I don’t know how to play it, or guitar for that matter, but I got a book with it and I did spend several years learning Piano so I’m not a total novice, but haven’t played any instrument really for 20+ years.
Why did I buy it? No real justification, just one of those things I thought it would be good to teach myself to play and everyone seems to be able to learn to play guitar, even tone deaf reptiles with stubby fingers, so Banjo seemed a more unconventional choice.
Only had a little go at it, enough to realise that I’m going to need to do some serious practice to get the hang of moving my fingers and understanding where on what strings does what, but I’m up for the challenge.
Hey, do “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.” There’s a shiny new quarter in it for you.
Seriously, good luck with it. If you can find simple (i.e. strumming type songs), you’ll probably have a better time while you’re learning the tougher stuff. I recommend, “Get A Load Of This,” which I heard on Dr. Demento 300 years ago.
I play a little bit of banjo myself. What style are you looking to play?
If the answer is clawhammer (it should be!) go hit YouTube and start watching Patrick Costello’s tutorial videos. He also has a couple of free downloadable books.
Also, as long as I’m distributing unsolicited advice…
The beginner book that really advanced my playing is The Ilustrated American 5-String Banjo by Erik Darling. It’s out of print but I got a copy from the library.
I have a soft spot for Pete Seeger’s book and its companion album, but he doesn’t teach in open-G tuning. IIRC that was something he regretted later on.
I’ll look up those things. I don’t know what style yet, I think I want to learn how to do the basics then take it from there. I do like a bit of the banjo work in Mumford and Sons tunes, whatever style that is.
I once knew a man who played the banjo. He was great.
He said it took a long time and a lot of practice to get good. I believe him.
So, good luck and stick it out. Or, stick withi it. Don’t quit. Keep on practicing.
You will need to put a lot of time into learning how to play before you can expect to get any good.
But, once you do get good, the banjo is one of the most amazing instruments there is. Women will be knocking themselves out and falling down at your feet. I kid you not. The banjo is truly that good. Of course, you need to be that good too. I sure do hope that you won’t figure you will be any good unless you put in the time to learn and practice.
It takes a lot of time to learn how to play most any musical instrument - especially the mouth organ.
Really and truly.
So, best of luck to you - although … I’m guessing luck really doesn’t have all that much to do with it.
It takes a whole lot of time to practice and a whole lot of work to improve.
Sorry. I said “mouth organ”. But I meant “banjo”. Excuse me.
I tried to edit but the edit time limit got me again.
Oh, someone mentioned “Pete Seeger”. You will never do any better than that. Pete Seger may very well have been one of the greatest men who ever lived.
If you ever get the chance, do see the film Pete Seeger: The Power of Song. It will change your life. It was an amazing film.
Pete Seeger usually played in C tuning, not the more popular G tuning. They’re not all that different. In C, the 4th string is tuned to an E, in G it’s tuned to a D. As far as I learned, it wasn’t that hard to learn the chord differences between the two.
Yeah, I bought one over summer (Tanglewood Union Series) and started off Scruggs-style but found it just wasn’t me. Clawhammer feels a lot more old-world, playing on the porch to me, which is exactly what I wanted.
Patrick is great, but I can also say that I’ve been following the Brainjo course which has a very good eight lesson “basics” series for free as well as tune of the week (harder stuff) and a brilliant little “your first eight songs” book that I am teaching myself right now.
Beyond that he also does a subscription thing with a lot more stuff. Once I have exhausted the intro stuff I will definitely sign up. His free stuff has been enormously helpful.
You never know where buying a banjo may lead you. A high school friend bought one at an estate sale, had it cleaned and restrung. He was a skilled violist, so learning to play it came easily to him. He got quite good at it. So good that he started guesting with local performers.
He went to college at the U of Tennessee, where he met several people involved in the music business who provided him with some important introductions, and before he knew it, he had become a session musician with that banjo. The last time I saw Gary was at our 20th hs reunion, so I’ve lost touch with what he’s doing these days, but for a while he was highly in demand and appeared on albums by some of country music’s brightest stars.
But you know what? I just have to ask…did you come from Alabama? And was that banjo on your knee?
I bought one a couple of years ago out of the blue. I had never played anything before. I took some lessons, then had a problem with my elbow. I was holding the banjo weird and way too tense. Gave me tendonitis, so I had to drop it for a while.
I’m getting ready to start again though. Got some advise from a masseuse on a better way to hold it, and it seems to help.
