Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Ben's Toughest Lesson

i have followed the mandolin syllabus in order and have no previous mandolin experience and currently the red apple rag has taken me the longest to nail down so far. the previous lessons i could play (up to speed) after a few weeks or less, and maybe would not have been that long but can only squeeze in half an hour to an hour of practice a day. but the red apple has been a fun challenge. i feel that song is a good combination of the skills I’ve picked up thus far in the syllabus. its the first song ive really had to slow way down and break down into chunks to hammer down the licks. so, to the original question of

i guess the answer is, my experience level matched with the speed of the song and amount of notes and trying to really play clean and give each note its voice.
that being said, ive almost got it…in the bag :yum: :apple: :handbag:

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Hi Treblemaker,

I agree with you wholeheartedly about Paul McCartney, who is often underrated as a musician - just being seen as the bass player in Beatles. His creative inventiveness and overall musicianship are taken for granted. He never made a big deal about his talent for composition, songwriting and melody. Though there are rumors that John Lennon was envious of Paul’s talent to pluck charming melodies from thin air - I think John may have even belittled Paul for not being raw and rock and roll enough. Being a bit too educated, polished and nice.

I should imagine if you were able to hear Ben freely improvise one of these tunes he would be able to astound you with what he can create and you would have no idea where he drew his ideas from.

What’s even more incredible is that what Ben presents to us are simply lessons. They are extremely good lessons, but they will not showcase Ben’s complete talent.

He’s spent a great deal of time working out a version of his playing that almost anyone could achieve with some hard work. He’s not trying to impress you with virtuosity or ego. He presents good technique and tasteful ideas.

Also teaching is hard - coming up with good lessons that will benefit players of all abilities takes a lot of thought and effort. So Ben as has a talent to distill important elements to his style of playing in an accessible way.

If I compare Tony Rice’s Homespun DVD or some Albert Lee’s DVDs - both of whom are amazing players it’s very hard to grasp what they are showing you and you really struggle to learn - I ended up guessing and making stuff up - which can be interesting too. What Ben has here are note for note perfect examples that you can follow along in the TEF player. If you have the time to practice and persevere you can get there, which is quite reassuring. So Ben also has the gift of communicating his music to students.

Ben is extraordinarily talented player, who could have followed another path with his music, and we are all lucky to be able to benefit from his teaching.

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Couldn’t have said it better. Thank you!

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There was a time if you asked me what @BanjoBen 's toughest lesson was, I would have responded “the one I’m working on.” All joking aside, two years ago when I started this adventure it was challenging. Not just the music, everything else. The backing tracks and TEF files were new. There was a learning curve there. One of my weaknesses was counting. 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. Lazy, bad practice habits. And there were the finger twisters. Many of the banjo lessons had what I considered to be impossible measures. I would often put in something I was more familiar with. What about a single string lick?

I remember looking at my first guitar picking lesson. I think it was Cripple Creek. That was the banjo go to so it has to be good for guitar… right? I thought to myself, what evil person came up with pick strokes? Who frets two strings with one finger? And there was Blackberry Blossom. In the B part, Ben said you have to use the pinky picking in the Em part. I tried to prove him wrong but in the end my pinky developed character and strength.

Two years later ask which lesson is the toughest? It’s still the one I am working on. But I have developed new practice habits. Attending camp exposed me to some ideas I think would be hard to learn, at least initially, unless you are there. This adventure is like the mission statement from the old Star Trek episodes. It’s a 5 year mission to seek out and explore… music. To go to camp and meet new people and learn new things. OK, I getting off track. I go back and look at some of those first lessons to plot my progress. They are not as difficult as I thought and the similar lessons come easier.

There are lessons I will never play although I really want to. But I sure do love the challenge and there is nothing better sounding than to finally play that difficult few measures and hear that you did it right.

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