Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Makes Perfect by Randy Torno - Music Lessons Source.com

1) Try and set aside the same time each day to practice and make the decision that these will be practice sessions, as opposed to times when you just pick up the instrument and play for fun (however even playing for fun avoid repeating mistakes - see #6).

2) Try and practice every day.... even 10 minutes daily is better than 2 hours once a week.

3) If you inhabit a child or dog-free environment don't keep your instrument in its case. Buy an instrument stand or prop it in a corner where you are likely to see it and stop and play it for a few minutes.

4) Concentrate each session on just one mechanical problem at a time. Right hand today, left hand tomorrow, memorize a tune the next day etc.

5) Be critical of your own playing and don't just accept the fact that it sounds bad because you are a beginner. That's why you are practicing. If a note keeps buzzing stop and figure out why, and what you need to do to correct it. It is always a mechanical problem.

6) NEVER continue playing something incorrectly in hopes that some day you will get better and then you will be able to play it perfectly. This will only reinforce the bad habit and you will continue to stumble over it for the rest of your playing days. That's why it is so important to get a good instructor and to practice correct technique from the start.

7) If a phrase or passage is giving you trouble, isolate it, and break it down to its smallest components - one finger at a time if necessary. After you master the small components, start to build longer sequences.
8) Play slowly, stay in tempo and work on linking the sequences together so they flow musically. Music is not a speed contest.

9) When it is time for you to finish your practice session make sure that the last thing you play before putting the instrument away is played perfectly. Never put it away in frustration or anger at not being able to play the way you want.

10) Don't set unrealistic goals for yourself...you are learning a mechanical skill...it will take as long as it takes. And remember, unless you have a physical problem, you can learn these mechanical skills if you repeat them often enough.

Keep on Pickin'

Angie's Banjo.com

Looking at your fingers

(posted to Banjo Buddies by William Sheppard)

Look at where you want your fingers to go next, not to where they currently are.

For example, if you're playing a G chord at the 3rd through 5th fret and going to go to a G chord (D position) - don't look at your fingers (you already know where they are) but look at the frets of the new position, where they will be next. Then when you move your fingers who can see where they're going, not where they've been.

Keep on Pickin'

Angie's Banjo.com

Practice Tips for Learning the Banjo

Slow it Down - This is virtually a cure-all for any problems arising during practice. You can work through almost anything if you slow down enough. Beginners may learn a piece in sections by practicing short phrases of 2 or 4 measures and then playing the sections in order after the piece has become easier.

Learn to sing the melody of any piece you practice. Musicians have a saying, "If you can't sing it, you don't know it." Singing is a powerful tool for developing the "musical ear."

Practice a piece backwards. It will force you to learn it more thoroughly. Not note-by-note backwards, but learning it phrase by phrase backwards. That is, work up the last phrase until you have it in mind. Maybe not up to speed, but so that you're comfortable with it and have no doubt how it's played. Then work the next-to-last phrase, continuing through the last phrase. Then work the third-last-phrase, continuing through to the end. At any point, you'll have practiced what comes up later, so that there's no need to stop. Once learned, you will have learned everything as it flows, and you're not so likely to get to a "joint" where you can't remember what comes next.

Have a healthy, positive attitude. Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes years to master an instrument - you'll get there with practice and perseverance. Have patience in the short term, perseverance in the long term, and faith in yourself always.

Keep on pickin'
Angie's Banjo.com

New Perfect Touch Clawhammer Pick

Rusty Thornhill has now applied his innovative skills to the needs of the clawhammer picker. In its own way, the Perfect Touch Clawhammer Pick is as radically innovative as the Perfect Touch Finger Picks. This pick is designed to be worn over the fingernail, with the tab resting against the fingertip.

The Perfect Touch Clawhammer Pick was born of necessity. The necessity of perserving the fingernails of the clawhammer picker.

A few clawhammer pickers are blessed with tough fingernails. But those who are not can suffer painful chips and breaks during lengthy performances. Designed to be worn with the first wrap near the first knuckle, the pick employs a tab that is designed to rest against the fingertip, which gives rock-solid stabilization to the pick.

At last the Clawhammer Pick can now achieve the Perfect Touch!

Keep on Pickin'

Angie's Banjo.com

Clawhammer Banjos

Clawhammer Instructional Books/CDs/DVDs

Replacing the Banjo Head by Cliff Fitch

(this article was posted in the July 2007 issue of Silver Strings by Cliff Fitch)

Sooner or later, all banjos will need to have the head replaced. Plastic heads, although very strong, do wear out and break eventually. I feel that every banjo player should learn to replace the head themselves. It is a really easy process and it gives you a chance to clean up the hardware on your banjo. I like to take my banjo completely apart annually to clean it. I always take advantage of having it disassembled by installing a new head. I tend to wear the frosting off of a head where my fingers rub against it from sliding from the X to the Y position while playing. Being a fanatic about having a "new" looking banjo, a new head can really freshen things up.

First, remove the resonator if applicable, strings, bridge, and tailpiece. In order to replace the head, the neck does not need to be removed. Next, turn the banjo face down in your lap or on a workbench and begin loosening the nuts that hold the tension hooks on. I always start at the hook to the right of the neck heel and work may way around the flange in a clockwise motion. You want to gradually loosen each nut, not all at once. I usually turn each nut about ¼ turn at a time, continuing around the flange several times until I can loosen the nuts with my fingers. You can loosen the nuts until the tension hooks are no longer fastened to the tension hoop but, I like to completely remove them in order to clean things up a bit.

Once all of the hook and nuts are removed, gently lift the tension hoop and head off of the top of the tone ring as one unit. Now, separate the old head form the tension hoop. This is a good time to clean the crud that collects on the inside of the tension hoop. I like to take this time to examine the old head to see if there are any separations along the edges where it it either glued or crimped to the mounting hoop. I also like to place to the tension hoop on a flat surface to see if it is warped. If you see a slight gap between the hoop and the flat surface, that is OK.

To install the new head, simply reverse the above procedure. If the new head has a logo stamped on it, you need to decide if you want the logo to be visible to if you want to hide it under the tailpiece. If the head has no logo, look for the seam on the mounting hoop and line it up with the center of the fingerboard.

Using only your fingers, install the tension hooks and nuts. Make sure that the notch on the tension hoop is perfectly centered with the fingerboard on the neck. Also, make sure that all of the hooks and nuts are perpendicular to the flange. Sometimes, some of the hooks will end up at a slight angle because the notches on the hoop may not line-up exactly with the holes in the flange. That's OK.

The most important thing to check at this point is to see that the tension hoop is level with the head. Holding the banjo at an angle, you want to see the same distance between the top of the head and the top of the tension hoop. If one side is higher than the other, pull that side down with a turn of two of the nuts. Even pressure of the tension hoop is not important at this time. The hoop has to be level at this point. You can use a ruler to measure this distance also.

Once the hoop is level, begin tightening each nut about ¼ turn at a time, starting at the right side of the heel and continuing in a clockwise direction. As the tension become tight, you will hear some creaking and popping noises. Do not be concerned about this as it is the plastic stretching.

Take it slow at this point giving time for the head to relax a little before making another round with your head tensioning wrench or nut driver. I like to press down along the edges of the head on the top side to help stretch the new head as I install it. I have discussed my procedure for tap-tuning the head in a past article that you can refer too or, if you are using a Neary drum torque wrench, you can now torque the nuts to your favorite setting.

Re-install the tailpiece, strings, bridge and resonator, and you are done. New heads have a tendency to stretch for a few days after installation so, you may need to tighten the head a little more after a day or so and then again after a couple of weeks.

Be sure to install your bridge in the proper position for correct intonation.

One final note. If your banjo has two coordinator rods, be sure to check the nut that is mounted on the rod at the tailpiece end of the rod closest to the head to see if is tight or loose. I have found that this nut will tighten up sometimes when the head is replaced. This nut should be finger-tight only. Feel free to email or call me if you have any problems or questions concerning this repair. Take it slow and you should have no problems installing your new head.

Keep on Pickin!
Angie's Banjo.com

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

The Jam Camp Experience by Angie Sumpter

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a Pete Wernick Jam Camp at Wilkesboro, NC this past April. What a great experience that was. My level of jamming with others is very minimal to say the least but my goal for this year was to gain more experience and confidence in doing just that. So I thought attending one of Pete's 3-day jam camps would get me going in the right direction to accomplish that goal. And I was RIGHT.

The first day at jam camp for someone who's never been before can be a little intimidating but Pete and his teaching staff really help to put you at ease right away. This particular jam camp was for the "closet and new pickers" and I would definately be considered a "closet picker" with one foot out the door. You don't need any jamming experience in order to attend. The only requirements you need are to be able to tune your instrument and change chords smoothly between G, C, D and A chords. And fast playing is not expected (thank goodness). The whole camp is based on a slow and easy pace. Pete puts you into a jam group starting on the first day and with the help of some very qualified teachers your taught how to condult yourself in a jam and take "fake" breaks on songs you may have never learned before when it's your turn. That was very eye opening and a LOT of fun. On the last day of camp the whole group played on the "Cabin Stage" at Merlefest. What a great time that was! So now I can say I played on stage at Merlfest.

I would recommend Pete's camp to anyone wanting to learn to jam with others but not quite sure how to make that happen. I believe you'll come away with a great feeling of accomplishment like I did plus a good foundation to continue forward. I hope to attend another one some day.

You can find more detailed information about this jam camp at Ted Lehmann's blog at http://tedlehmann.blogspot.com/ Just look in the April archive.

Keep on Pickin'

Angie's Banjo.com