Hi. I’m completely new to learning the banjo, with no musical background whatsoever. I think the site is fantastic and Ben is a gifted teacher.
My question is this - is there a recommended way of structuring an individual practice session for the banjo? Things like warm up exercises, drills and so on as well as working through the lessons in the Learning Track.
At the moment I tend to start with Alan Munde’s finger control exercises, practice my g major scale and do roll practice before playing through tunes I already know. I’ll then get onto tge lesson in hand. How does this sound?
Any advice is gratefully received.
Have a great day everyone.
How to structure practice sessions?
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Hi Richard, @BanjoBen 's beginner learning path is structured so that you learn all the fundamentals in this section. There are no warm up exercises as such at least none that I recall. I know that other teachers do have these but to my knowledge there are none here. I believe Ben’s thinking is he wants you to have fun whilst your learning and not be burdened or turned off with boring exercises
As a NEW beginner I would encourage you to learn and practice all the roll patterns and chord shapes early on these are key to your advancement and you need to be fairly proficient knowing your roll patterns when you start adding embellishments . You could use these as your warm up session.
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I was in your position less that 3 years ago. No musical background, didn’t understand the language, discovering that my fingers would not go where they were supposed to go, and building callouses hurt!
So as a Beginner, here’s my expert advice:
- Have fun. Never miss an opportunity to “play” the banjo.
- Use this Forum. It’s full of sound advice, warm encouragement & stuff you don’t understand today, but will in a couple weeks.
- There are many folks here who give great advice. Archie is one of them.
- Absolutely follow Ben’s banjo learning track. It’s the right stuff in the right order.
- Smart move choosing the banjo!
But be prepared to hear a lot of new jokes, usually told by envious people who wish they could play the banjo. - Be aware it will take some experimenting before you find finger picks that are “just right.”
- Finally, the most important thing is to have fun!
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I’m no banjo player… I tried once but it messed with my brain a little too much. That being said I do have some input. At the most recent IBMA in Raleigh Dr. Banjo (Pete Wernick) himself sat in on a small jam session I was leading and we had a relatively inexperienced banjo player. Pete’s advice to him was similar to Archie’s - learn the rolls for the basic chord shapes; once you’ve got those down cold start reaching out for melody notes to fit in.
I have a couple of approaches for my own practice that I swing wildly between depending on my mood - (1) play stuff I like to play. I want to learn melodies so I practice techniques on melodies instead of “boring” exercises. I have a few favorites that I play just for fun and am trying to find other scale positions up the neck to play them now; (2) play “boring” exercises - I need to train on techniques like alternate picking, bass runs with rhythm strums, scales for different chord shapes, etc. Think of it like drills an athlete may do to improve an in-game skill. Sometimes I’ll put on a backing track that’s just a G chord over and over and practice my G scales against it to help train my ear - not sure if it does that, but that’s what I tell myself!
Stephen
It sounds like you already have yourself on the right track. Keep doing what you’re doing and listen to the great advice already given above. One thing I can’t stress enough is to make sure you enjoy your practice time. Nothing will stop you faster than dreading practice, so make sure you are having fun at least at some point in each session.
On the flip side of that, I tend to have too much fun and don’t incorporate enough serious learning in my practice time. It’s a nasty habit I need to break.
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First, Mark Rocka is another one of those people with great advice. In this case though I will quibble.
Having too much fun is not a “nasty habit.”
Neglecting focused practice is not productive, I wouldn’t call it “nasty.” “Lazy” comes to mind.
I should know. I was born lazy & have been working hard ever since to stay that way!
Thanks so much to all those who have replied. I really do appreciate your input and the time you have taken to reply.
I can quite honestly say that having fun is always a part of my sessions - except perhaps when I think of what my wife has to put up with when she’s listening to Boil dem Cabbage Down for the 25th time that day!
It’s a challenge and I do love the structure and format of the Learning Track, that’s one of the things that made me to sign up for gold pick membership.
Another question, if I may, is how short do you keep the nails on your left hand?
Thanks again for all your help.
My nails are always kept short. Both hands
This is coming from a guitar player, but I think the issue is the same. If my nails are not trimmed very regularly they interfere with getting proper contact with the finger board, so that should be your guide to when they are too long.
Did you hear about the banjo player who was worried when he realized that he had left his banjo in the back seat of his unlocked car. He returned and found two.
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Howdy @cafferata.richard! Welcome to the site!
Here are a couple graphics I made for a live lesson I did a few weeks ago. These are a “perfect” practice session, which actually never exists, but it does give us some structure to try and follow. When it says “send to” that means you send that content/idea to another part of your practice session. Yes, it requires you keeping a journal of your session and practice.
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Well I am shocked! Not one of y’all mentioned to Richard that he’ll likely suffer from B.A.S., if he’s not already, with all of it’s glory and pitfalls. What is going on in this here community?? No worries @cafferata.richard Here’s the solution: Buy a big house.
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That’s brilliant @BanjoBen! Thanks so much. I have already printed a copy off and will keep it at the front of my banjo file.
My immediate takeaways from looking are that I don’t have enough structured listening in my sessions and that, yes, I should keep a practice log. At the moment, improving speed is a LONG way off, I’m just working on accuracy. I was so pleased that I managed to play along with your slow forward roll version of Boil Dem Cabbage Down with minimal errors.
Thanks again for the site, it’s fantastic and I’ll be a long term gold pick member.
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Already have a long term plan! Little, subtle hints keep worming their way into my conversations with my wife…
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