Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

What's your process for learning a new lesson?

#21

I’m learning that, for me, structure is better. I also tend to be all over the place, but the more I focus, the more I seem to accomplish. I just started on the Bill Cheatham intermediate lesson yesterday morning and have it playing at about 95% speed now. Here’s how that looked.

  • Sunday, I downloaded the MP3 and listened to it while doing chores around the house.
  • Monday morning I got up and started working through the TEF file 2 measures at a time. I started at 30% speed. After about an hour, I felt I had it mostly committed to memory. I practiced the whole song with the TEF file for another hour and then went about my day.
  • Last night I sat down with it for another hour, maybe hour and a half right before bed. I had it up to 85% speed before going to bed.
    This morning I got up and spent another hour on it before going to work. I got it up to about 95% speed. There are still a couple of spots in the verse and the chorus my fingers want to swap. That’s pretty common, since the notes are similar. I think it’s due to REALLY knowing the song, so today I’m listening to it while driving around town just to get it totally committed to memory. I feel pretty good about having it up to 100% before going to bed tonight.

I think it’s important to stick with a lesson once you’ve decided to learn it. Also important is to keep going back to it. I found out the other day that I have completely forgotten Deck The Halls that I learned last year. That’s very frustrating. So, I make sure to go through every song I know at least once a week to keep it fresh.

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#22

@Archie how are you adding the bass track? Are you adding the same note at quarter note intervals, or are you using notes an actual bass would use in 4/4 quarter note intervals? I am thinking about just adding a drum beat or something for rhythm so that I don’t have to worry about the actual bass note that would match the measure.

#23

HI @JoeB I open a tef file in TablEdit and create a new instrument tag, I then click on the new tag and change the instrument to Bass and select Acoustic Bass from the list. I then fill out the bass notes at quarter note duration, Down beat and off beat following the chord progression. Remembering to save the edited .tef file.

You can add a drum beat if that suits. I use to just add a click track before I started using bass.

All @BanjoBen 's Tef Files come with a Rhythm Guitar tag so really there’s no need for a Bass I just like the sound of the bass (deep tone) in my headphones. I like the banjo in the right headset and the rhythm guitar in the left headset I have the bass or click track centred

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#24

I like that method, but I would have to learn how to play a bass.:slight_smile:

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#25

Adding a bass in TablEdit is super easy. I don’t think you’d need to learn to play to figure it out. For example, a basic bass line in G, playing G, C, and D, you’d only need notes on the 3rd and 4th strings, and all notes would be played on either the 3rd or the 5th frets.

I just spent about 2 minutes doing what I just said above on the Banjo Utility Rolls TEF file so you can see what I’m talking about. There aren’t any walks or anything fancy in the bass line. Just simple 1, 5, 1, 5 notes all the way through. Once you get the feel for that, you can start to play with walks and fills.

Ban-UtilityRolls.tef (5.7 KB)

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#26

Copy & Paste there after. It help’s to add the chord name on each measure to check your work.

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#27

I spent $15 and bought the app Amazing Slow Downer. It allows you to import the .mp3 files into the app and then slow down the tempo without distorting the sound. Afterwards I was told that Audacity was cheaper (free?) but a little harder to use. This ASD is really, really easy to use.

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#28

Audacity is not difficult to use. I just prefer TablEdit.

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#29

Thanks for clarifying…I wouldn’t want to mislead anybody

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#30

Watch it once… kinda skimming.
Rewatch it slower, with instrument in hand.
Practice throughout the lesson. Repeat until comfortable with content.