I know this will seem obvious but I thought I would post this anyway. I live in a small town in mid-Missouri. Our idea of “traffic” is trying to turn left into Walmart at 5pm on Friday. That’s about as bad as it get’s. I had to take my wife to a doctor’s appoint in an actual large city about an hour away today. Not having been to this particular doctor before, who was not located at any main medical facility, I googled the address. Looked at google maps for an exact location and then did street view so that I could visually see my turn off and the buildings we were looking for. Things went perfectly in and out. As I am waiting for my wife it dawned on me that driving in big city traffic is like playing a song up to speed. It’s a breeze once you know where you are going, when you know which lane you need to be in for you turn off, etc. Much like banjo playing…once you know where you are going it makes it much easier to get there …faster.
Playing Faster
Good thoughts Keith! I had experienced that on the first song I learned (not counting rolls), Cripple Creek. I had to commit it to memory before any speed came into it.
I had an opposite experience tonight… I guess you would call it smelling the roses instead of looking at the map. I am a beginner banjo player. The second song in the learning track is “You are my sunshine.” Great, I love that song! Only problem was that as I was trying to learn the song and get away from the tab, there are a lot of variations. Sometimes it’s a forward roll and you hit the low G with the index, other times the roll switches up and you hit the low G with the thumb. I kept tripping over myself playing the wrong version. I know that Ben switched it up not so much for the sound but for the right hand experience, so I was trying really hard to learn it “right.” I have been working on it for a few days and kind of hit a mental wall. I was just stuck. I shut the tab down and was going to put the banjo away, but for whatever reason, I played the song real slow and started milking it to put as much feel in it as my feeble banjo skills allowed. After a few times through, I was playing the whole thing without tab. Yay! Little victories! As a bonus, that song sounds really musical slow. It is kind of sad sounding (which fits the lyrics).
Another note as a newbie… it is pretty comical when you hit you speed limit on banjo. There are no subtle crashes or straining to keep up. I just have a big crash and burn. I have even managed to get a string stuck in a pick. Don’t ask me how, because I wasn’t the least bit in control of where my fingers went at that point 
I’ve been saying this to newcomers since I joined. Speed comes with experience> No one rushes in a rush hour we all get there when we get there.