Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

An apology and A Confession

#21

I just happen to be up late.

Anyway…

You sound like you are just about where I was 2-3 years ago before all my scale practicing and effort put forth of memorizing the fret board. If you have natural music talent then you may very well be able to skip all that scale practice. If you struggle with it you may want to dedicate some time into learning those scales and notes. As mentioned, we all learn differently. What works for me may not work for you.

Naturally talented musicians - Most have “perfect pitch”. I think Ben has “perfect pitch”. It’s a gift. If you pass Ben on the street and ask him to sing you an F note he can do it. Me, I have to hear the note then adjust my singing to it. Only takes a split second to get on the note but I just can’t sing out a G note on command. The “ear” I spoke of early drives that. Free up that ear to make corrections in your playing just like it does with making you adjust your pitch in order to get in tune with a note. We will never have perfect pitch like Ben but with work we can get close.

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#22

True, I knew a chorus director, she played piano and she could sing in any key like Ben would. She uses a whistle for us. I think it also requires a lot of listening (bare minimum) among other things to acquire the talent. Which I don’t. I know the 5-patterns now, I have to get clean and accurate at normal speed, to move on to make progress.

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#23

That comes from knowing your scales forward, backwards,sideways, up, down, etc. It also comes with an understanding…

Understand that when you are in G major and from a beginners standpoint are pretty much only going to use those notes of the G major scale no matter what chord you are in. If you are in G major and do a G,C,G, D progression then you still play those notes of the G major scale…but when you go to C start with a C note. When you go back to G start on a G note. When you go to D start with a D note…but stick with the notes within the G major scale. Those 7 notes.

With work you will see what notes are common in the G major scale, C major scale ,and D major scale. All 3 of those will share a lot of the same notes. You will know these common notes that all 3 share if you know your scales and notes…then you can use these notes.

For instance in G major and going to C - There’s no F sharp in C major like there is in G major…C major has an F in it vs the F sharp. So don’t play the F note because it clashes with the G. You can get by with it and that F shows up in bluegrass (blues). Using that F note in G major gives it a sad sound. Using the F sharp in G major gives it a happy sound. So C major has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A B. Note that G major has all the same notes besides for the F. Toss that note out and avoid it when you are in the C chord (and G is the major) C does not like the note F sharp, so avoid it when in the C chord. D loves F sharp and it’s in it’s scale and triad, so feel free to show that F sharp while you are in the D chord. Learn those notes.

I mentioned early that my brain is tracking and processing so many things at once. It’s actually fairly amazing to me, I mean it’s a feedback control loop that is tracking so many different things all at once and somehow manages to control all of those things. With me learning the fret board and a lo of music theory my brain does not have to devote so much time and effort into that like it use to…I’ve freed up space. At some point you will be able to use that extra brain power to get “cute” and jam with a melodic and creative spin on things.

The old joke is “She can’t walk and chew gum at the same time”. What if she practiced that for a long time? After a bit of practice she does not even have to think about walking and chewing at the same time, she can do both…but she has to practice.

There is nothing wrong with us…we just have to learn what comes a lot easier for some other folks. For those that it comes easy (er) to you will find them being “pros”. They just have a god given talent. We can join them but we have to work at it a lot harder.

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#24

I play forward and backwards on the 5-positions. I believe then now I have to work on sideways, up, down. Once I learn this I should be in a pretty decent shape to absorb more theory. I thought if in G-scale, you stick with the notes in the scale for all G-major, C-major, and D-major but from you now it sounds like you switch scales patterns depending on the chord and drop notes based on the original G-key?? Anyways let me work on sideways, up and down first. Too much for me for now. :slight_smile:

I’m thinking of practicing this exercise alongside. 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2 (2 times), 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-2 (2 times) and then 1. A total of 10 exercises - 2 for each pattern (realize not 10 exercises as many repeat or similar). I’m assuming the skip “playing” will challenge to better tune the fingers for playing the notes in a chord/triad.

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#25

Regarding what you are “thinking”…once you can see the fret board in your head then playing intervals like you mentioned becomes a lot easier. If you can see the fret and string in your head then your fingers automatically go there. See the fret and string in your head, do not look at it on the fret board…gotta see it in your head and hear if its correct with your ear.

To note: I’d hate to play under bright lights because nearly all of my practicing scales and jamming alone over the past year or so was done in a dark room. I wanted to be able to see it in my head and hear it with my ears, not look at it. I turned the lights out and started using my ears to correct things vs using my eyes to correct them. This really improved both my right and left hand technique and made my ears “super ears”.

When you scratch your nose do you have to go to a mirror in order to see to get your finger on your nose? I am a firm believer in practicing in the dark. We don’t need our eyes to make music and I honestly think they slow us down…gotta see it all in your head and use those ears. We could never play music without our ears. Those ears are a lot more important than the eyes. With enough practice (in the dark?) scales and notes will come as easy to you as touching the tip of your nose without having to look. The nose, ears, eyes, etc never move to a new location, they are always right there where we left them…same goes for the notes on a fret board - They are always in the same location (unless of course you play year old strings like me (lol)).

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#26

Agree. I’ll keep that in mind and practice without looking but more from visualizing.

Play from hearing (audio) and play from looking (visual) is 2 different skills and to be adapt at both I think you will require more than double the effort as they kind of tend to cancel each other. You have to bring them together to complement each other is a challenge. At least one has to become a second nature for the brain to focus on the other. Or both should become second nature.

It is like memorizing the same in thing in 2 different languages. It is sort of hard though. You can learn separate things in 2 languages easily but the same thing in 2 different language, I find it sort of tough though.

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#27

Well, @oldhat40, sounds like you’ve unlocked the next level. This conversation has gone over my head a few times, but I did understand a good bit of it. There’s quite a load of good info here, and I hope you do show up more frequently on the forum so we can absorb some of the wisdom you’ve learned in smaller more easily digestible packages.

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#28

I guess you can say it’s my way of contributing back. If there are folks out there that think they are at the same level I was 2 years ago, then I don’t mind trying to explain how I got through it. Helping others with something like this is enjoyable.

I do hope that any of the folks around here that are at the next level above me takes some time and chime in on where they went next from this level. I’d like to keep progressing myself, but as of right now it’s fun…and that’s what I have always wanted to achieve.