Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Two Finger Ballad of Jed Clampet

Just a little Ballad with two fingers. Felt good. Sounds good except for every time the camera comes on I get nervous. If I played by myself it would sound like Earl himself. :grinning:

If it completely sucks I have put a pug in the background for you to enjoy and be captivated by.

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Nice job! I was able to recognize it very easily. Interesting choice to play it 2 finer style. What was the motivation for that?

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@Mark_Rocka - You can read about the inspiriation behind his 2-finger banjoing in this post.

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Thanks for the link. Should have mentioned back story.

Hi Jason

Sounding good. To help you overcome your nerve’s on camera keep the camera on whilst you practice. Eventually you’ll get used to the red light and next time you come to record you will be a little more relaxed.

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Thanks!

I dig it… I like you taking it slow AND having the pug in the frame. I suggest sometimes playing with a metronome at the speed you are here (or even a bit slower) and then from time to time boosting the speed.

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thanks. It wasn’t a serious practice. You are right a metronome or playing along with Ben’s TEF prob help a lot.

Never been a big fan of the metronome but I love TablEdit and Ben’s tef files, Both have greatly enhanced my playing. You can use a percussion click in TablEdit which mimics a metronome

Here is a little chord changing exercise I created some years ago based on Ralph McTell’s Streets of London ballad.

The chords in the progression are C, G, Am, Em, F, D7aug and G7, over a forward reverse roll and makes a great workout for a beginner student struggling to make chord changes.

The click track is under the tag labelled 2. you can copy and paste this into any tef file, but you would need to adjust it for other time signatures. i.e Waltz Time

You can adjust the playing speed by clicking on Midi in the top menu and selecting Relative Speed - increase or reduce the speed % to suit your skill level.

.streets-of-london.tef (6.4 KB)

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DOH! I had totally forgotten about that. :pensive:

Don’t worry I forget to until my middle finger stops working.

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Actually I’m amazed how quickly I’m adapting. I can only assume thats from two years of playing. I have some major fundamentals down.

Sounds great! My grandfather would finger pick his guitar sometimes with a two finger style. I still know one of the tunes he used to play like that. Thanks for sharing.

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