Blog Post Number Two

So I've been messing around with my banjo a bit and I've been having a lot of fun with it! I found an awesome website that has a lot of tabs to banjo arrangements of popular songs, along with YouTube tutorials of each of the songs - pretty nifty. Not only that, but the guy who runs the site offers Skype banjo lessons and also has some learn-to-play banjo books published! I probably won't do the Skype lessons, but I probably will end up purchasing one of the books. From his website, I've learned to play the Avett Brothers' "Paranoia in Bb Major", which - although it's not bluegrass- is pretty...and also easy to play if you have the tab.

I'm still working on trying to figure out the Rolling Stones song. I've been able to figure out a couple bits of it by ear, but I'm not familiar enough with the neck of the banjo or the style of playing to even know how to approach it yet.

While a guitar in standard tuning is EADGBE with all strings a fourth apart (with the exception of G to B being a major third), I've learned that a 5-string banjo like mine is normally tuned GDGBD. This is actually pretty handy because it makes a lot chords really easy to play. I mean, if you just strum the instrument without even putting any fingers down on the fretboard, you have a G chord!

The biggest struggle I've had while learning to play besides the unfamiliarity of where the notes are on the neck is the fingerpicks. You don't normally strum a lot of chords with the banjo; you typically finger a chord with your left hand and then you perform a roll with your right. To play in the proper twangy bluegrass style, you do this while wearing fingerpicks. I'm adequate at fingerstyle guitar, but placing these strange metal contraptions on my fingertips and trying to play music is not unlike placing Bugles snacks on your fingertips, pretending you have witch nails, and trying to go about your regular activities.

 

My banjo, Kazooie.

 

Fingerpicks