a group who encourage and motivate one another to stick to, and get the most out of, our practice time

14 Members, Created 5/7/2014 -

Administrators: skiptomylou (owner)

Old Time/Bluegrass Synergies -- My "Practice" Strategies

From Brooklynbanjoboy on 5/8/2014 3:03:44 AM

This Group is a great idea. 

I’ve drifted back and forth between bluegrass and clawhammer for many years.  The different learning curves for these two capabilities provide an instructive way of looking at how to learn and practice banjo in each context.  What I’ve found most important is that there are synergies between bluegrass and clawhammer, interactions that produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.  Taking several different whacks at playing bluegrass has helped me learn things that have important applications to my old time playing.  

The first time I tried to learn bluegrass, I worked my way – or attempted to work my way – through the Earl Scruggs book, and was basically lost.  That was about 40 years ago.  I was lucky enough to get an old, beat up a long neck banjo -- a Baker Belmont -- as a graduation gift from my parents from junior high school in the mid-1960s.  I practiced the roll patterns and went for the Tabs.  I got some guidance from a teacher or two, but that really didn’t give me any clarity about what I needed to know to play, so I drifted toward guitar and the banjo sat in the box for a long time.

I hauled that banjo with me to Southeast Asia in the mid-1980s and when I came back to northern Virginia, field stripped it with the goal of rebuilding it, but soon lost interest.

I offered it on BANJO-L, the predecessor to the Banjo Hangout, to anyone who might want it. By then, the early 1990s, the banjo was in parts and pieces and sitting in a garbage bag.

Bates Littlehales, a clawhammer player and a talented banjo builder living in northern Virginia, who was then in his seventies -- and just hit his mid-80s a few months ago --  offered to take it and insisted on giving me “one clawhammer lesson” in return for the banjo. I agreed.

Bates came to my home every Saturday morning for about 2 years, and would spend 2 hours or so drilling me in clawhammer, teaching me technique and tunes, and talking about the art form and the artists, especially West Virginia banjo players. When he got ready to “retire” back to his mountain in West Virginia, I reminded him that he had signed up to do one lesson. Bates replied that it was one lesson, only it took two years because I’m a slow learner.

Fast forward to about 2010, my retirement date.   With this newfound free time on my hands, I decided to take another crack at bluegrassing.  Got some Murphy Henry videos, Dr. Banjo videos, and a slew of books.  But I ended up hitting the same wall again – after getting the basic rolls down, the books and videos could teach me how to use them to shape particular tunes, but I didn’t feel I was learning the banjo.

So I made some decisions. 

• I decided to learn the fingerboard, and set to memorizing the three chord patterns, F shape, D shape and Barre, up and down the neck. 

• I took the section from Ross Nickerson’s Banjo Encyclopedia, containing an exhaustive inventory of roll patterns, and tried to learn the variations. 

• I invented a bunch of left hand exercises that got my fingers moving in coordination up and down each string, taking my cue from some guitar players who used such drills to keep limber and to challenge themselves in left hand/right hand coordination. 

• I recalled one accomplished local banjo player telling me that after years of successful playing in the Scruggs style, he still found it hard to shift to the interior strings, playing rolls on the 4^th, 3^rd, and second strings.  I practiced that. 

• I remembered another accomplished local banjo player saying that at the outset of his playing, he found it difficult to get fast and fluent single string playing using the thumb and pointer on his right hand, and to do so in a way that allowed him to move effortlessly between three finger rolls and single string work.  I forced myself to practice that kind of fluidity of right hand work. 

• I worked my way through some of Dr. Banjo’s videos on backup banjo. 

• I worked hard to get basic scales patterns down, up and down the neck, and found Janet Davis’ book, BANJO SCALES IN TAB to be an excellent instructional book.  I found Peter Pardee’s book, SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS FOR FIVE STRING BANJO similarly challenging and useful. 

• I spent a lot of time listening and working through selected Youtube videos by John Boulding.  http://www.youtube.com/user/banjophobic  John gives just the right amount of theory, and offers up some compelling practical exercises for getting down chord shapes and patterns, playing in keys, backup work and many other critical skills. 

• I worked my way through Bill Evans’ POWER PICKING (volume one) on “Up The Neck Backup for Bluegrass Banjo,” and John Lawless’ POWER PICKING (volume two) on “First Position Backup for Bluegrass Banjo.”  I slowly picked my way through volume three, in a very selective and excruciatingly slow manner. 

That probably kept me busy for the better part of two years.  At about that point I went back to some bluegrass tune books, and to the Murphy Henry videos, and tried to learn a few tunes.  They came easier, and I had a much more confident grasp over chord positions.  I joined Glenn Miller’s PICKING ACADEMY, and profited from his careful instructional videos.  http://pickersacademy.com/index.php/forum/index

I was able to learn the “idioms” of the bluegrass language, and figure out some of the “grammatical” rules, which helped me to understand when to use the basic licks and such that were conveyed in the videos mentioned.  I learned just enough theory to get me into trouble.  Just enough of the basics to understand what a chord is, and how to figure out what chords go together.   I made some halfhearted efforts to relearn the musical staff and basic music reading skills – I’m still very much the semi-literate in that area.   

For me, this has taken about 4 years – but understand that during this time I continued to spend a lot of time playing clawhammer banjo.  Bluegrassing is something I’ve tried to learn, and learn slowly, in the context of a commitment to playing old time music. 

I’m not nearly as fluent as I should be at bluegrass banjo basics.  I’ve videoed myself, and see the extent to which my rolls are still very uneven.  I did not manage to get out and about, and play in jams with others in a way that might have pushed me further.  I’d recommend that highly.  The occasional opportunities to play with others have always been instructive and helpful, and compelled me to push the envelop.    I only deploy finger picks occasionally, so I spend most of my time bare fingered, and I am still more capable of figuring out a tune in clawhammer style as opposed to picking my way through a new song using rolls. 

But getting these basics down, and becoming familiar with the fingerboard, with chord positions and forms -– major, minor, sevenths mostly – and with the gymnastics necessary to get my right and left hand working together in a coordinated way has given me enough confidence to venture out onto the front porch of my log cabin to play some up picking tunes occasionally, mostly for the enjoyment of my two hounds, and always carefully concealed behind the shrubs that fortify our front yard. 

I might get better at up picking, I might eventually be able to play with people using up picking styles, and I might become as comfortable and capable at jamming as I am using down stroke styles, but for now I’m happy I was able to learn this much.  And while I have entertained the question of whether it is worth it, I’m satisfied that I’ve been able to learn what I have about banjo playing and musical possibilities – and glad that some of this has helped my clawhammer playing. 

These days, I generally select two or three clawhammer tunes a week and try to work them up. 

• On a good day I can get a tune down during the course of a day – I might play three or four times a day for one or two hours in each sitting (depending on how rambunctious the hounds are).  That’s the beauty of retirement; I can finally do what I want as long as I want when I want (until my wife figures out another “job” for me). 

• I’ve tried to integrate the Banjo Hangout Tune of the Week (Old Time) into my weekly calendar, and I at least glance at the Tune of the Week (Bluegrass).  This week, a new friend’s tape of the Bill Emerson tune Cowboys and Indians prompted me to work up a clawhammer version.  I spent a good bit of time working on Come Back Boys and Let’s Feed the Horses, preparing the TOTW (OT) “essay” for the 9 May weekly.    I’ve figured out several ways to video myself, and built a Youtube “channel” that I stock with numerous takes of a single tune.  I’ll go back and listen to the multiple efforts of a troublesome tune and try to figure out where my trajectory into the tune is seriously off and what I need to clean up. 

• I’ve been working with a fiddler on repertoire, which is always a good way to stretch one’s capabilities.  He has significantly different tastes and approaches to tunes, and this has compelled me to find different ways to get at a tune – and to wrap my mind around a lot of different kinds of music – so we can play together. 

• But my fiddler still has a day job, so sometimes I just troll BHO, or Youtube, and find a tune that catches my fancy.  I’ll try to find the melody downpicking, and sometimes I’ll have to up pick the tune for it to make sense to me.  From there, I’ll figure out how to make it work in the clawhammer context.  I’ll sometimes add structure to that by jumping into the BHO monthly contest, but for the most part I’ll just pick something I like off a CD or another tune delivery system and hammer away.  

This is the approach that works for me.  I prefer to “play” music, even if I’m just hammering around in the dark, bouncing from tune to tune, rather than “practice.”  Practice sounds too much like work, though playing vigorously and systematically and repetitively can have certain work-like aspects to it. 

I’m hoping to hear about other approaches on this group.  Thanks for setting this up, Cyndy.  I think your playing is sharp, lighthearted, fun, and pleasing to listen to.  I admire your initiative in setting up this group.

Take care.

Play hard,

Lew

5 Comments
	laertes22 says: 5/8/2014 4:54:32 AM That is an amazing banjo journey, and thanks for sharing it with us! Any chance you could share some of those finger exercises with us? I could really use some.
	Zischkale says: 5/8/2014 7:19:30 AM Cool background! That bluegrass routine definitely sounded like hardcore practice--I'm on your side when it comes to wanting to play more than practice. You're making good use of retirement. Keep building the repertoire. So the upcoming May 9 TOTW is your pick? I'll be sure to check it out. I need to set a goal to volunteer a tune one week...
	Brooklynbanjoboy says: 5/8/2014 7:33:35 AM I'm sorry for the length of my intervention. I did go on. Genford, I'll get back to those finger exercises for you. Aaron, yes I am up next in the TOTW (OT) rotation. I know that shortly there will be a TOTW (OT) "call for volunteers" so you will have a chance to raise your hand. V/R, Lew
	skiptomylou says: 5/8/2014 1:20:02 PM really interesting Lew - thanks so much for sharing - sounds like you have a wealth of experience and will be able to bring lots of sound advice and tips to the group, cheers Jill
	Brooklynbanjoboy says: 5/8/2014 1:43:48 PM Jill. It's all done with mirrors. Lew
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