The Springfield Cardinals, AA minor league for St. Louis. We sponsored a bluegrass night at the park–Jake threw out the opening pitch and I have to find the video somewhere! https://www.milb.com/springfield
Discuss the Banjo lesson: Banjo Make-a-Break, Featuring Tex Critter
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Ben, as a guitar player I really enjoyed this lesson!! Loved Tex Critter!! I’m using this lesson as a template to figure out breaks to songs I don’t know. Would you do the same type of lesson with guitar?
Thank you,
Jerry Scribner
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Welcome @jerryscribner !
I’ve been doing the same with this lesson - but on mandolin. Hope to see you around here some more, there’s a bunch of great folks on the forum side!
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Hey Jerry! Welcome to the board! You know, that Tex has a way of getting what he wants. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets some sweet solos out of the other instruments too. 
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Love that new feller, Tex.
Great approach to the new lesson. Got me practising AND laughing.
Glad I signed onto the Gold Membership years ago.
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Sensational Ben, You are an outstanding musician. Simply the best on the planet.
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Is this something that can be applied to Mandolin in terms of making a break??? Maybe Tex’s cousin Bill Mon Oh?
Thanks
DLS
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So, do you suggest tabbing out the melody then rolls then licks? I want to get to the point where I can do this without writing them down but finding it hard to do just keeping it in my head.
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I think the point of the lesson is to progress at getting away from tab. So you can familiarize yourself with the scale and figure out the basic melody, which is the easiest part to remember. Once you know the melody inside and out, then you can add some rolls that fit with the timing. (You don’t need to memorize the rolls as in, “forward here, square roll here”, etc for the whole song– instead, think about the timing, and the rolls will feel more natural.) Once you have that down, you can reach into your good ol’ bag o’ licks and spice it up.
This whole process may take a very long time for just a single break. BUT, the more you do this, the faster you get at it. Eventually, you’ll be able to work out a break in just a few minutes. Then, you’ll be able to do it after two or three hearings of the song. AND THEN, in a somewhat shocking and unbelievable moment, you’ll hear a song that you’ve never heard before… and find yourself playing a perfectly acceptable banjo break.
Godspeed on your journey!
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Michael, thanks for the help. One thing I struggle with is when I have notes that are around the C shape, especially when they are at the beginning of the measure. For example, I’ve spent the last several days getting the melody down to “If I lose”. I’ve been using a Ricky Skaggs rendition of this from youtube and have the melody down pretty well. However, getting things to roll around these notes, I’m finding difficult.
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If you’re having trouble playing along with that in C position, it may be because Jim Mills (banjo player on the recording) is playing capoed 5. So he’s actually playing out of G position, which may be confusing if you’re playing out of open C position.
If you are capoed 5 and are referring to the C shape while capoed, I think Ben has a Bag o’ Licks for G to C transitions.
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Oh wow! That did the trick, thanks! I’ve done this thing on songs before but I really want to get better at it. I’m going to try to do ten pretty basic songs like this and hopefully see improvement by the end.
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Glad to hear it!
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I love Tex Critter! BanjoBen, Will you be making How to Build a Break for Guitar and Mandolin at some point too?
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I should do that!
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Six years later, and I’m going to have to say that this has been the single most valuable lesson for me on the entire site so far. Some of it seemed a bit abstract at first, but then again, music can be abstract, too. The way Ben put it all together just landed with me.
I especially appreciate the way Ben created a visual of the rising and falling of the melody. Drawing those hills and valleys is something I see in my mind every time a song I’ve never heard comes up at a jam. It’s probably the biggest tool in my bag at this point.
It might be time to rewatch this entire lesson. I’m sure I’ll pick up more nuggets.
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Wow, I’ve not seen this one and it’s six years old. Probably because I search for mandolin and guitar videos. On some rare occasions I’ve clicked on and watched some Banjo video lessons. One thing I’ve realized doing so is I always learn something and that there is an application I can use for mandolin and guitar. Everyone reading this, if you only click on videos lessons only for the one or two instruments you play, like I have, you are missing out on opportunities to learn from all @BanjoBen lessons.
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Yeah, this is one for everyone. It applies to any instrument no matter the genre.
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I agree @Mark_Rocka a useful tool to help newbie’s visualise music.
This course by the Abbott Family helped me when I was starting out.
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