Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Dealing with frustration

#1

Ben,
Have you ever considered doing a lesson, or series of lessons that simply deal with frustration and dealing with discouragement? Perhaps comments from you and other musicians to speak specifically with tips, tricks or just personal stories might do wonders for the rest of us. Speaking for myself, of course.

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#2

Yessir, that’s a great idea! Let me consider that!

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#3

Thanks Ben , I recently developed a case of 'trigger thumb". Perhaps you could speak to issues of avoiding injury, proper stretching etc.

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#4

As a Beginner, here’s my expert opinion on how to deal with frustration -

Post it on the Forum. Here’s why -

  1. Pounding a keyboard helps.
  2. Describing your frustration identifies your frustration, and once you identify it, you can overcome it.
  3. Practice works.
  4. Things take longer than you want.
  5. Don’t look at how far you have to go. Look how far you’ve come.
  6. Any practice is better than no practice.
  7. If it’s not fun, it’s not practice.

BTW- I’m not a musician. I play banjo! :rofl::rofl::banjo::banjo::banjo::+1:

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#5

My advice? Just keep on practicing. It needs to be productive though.

I backed up about 3 years ago and went back to scale work and theory. I figured it would only take me like 6 months…and here we are, still need to work on it a little more.

Sometimes is seems like we are “stuck”, just keep your nose to the grindstone. When you REALLY get tired and stuck but have absolutely mastered whatever it is you are stuck on? That’s when you’ll advance.

Put this in your head - “10K hours”. I’ve been all around this world, worn many shoes from being a combat soldier to an entrepreneur, college golf, college baseball, engineer, etc… If you want to get good at something then you can count on putting in 10K hours of practice. It’s like eating an elephant…one bite at a time and you’ll eventually get there.

Good luck.

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#6

I learned banjo as a teenager. Laid it down 30 years and started learning again in 2018. I’ve rode the roller coaster of frustration for three plus years. My latest frustration came after the 2021 cabin camp. I didn’t learn playing backup as quick as I thought I should have.

Let me backup for a minute. The fretboard geography lesson is worth the cost of two years membership. That opened up the banjo for me. And then at camp, to hear Alan Munde further explain it, I was pumped. But when I returned home the frustration creeped in. A coworker gave me BRAINJO. The part about practicing and learning a song resonated with me. Can I write the chord progression from memory? Can I hum the melody? Do I know any verses to the song? How often do I review the song?

I think I’m going to echo what @Oldhat2 said. The last 4 months I’ve concentrated on playing the chords, up and down the neck, while singing in my head the melody. Once I can chord the tune effortlessly I play along with a recording. And lastly I start picking a break. I’m currently looking forward to my daily practice.
Good Luck! :four_leaf_clover:

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