The book, "The laws of brainjo" has given me new ideas on how I should approach practice. I don't want to be a jukebox, looking at tabs and being able to generate notes. I want to learn to get musical ideas in my head and then make those sounds with the banjo.
Daily practice is more important than anything. Daily, daily, daily. Maybe a goal of 20 minutes as a minimum, more if I feel the itch.
I dug up my copy of "The Complete 5-string banjo player" by Tony Trischka. Finding it was the first challenge. Then when I started using it, I was confronted with another issue -- the binding is not very good and the pages are falling out. I ended up disassembling the book, trimming pages to 8.5 by 11 inches and punching holes. Then they all went into a 3-ring binder.
But we don't just want to read about banjo playing, we want to get the banjo down and get our hands on it. I took the Deering Goodtime 2 down off of its hook. I tuned it last night. I worked on some basic rolls with open strings. I also reminded myself of the left hand positions to the C and D7 chords. Getting that left hand to cooperate is my first big challenge.
What I don't want to do is to practice putting first one finger and then the other onto the strings. I want to practice putting all my fingers at once onto the strings so that motor pattern gets automated.
As I practice the rolls, I also want to avoid looking at the tab. I want to hum the roll (so I get the musical sound in my head) and I want to learn how to do the roll without looking at anything. This is how I want to handle all of my practice. I may use tab to get started, but what I want to program my mind to do is to convert music that I hear in my head or can hum into music that is generated by my fingers.
I found a book by Ross Nickerson, "the Banjo encyclopedia". He has a whole chapter on the left hand with practice drills! And lots of interesting information about practicing in general. He points out that many top musicians started out and spent all day practicing in their early years. This is something I have thought about. Teenagers have all kinds of time on their hands (I certainly did) and those who get enthused about music could spend all kinds of time practicing. And then we have old folks (retired people, like me) who can spend as much time as they like practicing. There is no reason to set limits as long as you feel motivated and stay reasonably focused!
My evening session felt better than the morning. The main thing is to practice regularly (i.e. daily). The mind can only absorb so much in a day, but there is no harm done in pushing it unless you get discouraged. A big part of practicing as a beginner is not to be too hard on yourself. Don't let mistakes discourage you. They are inevitable, given that you don't know what you are doing.
I called my old friend Richard, who is an accomplished guitarist and bass player. He says he never learns music from tabs. He hears songs and then "works them out" himself. That was the only option back when he started. This certainly builds a musical mind. He says sometimes getting one key note right is the key to working out a whole song or part of it.
One thing he did say is that playing with other people is critical. He has known people who could play perfectly on their own, but came unglued as part of a group. He also says that playing with a group greatly accelerates your progress. It sounds like sort of a sink or swim kind of thing.
Good for one day. I am working mostly on rolls from my book by Trischka along with a simple first version of "Cripple Creek" on page 20.
Not having unrealistic expectations will help keep it fun. And allowing mistakes. As they say, everyone sucks at first -- you have to make noise before you can make music. And you will make faster progress if you allow yourself to fail and learn from it. It is not unlike the "release early and often" approach to software as per the open source world. You make faster progress if you get feedback than if you hold back expecting perfection.
I found a series of 50 online lessons by Jens Kruger. I spent a fair bit of time fixing my computer sound card so I could make good use of them. But all this overhead doesn't count as practice! It is only time with hands on the banjo that count. Jens Kruger says to sing or hum as you play anything (such as rolls). You want your brain to build connections between sounds and what your hands are doing.
I am spending some time reviewing and studying music theory. One conclusion is that I need to just take it for what it is rather than trying to organize it to fit my own desires for math and science. Musicians have been using and working with this system for hundreds of years (since Bach at least) -- so it may be tradition, but it is also deeply ingrained -- and useful. Once again, study time does not count as practice -- only time with hands on the banjo.
At some point I want to teach myself to play worship songs that I enjoy from the good old days at church. I don't expect to ever see tab for those (maybe chord charts), so I will have to learn to play by ear. And I am assured that I can. And learning to play by ear also means I should be able to learn to improvise.
The "brainjo" book points out that our minds are good at remembering melodies. Mine certainly is. I can hum all kinds of songs that I have heard. And it is much much easier to remember a melody than to remember a sequence learned from tab. So there we are again. Train myself to convert sounds (or sound ideas) into sounds via the banjo and I'll be in business. This is one part of practice (when practice is done right without reliance on tabs). The other part is just building the muscle patterns themselves. More tomorrow.
Banjo practice is like training for a marathon. You had better enjoy the training! The marathon is just the reward. What I am saying here is that you are going to spend a lot of time practicing, so you better enjoy it. Make it a point to enjoy it. You are probably going to spend more time with the banjo practicing than anything else.
More philosophy: ultimately you must teach yourself. This is true of anything. I used to be a ski instructor, and it became clear as I gave lessons and took lessons myself that my lesson time was a tiny fraction of my time skiing.
This leads to another topic. I had a ski instructor (a very good one) say that the reason many people don't improve is that they don't spend time working on their skiing. They just want to go ski with friends and have fun, not work on things that will take them to the next level. Once you get content with whatever level you are on, you may want to relax and just have fun. Is this wrong? It is up to you. Any real expert is never satisfied and is always working to improve.
So, today I worked on rolls and a simple version of Cripple Creek in my Trischka book. I also figured something else about my left hand. I need to curve my fingers more. What I am to do is to have the ends of my fingers come straight down on the strings. If I don't make an effort to do this, my inclined finger interferes with the nearby string. This is simply a habit to form and the sooner the better.
More philosophy -- goals can be bad. They are bad if they lead to unrealistic expectations and time scales. Musical learning will take place at a pace of its own. You just have to invest in practice and let things happen at their own pace. This doesn't mean to be lazy and not work towards goals, but as a rank beginner you really have no idea how much basic stuff you need to learn and how long it will take for your body to absorb it. Put in the time and watch what happens.
I really believe I learned some things 10 years ago before I laid this all aside, and am surprised at how I do have a foundation to work on. Probably some bad habits too that I will need to identify and fix.
While waiting I worked on "Old McDonald had a farm" from page 21 of my old Neil Griffin book. I have to work our my own plan for my left hand, and I basically use a D7 chord position with some lifting up on my finger on the 3rd string and occasional touches onto the 1st string as per a C cord (with my ring finger). The book has chord markings, but I think they would only be useful if you were just going to strum as backup.
I also watched Lesson 7 and 8 of Jens Kruger's online academy. I am just super tired in the evening or else I would work on Old McDonald some more. It may end up as my first song. He has exercises playing for/back roll and changing chords. He says it is unavoidable at first to hesitate while changing chords (which I find good to know), but the goal is to eliminate that and play the rolls with steady timing while changing the left hand positions. He says to try to put the finger down that you need to play next if you are not managing to get them all at once quickly. I am finding that practice is making me better at this (progress!).
Be patient with yourself, and slow down so your concentration is ahead of your playing. Give yourself some time. He says getting the first 7 lessons nice, might take a month, or even more.
I am starting to think that using standard musical notation in lieu of tabs would have great benefits. I would start to know the names of notes and where they are on the fretboard.
My current finger picks are Dunlop 0.20 -- and these are apparently nickel silver. Kruger gives some unique an excellent information in lesson 8 about details with setting up the finger picks. He talks about "blue chip" thumb picks that have metal around the thumb, then a shaped plastic piece to engage the string.
I admired John's left hand work while he played the bass. I asked him if he ever had to look to see what fret he was on when playing down the neck. He said no, it is muscle memory. We then talked about people who play instruments without frets. They rely entirely on muscle memory for the position of the arm, and can make fine adjustments by ear. Thinking about this made me realize that the same things is possible with the banjo (or bass).
Before church I found myself with a banjo and no books or paper and tried to play "Old McDonald". I was pleased to figure out all the notes by ear and trial and error. I call this a milestone. Of course I had been playing this from tab yesterday, so there was some residual knowledge in my brain. But this is what I am aiming for -- being able to hum a tune then play it without anything on paper.
I just read an interesting article that claimed that about 2000 hours of practice are needed to learn to play the banjo. This would bring you to the level where you could play as a member of a "professional" bluegrass band. This was based on another study that found that 2500 hours was necessary to learn to play the violin. The fellow just applied a loose discount, based on the thinking that the banjo is not as hard as the violin.
You can of course find endless reasons to toss this number out the window, but let us not do that and consider what it tells us.
Practice 1 hour/day every day -- 5.5 years Practice 4 hours/day 5 days/week -- 2 yearsThe second number is pretty much what most teenage musicians do. They go nuts with their instrument and practice every minute when they are not in school. If you don't want to wait 5 years, you had better practice every day and for more than an hour.
This is both sobering and encouraging. I have of course just been practicing for one week, so I am barely off the starting line -- so I should not be hard on myself. Above all, this underscores the need for daily practice if you ever intend to accomplish anything. It is also worth noting that playing and practice become fun long before the 2000 hour mark -- or so they say. Better enjoy the journey!
As I read further in the article about 2000 hours, I find the following claim. One instructor said that there are fairly clear "steps" at about 10, 50, 100, and 500 hours. He says he can tell whether his students are practicing between sessions by whether or not he sees the expected progress at these points. I find this statement interesting as a way to set some kind of vague expectations. I am getting close the that 10 hour step. I wonder what I will see at the 50 hour step?
Today I started working on "Clementine" ("o my darling ...). I want to get several songs memorized so I can just sit down with the banjo and work on them. I can also memorize some of the rolls and work on those along with left hand key changes. I'll need to start planning my practices as some point, but for now just doing anything every day is critical, with the emphasis being on the "every day".
Today I practiced "Old McDonald" which I can do from memory and worked on Clementine. I also worked on the very simple reduction of "Cripple Creek" on page 21 of the Griffin book.
I have just been playing with my fingers up to tonight, but this evening put on picks. It certainly makes for a clarity of tone -- the notes just ring out! My thumb pick feels long and clumsy -- I don't know if I need to trim it or just get used to it.
But I didn't neglect the banjo. I worked on Cripple Creek and found a second beginner version in the Trischka book to try to compare to the Griffin book version. I also worked on Clementine. I play the Goodtime in the house and the Sierra in my office, but don't yet carry picks in my pocket all the time. I spent some time just focusing on getting my left hand to snap onto the C chord shape. More drills of that sort will pay off. I also ignore the chord markings on songs like Cripple Creek and Clementine and work out my own scheme for the left hand. The chord markings in the book might be fine for strumming, but shouldn't be taken as a guide for the left hand while picking. I should practice strumming, .. and rolls.
Working on Cripple Creek (Trischka p. 20) and Clementine. Now using picks, which introduce new issues. And starting to expect too much of myself and feeling frustration starting to work on me. This is an exercise in patience if nothing else.
Also I will note (from last night) practicing later in the evening when I am tired is not terribly productive. I need to dedicate some top quality time mid day. Practicing when I am tired is much less productive. Maybe at some point it will be good to learn how to just "make things happen" no matter how tired I am, but those days are far in the future, and that is a different lesson altogether. At this point I have no resources or muscle memory to draw upon in those situations.
A new month has begun, a new day has dawned, bright and clear.
I am facing my first feelings of discouragement. I have been making fairly rapid progress over the past 10 days, in part because I have been remembering and reawakening things I learned some 10 years ago when I first tackled learning to play the banjo. Now I am facing the same things I was facing back then. By faith I am believing that if I put in the practice time, I will make progress. Things I have only partially learned need to be more completely learned and made permanent. Persistence and patience is the key.
More with the picks. I may change my left hand position. I had been trying to keep my thumb on the back of the neck, but I see both Kruger and Trischka playing with their thumb sticking up like an antenna, so they clearly have the neck in the crook between the thumb and index finger. This allows a much more natural wrist position. Trying to keep your thumb on the neck requires a big arch in the wrist. This has my attention and I am experimenting.
I can play Old McDonald from memory, albeit with errors (which I can immediately hear). I am working on getting Clementine memorized, but I'm not there yet.
I find that just relaxing and playing Old McDonald a few times as best I can is encouraging.
At the doctors office, I heard some music (on guitar) playing individual notes. I enjoyed hearing each note plucked with perfection -- someone said this of the banjo, but it is certainly true of the guitar also. Each note should be a perfectly formed pearl. At this stage of my practice, I think it is worthwile to practice slowly enough to give each note attention and to let my "picking habits" get formed properly.
I am still undecided about left hand position. Having my thumb behind the neck gives a less natural wrist angle, but gives the fingers extra freedom. Having the neck cradled between my thumb and index finger makes my wrist more natural and perhaps gives a better anchor to predict my finger position -- but it does require more finger dexterity. The pros all seem to cradle the neck.
I also play some other songs from the Griffin book. And I look ahead to see more territory he would have planned for me. He has 8 pages of drill on rolls and says to run through it every day for the next six months! He says that will take maybe 10 minutes when you are in gear with it. He also says it is a mistake to hurry at this point.
I am inclined to think that practice, or at least a good portion of it, ought to be working on things that are outside of your comfort zone, that when mastered will extend your abilities. But what do I know as a beginner? I have heard of masters that practice scales daily. And they say you want to practice doing things right, not thrashing around -- since practice make permanent, not perfect.
I am convinced that progress won't necessarily happen as you practice. Practice informs your mind what you want it to set up programs (so called "muscle memory") for, and that may well happen while you are sleeping. You will discover progress at some later time.
In the evening I made a discovery. Some church music was playing and I just kind of strummed along (keeping time). And I made chord changes (G, C, D7) with my left hand. Not necessarily the right chord changes for the song, but the important thing is that I made them "on schedule". If I did something wrong, I just kept moving and quickly fixed any wrong finger locations or buzzing strings). It just worked -- the little mistakes didn't really matter and it was a great way to learn -- just do your best and above all keep moving.
I need to do more of this. My friend Richard has told me that playing with other people is one of the things that really helped him learn how to play guitar. This playing along with other music is almost that and just "feels right". The metronome might be just as good or better.
I have a weird thing I am battling where I pick a string too timidly -- and who knows why. Maybe I should do something Jens Kruger says, "play ugly" -- he recommends it as a method when striving for speed. It serves me well when I just try to blast forward, most of all just playing something (anything) while managing to keep time. We will clean up the mistakes later, someday, we hope.
I keep putting off the metronome, but I ought to do it along with Nickersons rolls and then with the "daily 8" from Griffin. One comment on the daily 8 - the "Fiesta" in Em seems entirely out of place.
I had every intention of practicing with the metronome, but never did. I did do two practice sessions, running through the 8 "daily" pages in Griffin. These pages are getting more comfortable. I also run through my two songs: Clementine and Old McDonald. Amazingly, I still can't run through Clementine on autopilot. I almost can McDonald, but even there I have to think my way through it. How can players master a hundred complex songs?
The fingers on my right hand sort of get in each others way. I need to rotate my hand so the fingers are more orthogonal to the strings in order to give them room. This is something that one of my teachers pointed out to me 10 years ago and I am rediscovering it.
I am also having to discipline myself to keep my ring and little finger anchored. One of them at least! Both if possible. Otherwise my hand is floating around and I can't teach my fingers repeatable patterns.
My right hand is not yet automatic. The C chord is the big challenge. I am not fretting over it and just hoping that it will fix itself with a lot of practice -- but I should do more focused practice that just demands left hand chord changes. Eventually with a metronome.
Two sessions today and maybe a third before I go to bed. I went to the library and copied the 8 daily pages from Griffin. If I do them daily for 200 days as recommended, I will have them memorized within a month, or I should
No metronome yet. Nickerson (on page 18) says that a good starting speed is 80 when ticking on quarter notes (which is the usual thing). You can let the metronome tick for 1/8 notes, in which case he recommends 135 as a starting speed. A person might start out letting the metronome do 1/8 notes, but pretty soon transition to letting it do 1/4 notes like the "pros" do.
As I get frustrated with my left hand -- buzzing and muted strings and such -- I begin to wonder: maybe my fingers are just too big? I do a search on "my fingers are too big to play guitar", figuring guitar players have the same issues and there are a lot more of them.
The advice is simple -- keep practicing and don't give up and it will work. Everyone thinks their fingers are too short/fat/skinny/crooked/whatever when they first start trying to play. And various people with radical sausage fingers are cited, such as Christopher “kingfish “ Ingram and Redd Volkaert who do quite well, you can see Volkaert on this video:
One guy said, "No, your fingers aren't too fat...and I don't even know how fat they are."
The day began with (after the phone episode) Deering Live doing an interview with Bela Fleck.
Once again, like Jens Kruger, this guy seems like a decent human without a giant ego.
There was lots to learn, here are some key things I wrote down:
My left hand is frustrating me. I search online for "Guitar fretting problems" or something of the sort and find a fellow "Guitar sage" who has a 3 part series on fretting problems. I get two tips. One is that the fingertip is not the finger pad. It is the tip, just 2mm below the nail more or less. He has students put a dot there with a sharpie and tells them to put that dot on the string. This requires the last joint of the finger to be very much orthogonal to the fretboard, which requires curling the fingers. He recommends the thumb on the back of the neck to aid this, but I find I can curl adequately with the neck cradled between thumb and index finger.
It boils down to discipline and accuracy with finger shape on the left hand -- along with getting them on the right strings and frets! Now I know what to practice.
I also transcribe "Oh Susanna" from simple melody in music notation to banjo tab. And now I have a third song to add to Old McDonald and Clementine.
I practice mid afternoon and feel like it is a breakthrough. You never know when a breakthrough is going to come, you just have to keep persistently practicing. The left hand tip from yesterday is a big help. When I hear string 3 buzzing, it is because I am lazy with string 4 (doing the C chord) and need to just push it and make it straight above string 4. A pretty easy fix, and the right way to fix the problem.
I remember one instructors claim that there are fairly clear "steps" at about 10, 50, 100, and 500 hours. For no strictly good reason I am claiming an hour for each of my practice days. Truth be known I tend to practice for 30 minutes in a session, so I need to aim for two such sessions each day. And I need to try to do them during "prime time", not just before bed when I am only half way there.
Also I need to just do drills strumming and alternating D, C, and G chords. The main one to practice is C. If I am just strumming, I can direct my full attention to my left hand. A drill to add to my practice.
Again go through Griffin 8. I need to start commiting this to memory so I don't program myself to just play from tab!! I am sure I have already done this somewhat, but the sooner I change my ways the better. And I need to get back to Clementine also, and add some simple songs to my practice routine.
50 days is indeed a milestone of sorts. But progress is steady and slow.
It is also beneficial to sit up straight and proud and not to let the heel of my right hand touch the bridge.