https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/i-have-decided-to-follow-jesus-banjo-advanced
Playing in the key of C with no capo is a common calling for banjo players. This solo is a mix of Scruggs and melodic, and we’ll spend just as much time on the backup!
Discuss the Banjo lesson: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
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Well I know what I’M doing this weekend!
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Ha! This is a really fun solo and backup to learn and play, that’s for sure!
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Yes we are! Don’t take this from me! 
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Wow @Mark_Rocka Fame at last buddy. We will live forever in the annals of BanjoBenClark.com. 
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Your Huber sounds a lot better than the Gibson. Where is it?
Haha. My sister held me at gun point and took it to Texas to record a Christmas album with.
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Thanks for this tab, @BanjoBen! This is one of my favorite songs on the guitar… looking forwards to learning it!
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Almost. I would have had it today but I ended up with a list of honey-dos that didn’t allow me to touch my banjo. Hopefully tomorrow.
Sounds good… I didn’t get started on it until last evening… going pretty good. It’s not as hard of an arrangement as I initially thought it would be. I guess some of that is because I’ve played the song for years in the guitar, the melody and chords are already ingrained in the old noggin.
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Hey @BanjoBen, I wanted to share something with you about this lesson that’s happened for me that I thought was really cool. I don’t know if it’s the tempo of the song, or the arrangement, or what… but once I hit about 90% speed (and then 100%) something clicked in my mind and suddenly I’m playing every single note with purpose. It’s hard to explain. I don’t really know how to convey it, but in all other lessons I’ve ever taken, I played groups of notes… maybe by measure. I’m not really sure. On this song, though, every note feels like an individual as I’m playing it. The result has been an improvement in my timing.
It’s going to be interesting to see if this translates to other songs. It probably doesn’t sound like a big deal here because I can’t figure out how to express what I’m experiencing, but IT’S A BIG DEAL! THANK YOU!!!
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Hey man, that is really, really cool. I do have to say that there’s something different about this solo and I knew it when I wrote it. I think a lot has to do with the tempo and feel of the rhythm behind it. I’ll strive to hit this sweet spot again in the future.
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Hey Mark, thank you for the inspiration. I am about 60% with this one. I have been working hard and seeing myself get better. Still have a way to go!
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Hey that’s great! I discovered that I can use Ben’s backing track to play through both the lead and backup parts twice. So I just put that in loop.
Also, here’s little hack I found. There’s a lick in measure 14 where you pick strings 3,2,1,1 on frets 5,5,5,7 respectively. Your thumb has to be really fast to get down to that first string. I was struggling to play that cleanly, so I started substituting the 5th string, 7th fret for that last 1st string note. I’m able to hit that every time, so I just went with it.
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Hi @Mark_Rocka I haven’t started working on this one yet but I too am experiencing similar spontaneity as I stop relying on reading the TAB and focus more on listening as I play. The TAB is still there on the screen but I only take a quick glance at the spot’s where @BanjoBen inserts one of those curved balls to catch us out. You know what I mean, the impossible stretch, the gymnastic lick, the pick every string as you execute a slide pull off and hammer on all melody notes. Why does he do that ?
Sure it’s fun, It just driving me crazy.
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