Post a video so the advanced players can help your technique. Playing and mastering are miles apart.

Music theory might bog you down. Learning songs without it was a good choice. Many get overwhelmed by it and stop playing. Id perfect what you know by mastering advanced versions of the songs you know. Youtube teachers shows the easy stuff.

Yoda has a good point ---having given lessons yrs ago , some learners I believe become brainwashed into tabs & will want them for everything rather than venturing out of that box into self interpretation .

Play with others. 
 

David 

Blow your house on a horrendously expensive banjo :-)

Start on any note you wish up and down the neck and see if you can play. Mary had a little lamb which only uses four notes. If you can’t do that, you need to study ear- training!

Learn 6 more.

Listen to 6 performers you have not listened to before.

Take your 6 pieces you have learned and now work on variations.

Find 6 recordings from performers from the 1920’s up to the very early 1960’s and try to mimic what they are doing.

make sure you are learning tunes in the 6 common tunings: G,C,D, A. a modal and G Modal. - just to be clear, this is not theory. Just banjo tuning and needed to be able to play with others. 

What was said above by the other posters.

Do not get bogged down in theory, scales or notes. It’s the banjo. Leave all that for those who are trying to be the next Segovia. Learn the tunes and let what you feel take it from there.

Playing with others is probably the strongest advice given.

And most of all, just play.

Each person learns at his or her own pace and own way. Some need tab to learn, some have to hear to learn, others have to see then there are some who have to do all or two of the above. Figure out which way you learn and take it from there.

Sounds like you want to learn to play by ear. How do you do that? One way: noodle around on your banjo. Try to figure out melodies to songs you already know. Listen to a song you want to play and when you have the melody in your head, can sing and/or hum it, try to play it on the banjo.

If you don't want to study/learn/understand music theory, then don't worry about it. You'll be learning it by playing, listening, noodling around.

As has been said above, play with others. If you can't join in the group yet, just sit back and listen and noodle around very quietly in the background. The more you do that, the easier it gets to hear and find the melody.

Can you play back up to the songs you have learned?

Check out songs that have same or similar chord progressions to the songs you have learned. There are plenty

You could try getting along to an old time session if you feel able to. Even if you just want to to watch and chat and get the feel for what its like and how the banjo fits in with the rest of the music. I don't know of any sessions really close to you (although you never know) but there was one in Macclesfield I heard about - not sure if its still running. Otherwise if you fancy a trip over to Leeds there's one on the last Sunday of every month (2-6 in the afternoon at the Chemic Tavern). If you want, I can ask a couple of friends if they know of anything else going on around your neck of the woods.

David Brooks hit the nail right on the head. Play with others. You don't really learn to play music until you do that.

Half a century ago, Tommy Thompson told me that, "if you want to learn old-time banjo, play one-on-one with the fiddle". I was lucky because my closet friend was Art Stamper. If you can find a nearby fiddle player, do just that. If you can't, get some open ear headphones and play against recorded fiddle music. You still will need to play with others, though, because that's how you learn timing.

Practice playing your 6 songs with a metronome. If you can play those songs at tempo along with a metronome, then you really know those songs otherwise you still have some work to do.

quote:

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Originally posted by Banjo Bolton

I first picked up a Banjo in February, since then I have self-learned through Youtube and a few music books.

I can play half a dozen songs - (latest being, Hills of Mexico)

How do I progress from here?

I have no idea about scales, notes, or any music theory for that matter.

I'd like to be able to hear a song and then be able to understand and interpret it on my Banjo.

---

For me, progress meant learning other styles of playing, as clawhammer doesn't adapt well to many time signatures that aren't 2/4, 3/4, or 4/4.

I moved on to up-picking styles, first double thumbing and then 3-finger. I continued to play clawhammer though, so my progress was one of expansion, not refinement. I'm still working on the second thing 62 years later.

Progress is a really open term. It can be anything that brings you pleasure when you play your banjo. The banjo is as sophisticated as a guitar, piano, or any horn, but like them all, there are types of music that fit it's nature well, and other types that don't fit it at all.  You can have a lot of fun with that- messing around with a familiar tune, just seeing if it will work on the banjo or not.

But sticking with the kind of music you like best and learning some more tunes in it is just as good. There's no best or worst way to progress, I think. It's all what you consider progress to be on your banjo.

With only 6 months of playing under your belt you might make a lot of progress listening to banjo music as much as you can without trying to learn any of it for a while. 

regards,

stanger

thank you for all your advice. its much appreciated.

I did see this about mastering the fretboard... brainjo.academy/bright-system/

quote:

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Originally posted by Banjo Bolton

I first picked up a Banjo in February, since then I have self-learned through Youtube and a few music books.

I can play half a dozen songs - (latest being, Hills of Mexico)

How do I progress from here?

I have no idea about scales, notes, or any music theory for that matter.

I'd like to be able to hear a song and then be able to understand and interpret it on my Banjo.

---

Listen, listen and then listen some more to recordings/videos of the "old-timers" and then keep on playing...

I know this is an old thread now, but I saw more information on Facebook about a bluegrass/old time session that's more local to you - it seems to alternate between the Carlton Club in central Manchester and The Font in Chorlton - third Thursday of every month. It looks maybe more bluegrass than old time, but worth checking out.

Thanks for being this to my attention. I’m going to try and contact them to find out a little more.

Here’s the Facebook post

quote:

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Originally posted by hbick2

Half a century ago, Tommy Thompson told me that, "if you want to learn old-time banjo, play one-on-one with the fiddle". I was lucky because my closet friend was Art Stamper. 

---

Holy cow!  That's great.  Art Stamper is one of my favorite fiddlers and I wish I could have met him.  To me, his style is very clean and his intonation is wonderful.   He has an album out with Tim O'brien (Wake Up Darlin' Corey) that I must have listened to a thousand times.  In fact, unless I'm thinking wrong, you played on that album too, right?!?!  I love that album!

quote:

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Originally posted by Banjo Bolton

Here’s the Facebook post

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Looks good. I might try to get over to that myself sometime!

quote:

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Originally posted by doryman

quote:

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Originally posted by hbick2

Half a century ago, Tommy Thompson told me that, "if you want to learn old-time banjo, play one-on-one with the fiddle". I was lucky because my closet friend was Art Stamper. 

---

Holy cow!  That's great.  Art Stamper is one of my favorite fiddlers and I wish I could have met him.  To me, his style is very clean and his intonation is wonderful.   He has an album out with Tim O'brien (Wake Up Darlin' Corey) that I must have listened to a thousand times.  In fact, unless I'm thinking wrong, you played on that album too, right?!?!  I love that album!

---

Yes, I did play on that album. Art and I worked on it after his cancer diagnosis and treatment. Playing with Art was an absolute joy. His playing was so fluid and he loved to play more than anything. It didn't matter to Art if you were a good player or not. I had the good fortune to play both Bluegrass and Old-TIme music with him. When I began transitioning from playing  Bluegrass banjo to Old-Time banjo, Art began recalling the tunes he grew up with and we would play them together. His first solo album "The Lost Fiddler" featured both styles. J.D. Crowe played Bluegrass banjo and I played Old-TIme banjo. 

Harry, I love the "Wake Up Darlin' Corey" album. 
 

David

Take some lessons with a teacher, and have them teach you by ear, and practice a lot. I started playing from tab in 79, life happened then picked it up again in 2006. Learning by tab again, then got tired of playing bluegrass and switched to old time, found a teacher to teach me to learn by ear, that was almost two years ago and I now can learn a tune by ear in 20-30 minutes.
The short answer, find a teacher, learn by ear and practice by listening