Learning the Banjo - Kids vs Adults by Mike Stanger

(posted on Banjo Hangout 6-20-07)

Half of my students are kids under 20 and the other half are over 40. Two are in between those groups. Kids don't necessarily learn better or faster. Some are whiz-bangs, some are slow. The same is true with the older players.

There are differences, though, for sure. The kids tend to play through a fingering mistake. For them, it's a lot like learning how to ride a bike and wobbling once in a while... they're used to wobbles happening. Most of the old guys lock up solid as soon as they hit a wrong note and collapse into total confusion... they have a tendency to want to start over from the beginning as soon as a mistake happens.

I think these differences must come from age. Kids progress by making the mistakes, discounting the mistake's importance, and just keep at it until the tune is clean. Then they want to kick up the speed, but speed is not always important to them. Playing the tune the way I taught them is the most important element.

Older players want to take on a tune more a piece at a time, trying to make each piece as perfect as they can get before going to the next piece. I don't know why this is, but I think it has something to do with the way we learn to do our work as adults; in a lot of jobs, the small elements that make the whole can often affect the whole work's outcome.

Adults take more caution about pushing themselves to play at speed. They usually won't play any faster until I push them along a bit. The kids don't need as much pushing when they're playing a tune confidently but slowly, they will tend to catch up to me if I play the tune faster without thinking much about it. Playing faster is just a matter of confidence and thinking faster. The thinking part isn't a real big deal, but the confidence is.

The other big difference between the two groups is the kids don't think much in terms of success or failure. They don't spend any time comparing themselves to other players, professional or amateur; they just get into the fun of playing. Any new thing I teach is cool to them, and if they have trouble with a tune, their attitude is 'so what?' They're used to the struggle of learning new things because they do it all the time.

The adults usually come in with a pocketful of 'failure factors'. (that's my term for the self-defensive excuses I hear all the time).A few are: They're too old, their fingers are too fat, too thin, too stiff. They come from a non-musical family. They have no talent. They started too late to ever be any good. They don't have the co-ordination they used to have. etc. etc.

All these excuses are used so that they can feel better if they don't learn as fast as they think they should learn. Adults seem to have the expectation that learning how to play the banjo is either super easy or super hard.

If they believe the first, they soon become disillusioned, and out come the failure factors. If they believe the second, it is very hard to convince them otherwise, because the failure factors are at the top of their minds to begin with.

But adults have a generally more sophisticated ear than kids. They can hear more subtle chord changes and things long before they can actually do them. Adults are also much more concerned with the rationale for doing things one way or another, so they can learn music theory and mechanical concepts easier; kids usually just accept the things I tell them without questioning.

Learning how to play the banjo is just as easy or as hard as it is. What can be gotten from a banjo is found in your potential and your desire to learn and play well.

'Playing well' consists only in your definition of the term. If you think only professionals are good players, then the definition is a very hard goal to attain. But if you think playing well consists of being familiar and relaxed with your instrument, and comprises an endless learning process, your goal is achievable.

You may be able to take right to it, or you may struggle. You may become a superb player, or you may never get to be much of a player at all. It all depends on how much you challenge and push yourself, physically and mentally. Most adults who throw out their failure factors progress just as rapidly as the kids, and tend to really stick to playing for the rest of their lives. Kids grow up, and often lay the banjo aside when they do.

Keep on Pickin'
Angie's Banjo.com