Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Will the Circle Be Unbroken Banjo Contest!

Thanks Jack! And this banjo contest got Carinna to pick up the banjo… It will be interesting to see if she keeps at it.

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You know, I was just thinking earlier today about how impressed I am with the timing of the players posting up videos. In many cases, it’s actually tougher to play banjo slower and stay in time. Playing fast tends to cover up mistakes better than playing slowly.

You guys have all done a fantastic job on these submissions. It’s inspiring… seriously!

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The TEF file makes all the difference for me.

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Oh for sure Mark, Your welcome. Yeah something very special indeed bout Mr .B. Ben. (you too). Hey, good luck, hope you win that BlueChip Pick!!! :smiley:

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I have to say, out of all of you, I get the biggest blessing by far in this. Can you imagine a bunch of people working hard to learn an arrangement that you wrote for the purpose of inspiring folks to work hard to learn it? That’s pretty doggone cool.

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Here’s my entry.

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Man alive that was fancy! Great picking!

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Love it!

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GREAT JOB! After 2 years… maybe I should give it up!

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No no no!! Keep hammering away. You’ll get there.

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https://youtu.be/lVwPrfnSksQ Thanks for running the contest Ben, otherwise I may have never looked at this lesson. Started Sunday at 6:30pm and after 9hrs of study since then the second break isn’t quite in my fingers yet. Can I replace this video tomorrow if the second break does come together for me with one video of two continuous breaks before the deadline?

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Man 6 months??? You must be a born natural. That’s outstanding playing for just 6 months in! Well done indeed. :+1:

Hi Guy’s

Just to say I am still working on my entry. I have learned all three breaks and can play along with the TEF file at a slow speed but not consistently enough to submit an entry… Still needs a lot of work to put all sections together and play along with the mp3. Just too many train wrecks. Maybe post it up in time for Christmas.

I have to say you guy’s are amazing to put all this together in such a short space of time Well Done. Even though I have selected MY favourite @Mark_Rocka I wish you all Good Luck in the competition.

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I’m in the same boat as you @Archie a lot a train wrecks. I’ll keep working on it long after the contest till I get it. I know the more tunes I learn and the more I practice the faster I’ll get at learning new songs. My goal is 7 days to learn a new song, but for right now it takes me about 2 to 3 weeks. Then another 2 to 3 weeks getting it up to speed. So thankful there are so many good player on this site to answer all my newbie questions. And thanks @BanjoBen for pushing us to be better players.

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Only had time this week for the 1st solo. Still working on the other 2 but not ready to record yet.

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Yes you can! You can replace by tonight at midnight central time.

Ditto on everything you said. I’m a little frustrated it didn’t come easier with this one. This is a song I’ve been playing for a while now but I don’t play it the way @benclark does so I’ve had to relearn the piece almost entirely. Do you have any suggestions for how to throw away (for the time being) the way you used to do it and learn a new way to play it?

I’ve had that problem with 1 song. I eventually had to mentally convince myself that I was learning an entirely new song. Once I broke that connection of the two versions in my mind, things started to click. Now it’s just like playing 2 different verses of the same song.

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Hi there. I only started learning this when I heard about the contest. Please excuse any external noises. I have a very loud family of 10. And yes, that’s a mud hut in the background. I live in Mozambique, but my grandparents live in Texas, so of course, anything could be mailed there. Shipping to Moz is outrageous and takes 3-6 months to arrive.

Banjo Ben from the Bush of Africa

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Unfortunately I’ve just not had time to learn this properly :slightly_frowning_face:. I started this afternoon (UK) but not enough time to learn and get an entry in. Which is probably a good thing looking at the standard of some videos on here. Some great players and my efforts would probably be an embarrassment lol. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: