Hey @BanjoBen,
You take all the time you need Buddy there are enough instrument solo lessons on the site to keep us busy till your well. You know you can count on my prayers for a speedy and successful recovery.
If you must insist on doing some lessons before surgery how about some rolling back up stuff to accompany the many Guitar and Mandolin solos you already have on the site. That should virtually treble the content for the banjo players.
It seems that all that work you put into creating those Guitar and Mandolin lessons is only being accessed by maybe one or two thirds of your members.
Guitar player’s get a new rhythm guitar lesson every time you create a banjo or mandolin lesson so I am sure mandolin players would also welcome some rhythm /backup lessons too so they are able to accompany the Guitar and Banjo solos.
I also think it would ‘add value’ to the beginners learning programme to be encouraged to explore other sections of the website. By creating backup lessons your giving each student a reason to move out of their comfort zone.
I don’t visit the Guitar and Mandolin sections as often as I should because the bulk of my time is focusing on learning solos. I can only assume other students do pretty much the same, i.e. only focusing on learning solo’s on their instrument of choice…
From the many posts I have read over the years on the BHO most student’s dream is to be able to play with others at a jam session or in a band. Their stories of frustration at not being able to keep up with the chord progression or speed whilst playing with others is what makes me want to push for a change in the way banjo is taught, I have tried pretty much every teaching method that attempts to teach backup, I say attempts to teach backup because whilst I have been reasonably successful in learning to play solos using these other teaching methods my backup skills are pretty dire.
You also know from our correspondence how I’ve struggled for many years to learn to play effective rolling backup… The Build-a-Break process has helped a lot. But I just feel there must be a better, simpler way to do this and I wont give up trying to find a solution. Who knows maybe there is someone already out there with the answer.