I guess the best way to cover my awesome week is to go through it chronologically. I started off this week by learning songs and starting a picking challenge. The songs I was able to learn this week were Each Coming Night by Iron and Wine, Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons, and Dueling Banjos pt 1. The most difficult of these songs was definitely Dueling Banjos. After going at it for about a half hour my fingers were dead tired and I was sick of the song. I decided I needed to improve my picking abilities. After a few minutes of searching I found quite a challenging exercise that sounded good. I needed for this exercise to sound good because I planned to drill it for at least an hour. If it didn't sound good, my ears would be in constant pain and I don't want to hurt my precious ears. Here is the link for any of you aspiring banjoists (I doubt there are any here). This exercise worked my fingers to the bone especially when I increased the speed my metronome was going at. After that hour was over I went back to Dueling Banjos and I felt a HUGE difference in my ability to play the song. After this, I could have just ended my week for banjo playing, but it was only Sunday night! I decided to keep going, specifically with readings.
For my main reading this week, I read through the banjo encyclopedia my friend John gave to me for my birthday. The music in the book was done by Mel Bay. Mel Bay was an acclaimed music education book writer. If he wasn't I would be doing a lot of my banjo playing completely wrong. This book showed me many new techniques and suggested songs to learn to play to improve playing skills one of them being Dueling Banjos. After reading through this book I felt that I had picked up many new little techniques. Along with learning these new techniques I felt that I had a greater understanding of the banjo as an instrument and the theory behind it. This book was a great read and was able to assist me in continuing the banjo experience!
The final "big" thing I learned this week was I started to learn to improvise. So far I have only played songs or drilled on techniques, but improvising means you can pick up a banjo and play anything or sound you have on your mind. I can do this on the guitar and is one of the most fun parts of it. Being able to play whatever you want whenever you want. It is a great skill and it truly dictates whether one can play an instrument or not. To start tackling this idea I did a little googling and I found a nice and compact tutorial on how to improvise on the banjo. After reading through it, I am by no means a improvising expert, but I have started to developed the skills. Hopefully with practice I can pick up a banjo anywhere and do some Folk Shredding!
After this week I feel that I can say that I play the banjo. I feel so good about my increase of playing skills and my newly found ability to improvise. This project has been so beneficial to many aspects of my music. It has inspired me to start writing songs regularly again and has added a new instrument to my arsenal. Here's to another great week!
-Banjo Ben (it's corn, I know)
Ben, even though I'm not in your block period I just have to say that I'm in awe at your progress. I'm personally a huge Mumford and Sons fan which is why I say that I'm in awe. Little Lion Man is a hard song to learn (I tried it on the guitar once and I gave up after days of unsuccessful attempts). I hope that your TED talk will show some of your final product! Good luck and keep up the good work!
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