Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

A little Anxiety

Forum Members:

I have seen some recent posts about students interested in experimenting and asking about the impact to multi-instrumental playing and its’ affect on slowing down progress on their primary instrument.

My experience is that it doesn’t seem to have a negative impact.

That said, my Mando is just much more comfortable and an entirely better class of instrument to my starter hallow-back.

Therefore, I have been drawn in and have played the Mando much more in recent months.

Well, last night, I pulled out the ole Banjer with some trepidation. I must say… it was like the ole bike ride… It was quirky at first… Then, that fell away… and honestly, I had some actual improvements once I got back to being accustomed to the larger Banjo frets.

HOWEVER, there truly was some anxiety in my mind. I thought about… why?

In the end, I think I feared how “bad” the long break would have affected my playing.

Truth be told, I am a comete novice… so there was really not much to be lost anyway.

However, I am pleased to report… The experience was like seeing an old friend again… a little nerves that melted away when I started playing.

I just wanted to share and see if others have experienced taking a long break and having some feelings of reservation (or our own negative thoughts) that made going back a bit tougher than expected?

7 Likes

I can’t say I’ve ever been nervous to open my banjo case except when I got it off the airplane where it had been checked baggage and not in a “flight case”. I can say that if I miss more than a couple days on any instrument, I actually go through withdrawal and it starts to be all I think about

6 Likes

Very cool!

I’ve definitely noticed that when I play banjo more, I tend to also feel more comfortable on guitar. For that matter, I think it even bleeds over into playing drums. In the past, I’ve gone long spells without playing anything, and it all suffers for it. I’ve noticed, though, that if I get back in to playing anything that requires keeping tempo, my drumming is better.

I think that’s the universe’s way of telling me I need to be playing something at all times. :slight_smile:

4 Likes