Hi Don 
to @BanjoBen 's Forum. Yes Leo sure does have the music in him in fact the entire Lindblom family has a unique musical gift. Their neighbour’s must welcome the days when they head out to play a concert. That’s the only time they get any piece and quite. 
Seriously though since @Flatpickin_Libby and the rest of the family became Gold Pick Members of banjobenclark.com they have added so much value to everyone’s membership through the content they share with us here on the Forum.
What a blast of a song to learn! I love the build - simple to complex. And when I play with my mute off (wife is out haha), it sounds so good! thanks @BanjoBen
Is it OK if I use my 2nd and 3rd finger in my fretting had to do the pull-off’s in measure 47 and 48? I started doing them learning the Unclouded Day Scruggs lick. I heard Ben say something about trying to use 1st finger in 1st fret, 2nd finger in 2nd fret, 3rd in third when possible. I watched his video on Unclouded Day and I thought I saw him doing pull-offs that way but now I’m not so sure. Hard to tell since he keeps his fingers so dagum close to the strings! I got to using 2nd and 3rd fingers in these pull-offs and it got to feeling so natural I started do them in Foggy Mountain Rolls. Is this a habit I want to form or should I keep agile with 1st and 2nd finger pull-offs on 2nd and 3rd fret?
So, a general question about the speed that this is played, and the importance, or not, of being able to play this fast. I am enjoying learning this song. And, after playing for 2 finally have an understanding of melody and filler notes. The song is also helping immensely with my timing. For the first time I am actually tapping my foot with the metronome.
However, I am finding learning the song very hard. This is basically because every measure is different. Thus, I always look had to look at the tab in order to play the song. Which means that I have to play slower. So, my question is, is how important is it to learn this song, and the others in this course, at a faster BPM. If I can get this at 100 BPM, and play it well, am I getting the full benefit of the lessons in the course.
Regards
It’s way more important to be able to play it cleanly without the tab than to play it fast with the tab. The tab is a great learning tool, but it’s a lousy crutch. If you go to a jam, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to keep up if you rely on the tab.
Break the song up in to as many pieces as you need to in order to memorize it. I’ll start with as little as 2 measures and just play it on repeat until my fingers play the notes automatically. Then go on to the next 2 measures, learn, then combine what you know. Keep on until the whole song in locked in.
Thanks Mark_Rocka,
I have been learning the song in the three sections that it is broken down into. But, I have never had such a hard time recalling a song without the tab. Some of it has been drilled into my brain simply by repetition. I will keep working at it.
Regards
@pmartin462, I wanted to take a second and let you know you’re not alone. I’m trying to cram in as many old standards as possible for the new jam group I found. I’ve been listening to this one in the car for the past few days and thought “I’ll be able to knock this one out in no time.”
What’s that old saying? “Pride goes before the fall”? Yeah… I’m 2 days in to it and still can’t play the basic rolls section consistently. I know part of the reason is that Ben is hitting some melody notes on a reverse roll, which feels really weird to me. What that tells me is that it’s a skill that I am lacking, so this song will hopefully help to develop it. And what’s with my fingers not wanting to play those simple quarter notes in measures 22 and 23!? Jeez! I have to focus intently to get those 8 simple notes right.
So, so much for nailing down 3 new songs this week. I’m glad I decided to hit this song, though. It has exposed a weakness in my playing.
Hope you’re making progress, and Happy Thanksgiving!
I am wondering why the 12 measure has 1/4 noted and the 17 measure has 1/2 notes. Does it have to do with the 1/2 rest in the 17 measure, which means that there is no 1/4 note gap/rest before picking the next string.
@Mark_Rocka I am not a religious person, but it would be a miracle if I could learn three songs in one week. Takes me weeks…sometimes months…to learn one song. Although it is getting easier the more I practice.
Measure 17 is exactly the same as the 1st measure because it’s leading you into the next verse of the song. The first run is just the melody notes all by themselves. Measure 17 starts the next verse which takes the melody and adds rolls to them. Measure 33 is the same at 1 and 17, except it adds an open G and a pinch before the 2 melody notes.
I’m not sure if that answers your question. If not, let me know and I’ll try again.
The thing about banjo is that once you get enough songs under your belt, there’s a LOT of plug and play licks that you’ll find in so many songs. There have been a couple I’ve learned that I literally already knew every lick and was able to nail down in under an hour. It was just muscle memory training. This song was not one of them. 
OK, I just spent some time writing a 4th verse to this lesson. I’m trying my hand at taking what Ben has created and building on top of it, being careful to keep all of the important bits and working in around them. I’m pretty happy with what I came up with. We have been at the ranch since Friday morning, so didn’t really have any time to work on this until tonight. I’m going to do my best to get this whole lesson up to speed tomorrow and post the video.
If you’re interested, here’s what I came up with. (Again, it won’t let me post the TEF.)
@JohnnyD It’s pretty simple, start out with copy an paste measures. You can have more than one tef file at a time. Insert or delete notes. Tab stuff out from books listen to how it sounds. That’s how I got started and quickly learned that NOT all tab’s are as great as @BanjoBen 's
Has the storage space reached it’s capacity do you think or could it be a broken upload path? I can’t read this @Mark_Rocka can you try and upload a PDF, see if that works. Wonder why this is happening now after all these years working perfectly @BanjoBen
@Mark_Rocka If the 1, 7 and 33 measures all have a 1/2 beat rests shouldn’t the notes after the rests be 1/4 notes? Doesn’t having two 1/2 notes after the 1/2 note rest equal 1 1/2 beats. I know how this should sound and how to play it, but I am just trying to figure out the logic behind the 1/2 notes in these measures.
P.S. I do not have the tab in front of me and do not know exactly what the 33 looks like. I have also not gotten that far in the song yet.
I’m looking at the tab now and I see a half measure rest and then 2 quarter notes on 1 and 17. 33 shows 4 quarter notes.
If you play the TEF file using the TEFViewer program, it should all make sense. I highly recommend doing that over trying to read the PDF.
That makes sense now. For some reason I thought that the whole line was a 1/2 note. I had reversed the two. I have not seen a lot of 1/2 and 1/4 notes. Most of the tab I have used before were in 1/16 with 1/8 being the longest note used.
Thanks!
Finally!!
I think the banjo gods took pity on me for having such a tough time with this lesson, because this is the first time I can remember getting the video on the first take.
So if you’ve been following this lesson, you know that I’m leaving out the first run through that only has the melody notes. That’s because I wrote my own last verse. My goal was to just keep building on what Ben has already established, keeping key notes in or near the right places and just adding embellishments around the frame he built. Now, let’s see if the board will let me upload the TEF file.
Nnnnope! It just doesn’t like me. I tried from Chrome and Firefox. So, if anyone wants the TEF of my last verse, shoot me a PM.
Hi @Mark_Rocka tell me the sequence of events your using to upload the tef file. See if I can help resolve this for you.
I do the same thing I do when I upload a picture. I click on the upload button circled in red, choose the file, and upload it. It appears to upload fine until I submit the post. Then I see a broken link.
