I'll be watching this thread because I'm always interested in musical instruments for people with no music skills whatsoever. Don't ask, this hits too close to home.

What I have so far is the five string banjo, in open G tuning, and the mountain dulcimer. I'm such a dork that the ukulele seems hard to me.

Getting the popcorn and watching...

There are a lot of resources online - I’d start with YouTube. Honestly it’s quite hard absorb musical theory without an instrument to have as a reference! But begin to immerse yourself in teaching videos.

I have a bunch of them on my YouTube channel youtube.com/@irishtenorbanjo

Another good resource will be the Banjo Buddy channel

When you’ve got a banjo and you’re ready to go check out

Www.irishbanjolessons.com

The complete beginner course is designed methodically to take you from opening the case through to your first tune!

Hot damn, dude, I had no idea you were on here! Nice to meet you.

Funnily enough, yours was actually the first banjo channel I subbed to on YT and I was already planning to start your lessons as soon as I get an instrument. The second one was Banjo Buddy. Talk about serendipity, haha.

Only been watching for a few weeks, but I've already learned a lot from your videos. You do a great job at explaining things in a really beginner-friendly way, so kind thanks for that.

I'll keep at it. Hopefully I'll manage to wrangle a banjo soon so I can join the jam.

And I promise the first tune I learn won't be the Tamlin :)

Cheers,
Tartan

Haha. The Tamlin is actually really hard to play!!

I recommend a book titled Laws of Brainjo. You can find it on Amazon.

“32 years old!?! Don’t you think you might be a bit old to try and learn the banjo? Maybe a tambourine is a better match for a person of your background.”

There. Now that I have stated the obvious, let’s dismiss it for the nonsense it is.
There’s no such thing as “too old to learn.”
I second the suggestion about “The Laws of Brainjo” by Josh Turknett, MD.
Finally, you will encounter a whole new universe of information. It can be overwhelming & intimidating, but it’s really a giant banquet. You can’t eat it all at once, but you can eat it one bite at a time.
Have fun!

The best way to learn to play banjo is to find a good teacher and take lessons. I don't know if there are any teachers in your area, but you can check around. We do have a teachers' list. Look on the left hand side of the home page and under Learn, click on find a teacher. You can refine your search to country, county, town and genre.

If you can't find/afford a good teacher, then beginner instruction books w/CD is a good place to start. I don't know how many such books are published in your genre, but a search should provide that information.

U-tube can be a good source so that's another avenue to check.

Local music stores might have information on local teachers.

Since there is no shortage of jams/ceilidhs, etc., I would start going to them regularly and talking to the musicians. You can learn a lot about instruments, learning resources, teachers, etc. when you ask one on one. There is always someone who knows someone who can help you.

I started playing 10 years ago at age 40, having zero musical experience. I fell in love with the music 10 years before that and then discovered what a session was. It has not come easy to me but there is no better feeling in the world to me than having some tunes with friends. The music and banjo has also allowed me to meet great people from all over the world. We travel around the US a good bit and make new friends everywhere we go.

The best way to get started is to get a good teacher, preferably one on one, either in person or an online meeting. I tried to learn on my own from books and videos, and wasted years developing bad habits I am now trying to correct. If you can't do one on one the next best resource is Enda's program. The beginner course is excellent and he offers different ways to connect with him. I would really stress getting a good solid foundation when you start!

Here is an article I wrote on buying a banjo for Irish trad playing. Feel free to message if you have questions when it comes time to buy a banjo. There is a lot of bad information on the internet about setups for banjos and the setup is key!

tradbanjo.com/pages/buying-adv...nor-banjo

DSmoke I was sure you were older than that ?? ??

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

DSmoke I was sure you were older than that ?? ??

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Yep, all that wisdom and I'm only 51, lol.

LOL must be all the fly fishing. There’s wisdom in them there streams.

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

LOL must be all the fly fishing. There’s wisdom in them there streams.

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That is true. I grew up fishing with the old timers.

quote:

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Originally posted by NNYJoe

“32 years old!?! Don’t you think you might be a bit old to try and learn the banjo? Maybe a tambourine is a better match for a person of your background.”

There. Now that I have stated the obvious, let’s dismiss it for the nonsense it is.
There’s no such thing as “too old to learn.”
I second the suggestion about “The Laws of Brainjo” by Josh Turknett, MD.
Finally, you will encounter a whole new universe of information. It can be overwhelming & intimidating, but it’s really a giant banquet. You can’t eat it all at once, but you can eat it one bite at a time.
Have fun!

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Joe you're doing right commenting on the difficulty.  It wouldn't be a common trope if age didn't matter and it's good not to sugar coat what initial entry looks like. 

I started at 30 with zero prior training; the first year is a big step (understatement).  Tenacity is success.

advice:  Research/source a commodity level instrument while renting and start playing today/daily, for life.  (in five-strings this equates to a Goodtime, easy to sell, common, consistently playable)

Josh Turknet of "Brainjo" fame has a lot to say on the age vs. learning subject. He's worth reading/listening to since he is an actual brain researcher.
Me? I'm just a no-account hick from the sticks and I say get off the dang computer and go get yourself a banjo. You can't start without one.

All of the above advice is great. I will add one thing. Forget learning how to read music unless you just want to. When asked if he knew how to read music, Chet Atkins replied, "Not enough to hurt my playing."
Joe

Great stuff to read here. I play rhythm guitar with a group who plays mostly Celtic music, with a bit of John Prine for fun. I also own a 5 string banjo, but it weighs a ton, so it languishes in its case.
I am twice your age, and recently got a 4 string open back banjo. Now mind you, I’ve never learned how to flat pick, yet grabbing that little beastie and knocking out a few tunes makes me so happy. I feel like my musical knowledge is growing like Jack’s beanstalk, and what I learn on the tenor is translated to my guitar as well.
So play whenever you can, and enjoy the process!

The most important think you can do is LISTEN. Listen to the music you want to play, repeatedly. Get to where you can him, lily, or whistle the tune. Go to dances, if possible. You have to internalize the music. Then, playing the music externalizes what you have internalized.

After you get the instrument, the most important skill then becomes, you guessed it, LISTENING. You still need to internalize aspects of the music, and you need to learn how to listen to your own playing to compare it to good music.

Even when you are a top level player, you need to listen for nuances and details, and variations etc. the sooner you start really listening, the better off you are

Buy CDs, stream, get to live performances. Sit next to the session musicians. Find some local players to connect with. Maybe one of them has a loaner. Perhaps there is a music club like Comhaltas.

Personal involvement is the best. The book idea is nice, but in practicality, it does not work nearly as well as one might think. In person lessons with a local teacher who is involved in the music community is by far the best method.

I was in your exact same situation 19 years ago TartanBanjo. I woke up one day at age 32 and decided that I wanted to play a musical instrument for the first time in my life and chose tenor banjo! I would say find a local teacher that can help you with holding the pick, pick direction, basic music theory, and so on to make sure you're off to the right start. And then as soon as possible find a friendly, tolerant group of people to play with in person. If you can't find an agreeable beginner's session start one of your own. Other people will come as there are many in the same boat!

In this digital age, the majority of the session repertoire is easily findable in sheet music or mandolin tab format. And audio samples on YouTube or elsewhere are also easy to come by. It is possible to use this access to tab/notation + audio to your advantage.

Learning to read mandolin tab or sheet music can be a good thing and a bad thing. Learning how to read tab early on allowed me to basically be able to play along with anything at a slow speed as long as I had the music in front of me. This helped me get over the beginner's hump and allowed me to participate in slow sessions, but it also likely stunted my "ear" and memorization skills. As an adult I do think it's beneficial to learn how to read so that you can at least start participating in playing with others at low-key sessions where music stands are allowed. Trying to do a purely by ear, Suzuki-like method might be too frustrating for an adult beginner and cause you to give up. But it's a fine line because you also don't want to become dependent on having the music in front of you.

There are many different routes to take. Find your own. Have fun. Play a little bit every day. Eventually you'll get there. In fact you are there now!

I like learning from books. As far as books, I also can vouch for the Brainjo book by Josh Turknett. It is now titled "Anyone Can Play Music". I only recently discovered this book but it is great.

A book that helped me tremendously is Improvise for Real by David Reed. It doesn't seem like it would be relevant to playing trad, but he has such a unique way of looking at music theory and especially scales/modes that I am very grateful to have found this book at some point along the way. He also has some great ear training resources online through the Improvise for Real program.

I also like the Memorise Music Course from Play in the Zone by Mark Morley-Fletcher. This is directly applicable to Irish trad. If you've ever wondered how some players seemingly have hundreds of tunes under the fingers, this course will help give you an inkling of how to do so yourself.

Primacy of the Ear by Ran Blake is also a pretty good music book. And Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg can be interpreted as a music instruction book if you are good at thinking outside the box.

quote:

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Originally posted by Enda Scahill

LOL must be all the fly fishing. There’s wisdom in them there streams.

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Wisdom or you might say, "I hear banjo music..." 

quote:

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Originally posted by TartanBanjo

Hi all,

First time posting here.

So, I've caught the "Banjo Bug". Specifically, I'm really interested in learning the 4-string Irish Tenor Banjo (I live in Scotland, so there's no shortage of potential jam sessions for folk/ceilidh enthusiasts). The problem is I have ZERO prior musical knowledge. None. I was more of a gamer and a painter growing up, rather than a musician, but for the first time I've taken an interest in making my own music.

I'm currently between jobs unfortunately, so it'll be a short while before I can get my hands on an instrument or find any lessons to take, but in the meantime I wanted to get a beginners understanding of what goes into "music"; for instance, how to read sheet music, how to tune an instrument, understanding musical terminology, etc. I figure it's best to get an education in the musical basics before I get my hands on a Banjo.

Could anyone suggest any resources (either online or in a book) for a true Lv.1 Beginner who has zero understanding of how music works?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Yours kindly,
Tartan.

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Josh Turknett also wrote a book called, "Anyone Can Play Music." A worthy read with many good ideas.

Tartanbanjo

Looks like you have already got contact above for a great online resource for tenor banjo.

I would also suggest Nigel Gatherer's site for getting tunes .You can hear tunes played as well as get the tab which is very easy to read.

If you don't read sheet music then the recordings of tunes is the way to get tempo and tune in your head.

I originally played 5 string banjo ( started in my 40's) but as I don't read music got frustrated at the lack of Scottish tunes and so tried mandolin.

This is where Nigel Gatherer's site came in although I was also lucky enough to find a Mandolin/tenor banjo class nearby which catered for beginners, intermediate and advanced players.

Playing/Learning with others with disciplined repetitive practice only moving on to the next section of a tune when comfortable with a part was invaluable.

From this I got a tenor banjo and a tenor guitar which play the same way as a mandolin in GDAE.

I tend to play a lot of bagpipes tunes which I think sound great on tenor banjo .

I don't know where you live but I think there are classes in most of the major cities and if you are close by  it may be worth travelling in for weekly lessons for a year .

When I was first looking for tunes to learn at home my golden rule when looking at tab was to only try tunes where the numbers on the tab were 0 -5 and these were mostly on the top 3 lines .

Tam Lin had too many numbers on the bottom line (lower notes) which I found more difficult to play

Glendaruel Highlanders was much easier play as all the numbers are on the top two lines.

It also had the benefit of being a tunes I had known since the 1960's

"1 ,2,3,4 oh Campbelltown loch a wish ye were whisky Campbelltown Loch och aye" :-)

Once more confident in my ability I went back to Tam Lin

Good luck ...you will be fine

Howdy 24 year old here and I've taught myself to a bare novice on tenor banjo in about a month with the simple system of buying the thing and then practicing for an hour every day. I got supremely lucky that my guitar shop had a nice tenor hanging on the wall for 2 years and I managed to bargain them down to half of what it was worth. After that I dusted of my old sheet music skills from middle school band and stated plugging away at fiddle tunes. It's certainly not the most efficient way to do it but works great if your determined and poor. Just shove a sponge under the head so your roommate/wife doesn’t burn the thing.
Now if you don’t know how to read sheet music its pretty easy you just need to remember FACE and work from there. After that memorize the landmarks on the fret board and its off to the races.
for practice I recommend about 10 mins on scales and patterns just work up and drill the note positions into your head. After that pick a song you like and got at it for as long as you can stand. Get it down slow then speed up and in no time flat you’ll be surprising yourself.

It would help to decide what music you want to play which dictates the type of instrument.

Irish Traditional Music - 4 string banjo (17 or 19 frets) with pick

Jazz/Mummers - 4 string plectrum banjo with pick

Bluegrass - 5 string resonator banjo with finger picks

Oldtime Music - 5 string open back banjo -clawhammer, no picks