Help: Banjo

Subject: Banjo
From: GUEST,Leo Condie
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 04:47 AM

Hello people.

Im thinking of learning to play folk/blues banjo (in the style of say, Pete Seeger) and was wondering if any could give me some info to start...i.e how hard will it be to move from folk fingerpicking guitar playing (which im at a reasonable level) to banjo picking? Also, what type of banjo would be most suitable for the music im playing...hum. i cant find any banjo forums so im posting here. thanks in advance for your help :)

Peace and light Leo.

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Message transferred from a duplicate thread. --JoeClone

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Subject: RE: Help: Banjo

From: BanjoRay - - PM

Date: 17-Dec-01 - 07:32 AM

Leo, you could do with subscribing to banjo-L. You can do that HERE. You'll find some very helpful people.

Cheers Ray

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: GUEST,Bud
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 07:50 AM

Well, if you want to start in the style of Pete Seeger, you can buy his book, which is how many of us got our start back in the 60s. Nowadays there are helps that we never even dreamed of back then. If you check out
Homespun tapes you'll get the idea. They will be happy to send you a catalogue.

The usual disclaimers apply, and Homespun is not the only source, by any means.

If you want a banjo forum, try
[e-mail] or BANJO-L (can't find the web addy, sorry). Try also the YAHOO groups.

Welcome to the ranks.

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: GUEST,fretless (at work)
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:20 AM

Try these, too. Banjo-L is the second one.

http://www.banjohangout.org/

http://zeppmusic.com/banjo/

There are lots of old Mudcat chats on the "starting banjo" topic. I can't link from here, but doubtless someone else will provide the blue clicks, or you can search the 'cat.

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:23 AM

click here for previous Mudcat thread.

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:26 AM

WOW - I just wrote a long, clever and humorous response to this thread! Fact filled and touched with wisdom - OK, well maybe I exaggerate a bit. But I really did write a long response, entered it and it looked like all was well with the entry - AND IT DISAPPEARED????

This has never happened to me at Mudcat. I'll see if I can retrieve it by going backwards ....

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:28 AM

I found it - re-entered it but it disappeared again! What is going on?

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:29 AM

OK - since these comments seem to be entering OK, I'll paste the original text in below and see if that works:

There are some great banjo sites around ... I'll have to go back and dig some, but I can post a link or two.

I've been playing guitar for many many years, was a reasonably proficient finger picker and decided to take up banjo just a couple of years ago. I bought a banjo, learned a few chords and started playing ... the first thing I realized was that I was a guitar player masquerading as a banjo player! But eventually I began to get the feel, and understand the differences ... and they are considerable in the way the instrument is used, more then in the playing per se. That is, banjo is much more like lead guitar in a rock band ... you're out front, you're moving constantly with melodic lines ... unlike the lead guitar, you have far fewer scales to work with, though ... you need to build a subtlety into your melodic movement or risk overplaying (in short you'll be boring pretty quick).

But having said all of that; I think if you're a guitar finger picker, you've already got some of the 'chops' on your pickin' hand, and you've got the brain stuff down too, with the technique of making a bass line or melody appear within a finger picked roll ... so now the question is learning the much more limited scales of the banjo, the handful of chords - and then the trickier part of being subtle with an instrument that cuts throw all of the other acoustic instrument frequencies!

I've had great pleasure learning banjo, and won't say I've come close to mastering it - but it has been a ball playing it - and I love ths sound.

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:30 AM

Ooops - Joe, it looks like you and I are working on this problem at the same time. But you are the only one who can really fix it!

What was I doing wrong?

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Not Joe - a mere clone. Jed, you submitted the message from the other thread IN the other thread. There were 2 duplicate messages from you in a duplicate thread. All gone now. It can be interesting to try editing threads while people are posting to them! --JC

Subject: RE: Help: Banjo
From: JedMarum
Date: 17 Dec 01 - 09:42 AM

OK - I get it. I was responding to a duplicate thread while it was being resolved! Hence my confusion.

Mudcatter Bob Clayton has a great book, Leo for learning old time banjo techniques. It's called The Old Timey Banjo Book.

I think you can find a good banjo on the used market. The common banjos, it seems to me are resonator types, and you will probably find it easier to find a good one among those - but there are some wonderful open backed banjos around as well. You'll just have to look harder. I have to say, if you're going to buy a new one you can't go wrong with a Deering. They simply do not make a bad banjo, and even their $300 banjo has a great sound and a fine neck.

If I were looking for a banjo right now, I'd look at all the used ones I could find first. I've seen a few at vintage guitar shows and elsewhere, that are hybrids built form antique parts. That is they seller took an old tenor banjo pot, cleanned it up, put a new head on it, fitted a 5 string neck and bridge on it - and the resultijg instrumnet was pretty darn good! The ones I saw were all in the $300-$450 range, and every one was worth it, just for the sound and the feel. There are lots of great banjo makers out there, making beautiful instruments, and they're easy to find on the web ... but none are cheap. If you've got several thousand to drop, then you can do very well. But if your looking in the range under $2000, you can find some very good instruments, but you'll have to look for 'em.

Anyway - good luck with your search.