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This thread finally pushed me over the edge to pick up a banjo yesterday (a Gold Tone). I've played guitar for many years so I have a bit of a headstart, but what I'm really looking for is picking exercises. There are a ton of different patterns on banjo hangout, but I want to know which is the best one to start incessantly practicing? Right now I'm doing a forward-reverse roll with a metronome for 15 minutes at a time and lazily switching from G-C-D as I get bored. What other basic patterns should I practice alongside that are going to help the most? Right now most of them are a mindfuck because of the high G string. My guitar brain keeps wanting to go back and plant my thumb there for the start of the phrase and it throws off my groove.
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Nov 13, 2011 16:57
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 17:02 |
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Captain Mediocre posted:The rolls people mean when they say a particular name never seems very consistent so I'll just write out my favourite pair. "5" being the short/high G string, "4" being the 'lowest' in pitch, "1" being physically closest to the ground, etc. Awesome! The first half of the second one you've posted there is what I've been practicing. What do I move to after rolls, as far as the right hand goes? Progressively more complex patterns? What about left hand exercises? Chords/fretting come pretty quick to me, being a guitarist, but I love the sounds of all the slides and hammer-ons in bluegrass. Got any suggestions for exercises of that sort?
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Nov 13, 2011 22:17
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Captain Mediocre posted:In terms of learning songs though, one of the first things I ever learnt and really enjoyed was this version of He Will Set Your Fields On Fire. It contains alot of standard rolls and sounds really nice to boot so its good fun and healthy practice. A few years down the line its still the thing I can play fastest just from how often I used it to practice it. This is a great little song, thanks for posting. Even on day three I can fumble my way through it. Now I just gotta practice it!
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Nov 14, 2011 19:22
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Been lurking in this thread for forever, and thought I'd finally like to chime in and just say that for anyone looking to learn/get better at clawhammer and want something a little more tangible than online tabs or YouTube videos, Ken Perlman's book Clawhammer Style Banjo has been a boon for my playing. After a couple years of disinterested fooling around with clawhammer, I finally decided to pick up this book and commit to his lesson plan (which basically amounts to working on one song per week), and it took about three months of slow, boring non-progress... but just recently the right hand motion FINALLY clicked for me, and I've been frailing away like a giddy child. It was a physical sensation that I can only compare to finally figuring out how it's supposed to "feel" to ride a bike. Just kind of like, "oh... THAT's how it goes." Highly recommended!
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Nov 11, 2015 21:04
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quadrophrenic posted:Learning how to drop-thumb is also a really satisfying "click". I can't wait for this one to set in too- I mostly play fingerstyle guitar, and in the past 18 months pretty much exclusively Chet Atkins-style where the thumb is almost always playing the bass oompah on the quarter note... I haven't quite figured it out with my hand in a claw shape instead of how I usually play guitar, which is by anchoring my hand with my pinky, but I'm getting there!
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Nov 13, 2015 20:33
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 17:02 |
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Anybody got any suggestions about fun songs to sing and frail at the same time? I'm a singer and guitarist for the past decade plus, and so it is absolutely befuddling to be frailing away contentedly only to open my mouth and fall apart within a beat or two. So I want to practice. As for level of difficulty, I'm about halfway through the Ken Pearlman book and pretty good at picking up the intermediate tunes on the Mike Iverson site. Thanks in advance!
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Feb 11, 2016 00:07
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