My Banjo Skills Increase and Various Injuries

So far during this week I have been quite pleased with my progress on learning the banjo.  The main skill I learned this week was to learn picking patterns and how to make the thumb, index, and middle finger together with as little string inaccuracies when I am picking.  One exercise for picking, I worked on for an hour.  I stretched and vigorously worked my fingers for about an hour with that exercise, that I had to ice my fingers because of how red they were and how much they hurt.  Despite the "pain" I went through, this was an extremely important skill to develop because overall, picking is the most difficult aspect of banjo at least for me so far.

This is the exact tablature I used for the picking exercise that I continually did to work on my picking skills.  The biggest challenge I have faced in learning the banjo is learning the picking patterns that I have to learn and the amount of accuracy that is demanded when you pluck the banjo.  In comparison to standard rock picking on a guitar and even on an acoustic guitar, it is much more difficult and nothing similar to what I have done before.  On regular guitar, you only have to control one pick and it is quite easy to strum away or quickly pick single strings.  The closest I have gotten to banjo picking before actually trying it was finger picking on my acoustic guitar which is one of my favorite picking styles.  Compared to banjo picking, finger picking is much easier because you don't have an extension to your fingers that you have to control in addition to your fingers.  The metal picks make it very hard to strum on the banjo and the difficulty to pluck with single fingers make strumming a very difficult task on the banjo.

Another banjo related injury I have sustained this week was also on my fingers.  I was strumming very hard with the metal picks and one of them slipped and cut some of my skin, which then spewed some blood onto my banjo.  Despite being rather gross, I have marked my banjo and there is no question that it is mine!

One goal for me every week is to learn a new song of sort on the banjo.  I decided to learn another Mumford and Sons song because of their difficulty and lots of banjo time in the song.  The way I find a song and learn how to play them are using the website http://www.banjohangout.org/tab/.  Most of the tabs on the website are accurate and allow for me to learn a song quickly and easily.  With out this website I would have a difficult time learning the songs, which is one of the main parts of my project and my set goals.

As I mentioned in my previous blog posts I am planning on having a Skype lesson with the youtube user happybanjodude.  He offers Skype lessons on his website.  I scheduled one for this sunday because it seems like a great opportunity to learn banjo from an expert, and because of the lack of banjo instructors in our area, this is the perfect chance for me to learn from an outside expert.  With his expertise and help I can really work out the kinks in my strumming and picking abilities so I can begin to learn much more difficult pieces.  Hopefully everything goes well in the lesson and there is no technological problems so I can have a successful and beneficial banjo lesson that will aid me in my banjo journey.  

I plan to put another blog post after my Skype lesson and will fill all of you in on how it goes.  See you then!

Upcoming Lessons and New Challenges

     Recently I received important news that will aid me in learning the banjo.  I have scheduled a video Skype Banjo lesson with the youtube user "happybanjodude."  This youtube user puts up many helpful video tutorials that I have already pulled many tips from.  To learn my first banjo song "Roll Away your Stone," I watched his video tutorial on the song.  This video lesson will greatly help in bringing me in little techniques that I can't nail yet.  This interaction will also let me ask any questions I have on the banjo that I usually can't get a human answer for.  By this time next week, I will have had my banjo lesson and hopefully I will have greatly advanced as a banjoist.

     One interesting thing I found with myself while playing banjo is that I easily lose track of time.  So far I have been greatly enjoying my time learning banjo and playing the various songs I have learned.  For instance last night I spent about three hours playing and learning banjo techniques and songs.  This is great for me continuing on my banjo journey, but it restricts me from doing homework that I must get done.  I am beginning to see that a greater challenge than actually learning the banjo is to manage my time.  I must balance schoolwork and my music as usual, but this time in even greater amounts because of the time I will be spending learning this new instrument.  This is a challenge that I will constantly be faced with, but I have had past experiences balancing these two areas of my life and I suspect I won't have too much trouble this time.  Next week I will hopefully have had a successful lesson with "happybanjodude" and have no troubles with managing my time between school and music.  See you next time!

Week 1 Experiences

Week 1 Experiences on the Banjo

    
     For the past week I have started on the endeavor to learn how to play the banjo.  The banjo is a stringed instrument mainly used in Folk and Bluegrass music with a unique twangy sound.  After receiving a beautiful Banjo for Christmas and this project has provided the perfect motivation for learning how to play the banjo.  My favorite genre of music is folk music and Banjo plays a critical role in many folk songs.  To continue to write and play folk music, learning banjo is a necessity.  Even after the project is through, I still plan to practice and work on the banjo.  I even hope to incorporate banjo on one of the songs on my upcoming album “Suburban Folk.”

     After learning how to play four different instruments, I feel I have a pretty good idea on how to go about learning the banjo.  To successfully perform in front of the class in six weeks I need to learn many concepts and songs quite quickly.  Each week I plan to learn at least two new concepts and one new song. So far I have done my “homework” and read up on basic strumming techniques and how the banjo is tuned.  I have also began to learn basic chords to play on the banjo.  This week, I am well above my set weekly goal and hopefully I can continue on this trend.  Along with learning concepts, I am requiring my self to learn at least one song a week.  This week I arranged the chords and riffs on guitar for banjo on the song “Roll Away Your Stone” by Mumford & Sons.  It is a fairly basic song that I already knew on guitar and piano so it was easy to transfer that knowledge over to.  Next week I plan to learn another more challenging Mumford & Sons song like “Dust bowl Dance” or “The Cave.”

     In this process, my biggest learning curve was to learn how to properly put the banjo fingerpicks on each finger and how to play with them.  It was a huge adjustment from using a standard guitar pick to finger picks.  It felt extremely awkward no matter how I tried to use them until I finally found a good tutorial on the internet on how to correctly hold the picks and how to play with the picks.  Once I figured the pick situation out, I was able to start learning banjo “rolls” or riffs.  Every time I successfully play one roll I feel like a true bluegrass hillbilly coming fresh out of the Deep South.  So far I am quite pleased with my progress on the banjo and I am looking forward to learning new techniques and songs to aid me on my banjo journey!  See you next week!