Learning to Play the Banjo
Forum for learning to play the banjo later in life, product reviews and more!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
What is Backup?
A banjo player normally plays accompaniment at least 75% of the time when he is playing with a band or with another musician, or when he is singing, while only about 25% of his effort involves playing the melody of the song. Therefore, an important aspect of playing the banjo is the art of playing back-up. “BACK-UP” is simply another term for “ACCOMPANIMENT”.
Back-up played on the banjo consists essentially of a combination of two elements: CHORDS & RHYTHM. For most styles of back-up, the left hand works from chord positions, while the right hand plays specific fingering patterns. The same patterns can be used as back-up for many different songs. Which patterns are used for a specific song will be determined primarily by the tempo of the song, and by which instrument is playing the melody.
The art of playing back-up on the banjo can, in many respects, be compared to the art of building a structure with a set of blocks of various shapes and sizes. The same set of blocks can be used to build many different structures. All of the blocks might be used for one type of building, whereas only a few blocks of a specific shape might be required for another building. Certain blocks might be more useful for foundation purposes (i.e. for support), while other blocks might serve more ornamental functions. Each style of back-up contains a definite set of patterns which can be used over and over as back-up for many different songs. How the patterns are used, where they are placed in the context of the songs, when embellishment techniques are used, --all of these things work together to determine the overall effectiveness of the back-up for a specific song.
Keep on Pickin'
Back-up played on the banjo consists essentially of a combination of two elements: CHORDS & RHYTHM. For most styles of back-up, the left hand works from chord positions, while the right hand plays specific fingering patterns. The same patterns can be used as back-up for many different songs. Which patterns are used for a specific song will be determined primarily by the tempo of the song, and by which instrument is playing the melody.
The art of playing back-up on the banjo can, in many respects, be compared to the art of building a structure with a set of blocks of various shapes and sizes. The same set of blocks can be used to build many different structures. All of the blocks might be used for one type of building, whereas only a few blocks of a specific shape might be required for another building. Certain blocks might be more useful for foundation purposes (i.e. for support), while other blocks might serve more ornamental functions. Each style of back-up contains a definite set of patterns which can be used over and over as back-up for many different songs. How the patterns are used, where they are placed in the context of the songs, when embellishment techniques are used, --all of these things work together to determine the overall effectiveness of the back-up for a specific song.
Keep on Pickin'
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Slow it Down!
To improve on timing, SLOW DOWN! Most all banjo pickers tend to want to play too fast too soon and that makes for sloppy banjo pickers.
Get a metronome or something that will give you a good, solid beat to work with. Start SLOW, whether you're doing rolls or chords or moving up and down the neck. Go only as fast as you can smoothly and cleanly do whatever exercise you're trying to do.
When you can do that particular exercise perfectly at a slow speed at least 5 times without a mistake, THEN bump up the speed about 5 and try it again and so on. Eventually, you'll be able to do that exercise at a good rate of speed. But, again, speed only comes with time, effort, practice, sweat and tears!
Keep on Pickin'
Angie's Banjo.com
Bluegrass-Banjos.com
Banjo FAQ's
