Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Discuss the Banjo lesson: Waypoints- Learning the Banjo Neck- G Chord

Crafty edit, my friend.

I was just going to advise - and it literally went poof before my very eyes!

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I keep hearing Alan Munde’s voice with a twinkle in his eye, “knowing where the notes are is very useful”. Thanks Ben, this is a great exercise.

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Welcome to Banjo Ben’s Forum Michael

Yep, welcome @mpgraves!

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A big welcome to @mpgraves

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@BanjoBen is like Redneck Moses… leading us out of the banjo fretboard wilderness. :slight_smile:

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Man that’s some fine picking Russ does there. What’s blowing me away, though, is that for the first time in my life, I can watch what he’s doing on the neck and it makes sense! I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting that is for me. Before I watched this lesson, I would have thought “Man, it would take me forever to pick out all of those licks Russ is busting out” and that would have isolated my using them to this one song. Now, not only do I see the method to the madness, I see how I could use those in ANY song. I just have to figure out the extra notes he’s playing around the waypoints… and if I know @BanjoBen, I’m betting that’s going to be covered in a lesson in the very near future. :slight_smile:

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Praise God almighty, this is what I was hoping to hear from y’all.

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Ben,
This is a great lesson. I agree with the earlier posts, it helps tie in what you’ve taught us in earlier theory lessons. Please keep more coming!

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Should we be memorizing the names of each note or does that matter?

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Yes, there are only 3: G, B, and D. Be sure to download the diagram I have for you with the tabs. It has the note names.

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Got it! Thanks Boss!

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This is great stuff and provided a system to work out the fingering for all four fretted strings. I was able to use it to also develop positions for C and D up the neck. Now, comes the hard part–locking in the fingering and fret placement (the chords themselves bear an amazing resemblence to the key of G fingering in the first position!).

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You’re getting close! :slight_smile:

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I too have only been playing six months. This lesson and the practice are like several songs I have been trying for the new year including “Country Road Take Me Home”. The song is this same movement capoed up. Thanks Ben. Now this is fun! :notes:

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Wow, I wish I would have had this lesson about 6 years ago! Every time I ask some hotshot banjo player what he’s doing up the neck while playing backing up all I would ever get is “I dunno just G noise I guess”. Hopefully, I can learn to make some “G noise” myself now! ;>

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Really, like the old maps of the world when they thought it was flat, I always figured beyond the 12th fret there be dragons!

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Ha! Yeah I used to just fall off the edge! @BanjoBen I can see what Russ is doing now as well. This isn’t truly a lesson that unlocks the fretboard to a whole bunch of stuff. I am so glad learning this early on.

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AMEN! I echo what @bcaves said.

This Is the very reason why Ben is the Bach of banjo

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This such a great lesson. Things I was missing now make sense. You did a great
job explaining and the tabs and tefs are great too. Thanks. Sharie

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