Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Playing with speed

I’ve been playing. For 4 months now and still can’t play fast enough to make it sound good. Please suggest which lessons or what to do to develop speed

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I’d pick a lesson you feel the most comfortable with. Something easy like Cripple Creek, and play it over and over. I’m being serious when I say I don’t feel like I really have a song down until I’ve played it 1,000 times.

And maybe post a video of your playing so we can see if there’s something holding you back. Make sure both hands are visible in the video.

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Hang in there and have patience! Your not alone…this is probably one of the 2 most common questions in musical forums.

It takes time. At only 4 mos of playing, speed is the last thing you need to sorry about…it will come. This will sound goofy, but the best way to gain speed is to play slow and work on being relaxed & correct for now.

I’d suggest going through the beginner’s Banjo Track
start with the first lesson and follow them in order. This track is arranged to help you build the skills needed to play.

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@Mark_Rocka and @Fiddle_wood gave great advice. I’d say to worry about speed a little later and get your taste, timing, tone & down early. Also, a lot of beginner tunes may not be meant to be played fast anyway; Ben’s beginner lessons are more designed to help you develop proper technique, etc.

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I echo what @Mark_Rocka & @Fiddle_wood says, Patience Perseverance & Practice lot’s of it . Speed will come when you least expect it.

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Hang in there @davidsonpaul78!

Can you post a video of you playing? I’d like to check out your picking hand. You don’t even have to play a song, just rolls is fine.

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All good advice so far.

I wanted to play fast so I could so i could play in a bluegrass jam. It was easier for me to play rhythm up to speed so that’s what I did first. That way I could still jam with other people and work on my flat picking in the woodshed.

Stephen

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