teaching banjo and guitar back in the mid 70s, and that is pretty much been my sole means of support for my family and I my whole life. I can say with great confidence, the vast majority of players can't play a simple song like the National Anthem off the top of their head, though they can sing it. I'm not talking about practicing it and learning it, I just mean play it in any key without preparation.

We can sing it, so we should be just as comfortable with our instrument. It isn't hard to develop, and the great part of my work as a teacher for these last 35 years has been developing ear/finger connectivity. I might just make and sell a DVD, and buy some display advertising here and in a couple of magazines. It will be greatly ignored, because people want an instant fix, and the people who can't do this but have big egos, will pretty much have a fit that I would suggest this ability be developed.

I am getting ready to put out some more 5 string lessons on my channel. I have had a lot of requests from old friends to do The Clinch Mountain Backstep. I have a version that is not like Ralph's, but still sounds enough like the song that I couldn't call it something else. I love Ralph's playing on this and Little Maggie, but I wanted to develop my own style as a young guy. I played a show when I was about 18, and I worked as hard as I could at the time to sound like J.D. Crowe.

J.D. was playing right after me, and talked to off stage and said, "son, there's already a J.D. Crowe, and already an Earl Scruggs; You better try making your own style before it's too late."

I took his advice, and put a different spin on almost all of my arrangements, and what I found, very briefly, was a bit of my own voice, but then I went on the road with the guitar, and quit picking banjo altogether. I have been having fun with my buddy Russ' Liberty though, and have revisited some of the old tunes I used to do, and am going to try to make some videos with my arrangements.

Here's the next in line;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc4zEEoBmtM&feature=channel_video_title

I am going to be doing guitar workshops in London, Manchester and Edinburgh next year, and might do a banjo workshop if I got enough interest.

I would like to see Glasgow. I also have a student in Dundee, so that would be fun. I just don't know how many would travel for a workshop.

I'm not a whiskey man, but I hear they have great stuff there. I will probably have to sample some local beers though, as well as cheeses, and if I'm near Dundee I will stock up with the marmalade.

I have a friend who lives in Edinburgh and takes guitar lessons via Skype every week, but comes here to Michigan once or twice a year on holiday. (He's an airline pilot.)

He and his wife are in that society, and he speaks highly of the group and taste tours too. I'll have to see it I'm sure. I also want to see the highlands, sheep and peat burning stoves in thatched roof cottages.

My wife is going to come with me, and she is very much looking forward to seeing London as well.