Taking good care of your banjo

No matter how much money you have spent on your banjo, you want to take care of it so that it lasts as long as possible. Though wear and tear will happen over time, especially with active playing, there are many steps that you can take to make sure your instrument has a long and good life.

The first step to taking care of your banjo is preventative care by simply washing your hands. Washing your hands clears away acids that may cause wear and tear for the base, neck, and strings. Also, wipe down your banjo after each use. This will save string time and also remove any harmful substances that may have been wiped onto your banjo during play. There are also many different guitar and stringed-instrument cleaners out there. Be careful, because some cleaners that are good for the body of a guitar may not be good for the base of a banjo if it is made of calf or goat skin. Also some cleaners may strip away some metal off of the frets because they are extremely sensitive to cleaners.

Another way to take care of your banjo is to buy a good case. While it looks nice to keep your banjo lying around the house to impress the locals, a case will keep damaging dust off of your banjo and will lessen the chance for a possible accident that may damage the entire instrument.

Also you should keep your banjo away from the heater and the window during the winter. Wood is extremely pliable when it is around wet air, and extremely fragile when it is really dry. So during the winter keep it in the case away from both of these conditions so that the fragile neck will last a long time.

We hope this advice is helpful.

Keep on Pickn'

Angie
http://www.angiesbanjo.com

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Basic Left-hand Drill

In G-tuning - take the five basic chord positions (they are moveable up and down the neck) and form them, and practice going from open to the position over and over, or going from one to the other, over and over.

After much effort you will find your fingers pressing all the strings in that chord simultaneously, back and forth. This is necessary for speed and ease of movement. That back and forth drill is good, and it works. Don't press the strings harder than is necessary to fret the note, this adds ease of movement.

Do this over and over in each practice and forming your four fingered chord positions will get easier and easier.

Keep on Pickn'

Angie
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Rolls

Rolls are the foundation of 3-finger style picking. You can compare them to practicing scales on other instruments. Take your time to learn these properly and play them smoothly.

Rolls are a set pattern that your right hand fingers play. They are not necessarily the actual strings you play, although specific strings are assigned to rolls so that you have something that you can practice on. In other words, a forward roll is when you play index finger, middle finger, thumb, index finger, middle finger, thumb, etc.

To practice the forward roll, you can play the strings in this order: 2, 1, 5, 2, 1, 5 ... However, you could also play 3, 1, 5, 3, 1, 5 ... or even 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3 ... It's okay if you start the roll with your thumb, as long as you continue the pattern: thumb, index, middle, thumb, index, middle, etc. (3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1 ...) The most important thing is that you continue to play the pattern.

Keep on Pickn'

Angie

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Right Hand Position

The best way to position the right hand is to put on your picks, then place your thumb on the 5th string, your index finger on the 2nd string, and the middle finger on the 1st string. Pretend like you are holding the strings. (Thumb presses down, fingers pull up.) Your hand should look rather compact with good knuckle bends. Then place your pinky and ring fingers on the head of the banjo right in front of the bridge.

NOTE: It is important to keep at least one finger (if not both) anchored on the head of the banjo at all times. This provides a "home" position so that your brain can learn where all the strings are without you looking, and it also allows you to play with drive.

When picking, your fingers will pick upwards and your thumb will pick downwards. Practice looking at your left hand and not your right hand. This will allow you to play quicker and more accurately in the long run.

Depending upon where you position your right hand, you will notice a distinct difference in the sound of your banjo. If you are too close to the bridge, the sound will be very sharp. If you are too far away from the bridge (up towards the neck of the banjo), the sound will be more mellow. You can experiment with several positions and see which one sounds best. In general, you will want to be close to the bridge without touching it when picking lead breaks, and closer to the neck of the banjo when playing backup.

Keep on pickn'

Angie

Banjo FAQs and more!
Gold Tone Banjos

How should you take care of your banjo?

No matter how much money you have spent on your banjo, you want to take care of it so that it lasts as long as possible. Though wear and tear will happen over time, especially with active playing, there are many steps that you can take to make sure your instrument has a long and good life.

The first step to taking care of your banjo is preventative care by simply washing your hands. Washing your hands clears away acids that may cause wear and tear for the base, neck, and strings. Also, wipe down your banjo after each use. This will save string time and also remove any harmful substances that may have been wiped onto your banjo during play.

There are also many different guitar and stringed-instrument cleaners out there. Be careful, because some cleaners that are good for the body of a guitar may not be good for the base of a banjo if it is made of calf or goat skin. Also some cleaners may strip away some metal off of the frets because they are extremely sensitive to cleaners.

Another way to take care of your banjo is to buy a good case. While it looks nice to keep your banjo lying around the house to impress the locals, a case will keep damaging dust off of your banjo and will lessen the chance for a possible accident that may damage the entire instrument.

Also you should keep your banjo away from the heater and the window during the winter. Wood is extremely pliable when it is around wet air, and extremely fragile when it is really dry. So during the winter keep it in the case away from both of these conditions so that the fragile neck will last a long time.

Keep on pickn'

Angie
Banjo FAQs and more!
Gold Tone Banjos

Tuning the Banjo

When learning bluegrass style banjo, you will tune your banjo to an open "G" chord. Purchasing a tuner will help greatly in this process, but it's even more helpful if someone else will help you get it close before you use your tuner.
Once in tune, the banjo shouldn't change much, so then you will probably not need any assistance other than your tuner.

Listed below is how the banjo strings should be tuned:

5th string - G (the short one at the top)

4th string - D

3rd string - G

2nd string - B

1st string - D

Another helpful hint when tuning is that the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings of the banjo will sound exactly like the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings of a guitar.

Keep on pickn'

Angie
www.angiesbanjo.com
Banjo FAQs and more!
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Gold Tone Banjos

Learning Chord Positions - Exercise

From Sherry Chapman

A good way to get familiar with chords and chord shapes up and down the neck is to do a simple exercise where you start with:

the 1st position F chord at 1, 2, 3, then change tothe 2nd position D chord at 2, 3, 4, then change to1st position chord at 3, 4, 5 (G chord)the 3rd position C chord at 5, then change and continue going up the neck, changing back and forth, calling out the chords as you change.

Or, an easier one is: go from the 1st position G chord at 2, 4, 5 to the C chord at 8, 9, 10 and the D chord at 10, 11, 12. This will get you used to moving up and down the neck.

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