Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Angeline the Baker

#1

Aloha Guitar Pickers:

Here’s what I’ve done so far on Angeline the Baker. I’ve pretty much weaned myself off of the tab and memorized it so I can start trying to put some speed on it and add my own little ornaments to make it mine.

Record yourself and upload so we can all hear what everyone is doing. I’m sure Ben would like to know that his lessons are being enjoyed by his students and would like to hear their progress. It not only helps you as a musician it also helps the instructor to see that his work means something and is helping his students.

So…get pickin’ and let’s hear how you are doing…speed doesn’t matter….comfortable accurate picking is better…speed will come if you keep working on it.

I fully recommend Ben’s scale exercise he calls “Circular” for a good warm-up, gaining speed and ear training of the notes in the G scale. Some people call it floating scales. I was taught this exercise years ago by a professional guitarist. I really notice a difference when I don’t spend time doing this exercise…like sit-ups, you don’t like doing them, you don’t get good at it…but it helps build your body for sports, etc. and it feels soooo good when done… Same with these exercises. One of my flatpicking books not only shows this exercise but also uses part of it as a lick in a song…pretty cool. So, spend a little time with these exercises when you warm-up, with a metronome and you will see improvement in your flatpicking. Slow at first until you get the hang of it.

Thanks,
Gater

#2

Nice job!!!
Thank you for sharing and for the encouragement!

#3

Thanks for posting, it inspired me to grab a guitar and play the song a bit.

#4

Hello from middle Tennessee!
Good job! I’m trying to get the low solo part down. Started last night. So far this one is my favorite. But Temperance and St. Annes reel are right there with it.

#5

Gater,

Thanx much for bringing up “Circular Scale” exercises. I call them scale sequences. I call them sequences because my guitar teacher introduced them that way. My teacher showed me two patterns. I have ask for more with no success. I am not very creative musically and have not worked out any other patterns but there should be more and I would like to know what they are. I am guessing that there are other names for the same thing.

These don’t just apply to G scale. They apply to all scales (at least the major scales). When you can breeze thru sequences like these you know where the notes are. I have recognized fragments of these sequences in riffs that are used in songs. You can syncopate the pattern to add interest. And in my opinion doing these sequences is an effective way to drill a scale pattern.

#6

— Begin quote from "JimJones"

I have ask for more with no success. I am not very creative musically and have not worked out any other patterns but there should be more and I would like to know what they are. I am guessing that there are other names for the same thing.

— End quote

A pattern I see used in music quite a bit (typically in small chunks) is like this in G:
G A G A B A B C B C D C D E D E F# E F# G
If that doesn’t make sense for someone, give a yell and I or someone else can write it out in tab or standard notation

#7

I can work with this and will translate it to my fingers next week. The delay is prep for a workshop in Tempe with Steve Kaufman this weekend. I know he can teach, the real challenge is can I learn. At 68 years I have to work at not being to set in my experience.
After the last post I did another search on sequences and found this.

Talk about over kill!

This should probably be a new thread.

#8

Hey Jim,
Sounds like a cool weekend!

#9

Yep, that should be a fun weekend. I went to a Kaufman workshop several years ago and had a great time. I wish Ben held workshops. I’d probably be willing to spend a little more money and drive a few more miles for his. Especially if some of the forum gang were going to be there!