I promised you all an update on my quest to become a real banjo picker. The online course I chose is called the Thirty Days of Banjo and I must tell you, I’m really far behind schedule. I’m at almost up to twice the number of days already and I’m only about two thirds through the program.
To be fair, my instructor Eli Gilbert warned me that it might take more time or it might take less time “and that’s fine”. I appreciate that advice and although I am eager to learn one of the most noble of the bluegrass instruments, it’s really hard stuff for a soon to be seventy year old. Thirty days just isn’t going to happen.
To be young again! My only banjo music camp class a few years ago with Bill Evans included a young Christine Willhoyte. Her father Mike is an amazing guitarist who played with Ed Neff for several years and he played a great set with Patrick Sauber on the Vern Stage at Grass Valley last year.
It took all of one day for Christine to be booted up from our beginner class to a more advanced class even though she had only been playing the instrument for a month or so. Christine has since played banjo for several really good bands.
My beginner class experience was not so stellar as Christine’s. Bill Evans was a good teacher and I learned some useful things but I got discouraged. Part of the discouragement came from the realization that one of the important rolls I had learned in preparation was slightly different than the way my finger memory had solidified it.
Several years later now, my new attempt at the banjo has been a lot of fun. I practice every day and follow the lesson plan. I even use Bill’s Banjo for Dummies as a reference from time to time. With practice, the tunes and exercises get easier and I can hear that I am making real progress. I have learned that slowing down your playing to a speed where you can get almost all the notes right is essential. That worked well when I was learning the mandolin too but I think it may be even more crucial when it comes to the banjo. Incorporating the metronome in my practice sessions is the next step.
I encourage anyone contemplating learning the banjo to check out Eli Gilbert’s Thirty Days of Banjo. Of course it’s a teaser for more lessons that actually makes the guy some real money that he richly deserves. Thirty free lessons is a pretty generous teaser.
I can play some pretty decent banjo now but I still have a long way to go before I can put my comfortable mandolin aside and add banjo to a camp-side jam that might need it. I encourage all you would be banjoists to check out every source that might make you more able to take up that mantle. It seems to me that the most needed instruments at any bluegrass festival are the fiddle and the banjo. Maybe that’s because they are so hard to play.
Not many people make a lot of money playing the banjo. Money is tight and we certainly need more banjo pickers or bluegrass music will die. I will certainly never make any money playing the banjo but it sure is a fun instrument. Cripple Creek might be the only tune I ever learn to play on the banjo but by God I’m going to learn it and I’m going to get all the notes right!
I promise another update when I finish the “Thirty” Days of Banjo.
