Hello Ben , Hello everyone, my name is Thomas, new goldpicker here to improof my skills and learn great tunes. Before my question, let me explain you i,m learning now one year bluegrass banjo picking, i start with youtube lessons from diffrent tutors and practice daily. Right now i,m able to play 5 tunes incl rolls, hammers and pull,s, in a speeds of 120BPM,s… My first task here…the wreck of old 97 (love that)…and my question is to get the whole tune (incl. the banjo) available in lower speeds 100, 150, 180 BPM…to play and jam along with. I use a slowdowner to reduce the speed of the existing mp3 version but the sound quality gets poor if i reduce the speed by 50% or similar. Is there a way to make it possible?? Rgds Tom
Whole tune ,diffrent speeds
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I’ve been in the same boat. The problem is that when you slow a waveform (song) down digitally a lot, there isn’t really anything you can do because the waveform get stretched out and eventually the slower it gets the weirder it sounds and I haven’t run across any program that can somehow deal with it (not sure you can). They can keep the pitch correct, but even when doing that, the notes and waves get so stretched that they just don’t sound good.
What I’ve seen alot of people recommend if you want to really slow it down is to download the TEF file (there is a link to the TEF file for each song right new where you can download the PDF of the tablature) to your computer (you then also have to get that TEF file application… TABLEDIT) and then you can play back the TEF and much slower speeds.
Unfortunately, i’m not a big expert of that application so maybe someone else has some more input about the particulars of that.
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Hello Tom and Welcome to @BanjoBen 's Forum.
Am I right to understand that you want to slow down Ben’s Mp3 files that include the banjo ?.
If that is the case there is a piece of free software that will allow you to do this. It’s called Audacity.
https://www.audacityteam.org/
@Mark_Rocka is way more knowledgeable than I am on the use of this tool and I am sure he will reply to your query as soon as he is able.
I would also encourage you to take a look at this thread about TablEdit/TefView
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Hey Tom! Welcome to the site and forum! These are great replies, and I’d also recommend the slowdowner I use. It does still distort the sound a bit, but you should be able to use it with the slowest JamTrack I offer and still sound okay: https://www.ronimusic.com/
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@Tom_S I would also recommend the Tabledit version(free) I think that “Song Surgeon” has a free version also. There are some “free” programs out there that would be useful. I have to agree with everybody here also, they have great suggestions also.
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I’ve used a lot of apps to slow down song files. I can’t say I’ve ever found one that can slow a song down to half speed and maintain a decent quality. Think about it like this. You’re asking the software to create new sound for literally half of what you hear. There’s just no clean way to do that that I’ve found so far.
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I concur with @Mark_Rocka this is why I encourage folk to use TablEdit .Tef Files as it helps you increase your speed and prepares the ground for using @BanjoBen 's mp3 files.
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Thanks for the suggestions guys, so i,ve a bit to do the next days to figure out whats a good solution,Ben,s slowdowner seems interesting. Let,s stay in touch…
Hello folks
Searched, tested and experimented on a couple of items, speedreducers like slowdowners audiacity and and…guess the only solution is to record this tune (the complete 3 solos of wreck ole 97) beside 200BPM,s also in a speed of 120 BPM,s. Would be a giant help and fun in learning…would it be too much trouble? Regards to you all out of a sunny mild Germany this morning 
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Hello Tom. I was just wondering; Do you actually live in Germany? Or just visiting?
Mit anderen Worten, kennen Sie die deutsche Sprache zufällig? Ich habe die deutsche Sprache durch meine Arbeit mit John Deere gelernt, da ich oft zum Traktortest nach Deutschland reise. Normalerweise in Mannheim oder Groß Umstadt. (nicht sehr weit von Frankfurt am Main entfernt) Ich freue mich Sie kennenzulernen!
Can you make a video of you actually saying that? I love hearing other languages. Éu intende úm poco de este lingue de alamanhe, mas quero ouvir este mesmo. Tambem, meu portugez eh mal, e éu nao pode ler bem
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Hallo Neil, wohne ca 30 km nördlich von Frankfurt, arbeite in FRA Flughafen und würde mich sehr freuen wenn wir mal zusammen spielen könnten.
Echt? Sehr Toll! Bei jeder Reise nach Deutschland wandern ich durch den FRA Flughafen und dann mit dem Mietwagen nach Groß Umstadt oder Mannheim. Es wäre großartig, einmal zusammen zu “Jam”. Auch, lasst du mich wissen, wenn du jemals in die USA kommst.
Hallo Neil, Hab gerade dein Profil gelesen, bin Dispatcher (FAA), mein Büro in FRA ist im Terminal 1, Bereich C, “flight operations” hier mal meine email: t.schroefel@t-online.de . schreibe mir da mal, würde mich sehr freuen.
i use audacity its a free music software
banjo ben good at giving different speeds to work with
i just cant play that fast
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Yo quiero BBQ.
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banjo ben the best
Let’s also not forget that Ben usually plays the whole tune in a YouTube demo and YouTube has its own speed adjustment to slow it down. 
You will always get some distortion for the reason above mentioned so that’s the best that can be done unfortunately.