Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Lonesome Road Blues- Banjo

I started learning this before BB came out with his lesson, so it’ not quite like his, but I added some stuff from his breaks. I was working on the facial expressions, which caused some small mistakes.

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Hey! Good start there Harrison. I like that tune as well.

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Hi Harrison, slow down a wee bit buddy, if you listen back you’ll hear you are missing a few melody notes just around the time you change your facial expression. You gotta focus and fix the lick before you add speed. Good effort.

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Yeah, I didn’t really follow the tab completely, hence some different and missing notes. Now that I listen to it I do need to slow down and clean it up.

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Sure Harrison. These are Scruggs Signature Licks and each note has to ring out or it sounds like a fumble If you slow it down and get it fixed in your muscle memory you will play it automatically. The facial expressions suggest that you are thinking through the lick, I know this because I do the same thing.

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Yeah what Archie said.
Nice job! Just slow down a tad, it’s not a race, and try to give each note it’s full value.
Also, facial expressionry is fun, and can add to a performance if it’s natural, but it’s obvious when you’re trying to artificially alter your countenance, and also makes it easy to mess up (ask how I know…)
So don’t worry about making faces, just have fun playing and let your face do whatever, it’ll end up matching your style and personality

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I think @BanjoBen and @Jake should do a lesson on bluegrass facial expression. I’m sure it would be hilarious.

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Great start, Harrison! You have a solid foundation to work on. There’s some excellent advice here, so no sense in me repeating it.

Keep up the good work!

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