Learning to Play Banjo in the New Millennium by Ian Perry

If you weren’t fortunate enough to live near someone who could play the banjo three-finger style, all you had to go by were recordings and whatever bluegrass music you could catch on the radio, probably on WSM’s Grand Old Opry on Saturday night. In the 1960’s, things improved, but banjo instruction books were still few and far between and instructors were even harder to find. By the 70’s, more books had found their way onto the market, finding a banjo teacher had become a little easier than finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, Banjo Newsletter had arrived, and the advent of bluegrass festivals made it easier to connect with other local players and to hear professionals perform live. The eighties and nineties brought audio cassette courses, video lessons, more books and tablature and the CD revolution, which led to many previously unavailable recordings being reissued in this new, digital format. Now in the new millennium, the beginning banjo student has not only more books, DVDs and recordings to choose from, but also banjo workshops, banjo camps and most of all, access to the miracle of the Internet, a gateway to a world that contains more recordings to listen to, more videos to watch and more tablature to play than anyone could absorb in a dozen lifetimes.

The secrets of bluegrass banjo are no longer hidden behind a shroud of secrecy as they were, but in many ways the pendulum has now swung the other way and the problem is no longer where to find information on how to play the banjo, but with the mountain of choices available… where does one begin? Trying to figure out which books to buy, what videos to watch, which teaching method to use, whether or not to use tablature; making these decisions can be a truly overwhelming process. In this special issue, you’ll find articles, columns and comments from many of the leading banjo players and instructors in the world, all geared toward helping you make sense of the overabundance of teaching material that is now at your fingertips. We’ll be covering everything from private lessons to workshops and banjo camps to cutting edge technology, such as Tony Trischka’s interactive online school of banjo. It’s important to remember that teaching methods don’t come in “one size fits all.” What works for one, might not be the best approach for another. What you find in the pages that follow will help you to better understand what each teaching method has to offer and will put you in a position where you’ll be able to make an informed choice on what approach will work best for you.

Many of these teachers also describe the step by step process they use with their own students. You can learn a lot by comparing both the similarities and differences in these approaches to teaching the banjo, noting that in some areas there is a strong sense of general agreement (e.g. “It’s important to listen to banjo music as much as possible.”) while in others, the controversy rages on. (e.g. “How many fingers should you anchor on the head?”) By seeing all these ideas, approaches and methods, it should help you to realize that the goal is not to find the one “right” method, but rather to find the method that works best for you.

It’s also important to remember that once you look past all of the high tech tools and gadgets that are now at your disposal, the essential basics of learning to play the banjo haven’t changed. You still have to spend a lot of time practicing on a regular basis, you need to listen to banjo music, both live and recorded, as often as possible and you need to get out and play with other musicians at the earliest opportunity. With all of the bells and whistles that are out there today, it’s far too easy to create the illusion that you are learning to play the banjo. But the time you spend installing the latest software on your computer, signing up to a banjo website or posting on your favorite banjo chatroom doesn’t really bring you any closer to your goal. In the end, it still all comes down to practicing, listening and playing with others.

That being said, when used properly, the exciting developments of modern technology can have a huge impact on your learning process, often making things much easier and less frustrating than they were in days past. When I was first learning to play in the 1970s, I couldn’t play along with records because I simply couldn’t play fast enough. By the time I could play fast enough, I was already out playing with other local musicians, and as a result I spent very little time in my formative years playing along with top notch bluegrass rhythm sections, something that is necessary to get the sound and feel of the music into your ears, your hands and yes, even in your bones! Today there are a number of tools, both stand-alone units and computer software, that will slow music down without changing the pitch, meaning that if you can’t quite get your speed up to the music, you can bring the speed of the music down to you. This means that earlier in your learning process, you’ll be able to play along with Earl and the rhythm of the Foggy Mountain Boys, something that will help to improve your timing, your phrasing and virtually every other aspect of your playing.

Another modern innovation that can be very useful is Skype, a computer program that provides free video calling. With this technology, you can have a private lesson with any teacher in the world, provided you both have a computer, a webcam and access to the Internet. Especially if you live in a more remote area, this means you are no longer limited to the teacher at the local music store, who may be a real banjo player, but if you’re not so lucky may turn out to be a guitar teacher who is simply staying one week ahead of you in your instruction book. If you live in England and would like to take lessons with a teacher in the United States, the cost of a weekly lesson no longer need include the price of a transatlantic airline ticket!

And with listening being such an integral part of the learning process, YouTube has become one of the greatest resources available to banjo players everywhere. Again, if you have a computer and Internet access, you can hear, and often watch, almost any banjo song you can imagine. Learning to play Fireball Mail? Search it on YouTube and you not only get an audio version of Roy Acuff’s original 1942 recording, but also videos of Flatt and Scruggs, the Osborne Brothers, the Lonesome River Band and numerous others. Never before has so much music been so readily available.

Modern tab programs not only make it easier to write tab than ever before, but will also play the tab back so you can actually hear what it’s supposed to sound like. If you’ve ever tried to struggle through a tab you’ve never heard before, you know how helpful this feature can be. It also means that the amount of tab that once filled a filing cabinet can now be stored on a single disc!

So roll up your sleeves and dig in. Whether you’re a beginner trying to figure out where to begin or an intermediate looking to take your playing to the next level, everything you need to know is right here. Just start reading.