Murphy Henry
Here’s a question from Susan: Could one or both of you (Murphy and/or Casey): talk about what you look for in a student’s progress that signals the student is ready to learn to play in a different key, say C?
What Susan is talking about is, of course, playing in C without a capo. It’s not a big deal to capo to the fifth fret and play out of G position.
So, when is it time to tackle a new key?
Roughly speaking, I’d say after you’ve been playing a couple of years, have learned 20 or 30 tunes, and can improvise. In other words, you want to be totally comfortable in the key of G first. I would also add that you need to have some substantial jamming experience.
What do I base this on? I base it on the difficulty that some of my previous students have had in moving into the Key of C. And I also base it on the trouble I had myself. It’s not as easy as it might seem.
Aside: One of my (many) pet peeves as a teacher is hearing that other teachers are using “Reuben” as a beginning tune. Reuben, as you may know, is in the key of D and you have to retune the banjo to play it. Sure, the rolls are easy and are mostly the same ones you use in the key of G. But getting a beginning student to retune a banjo? I don’t think so! (Even with a tuner.) And then the sound that the rolls make in G are so completely different in the Key of D. “Reuben,” in my book, is an advanced tune. And how often does it come up in a jam session anyway?
So, why is it hard to play in the key of C? For one thing, you have to use the F chord! And while you’re holding the F chord down, you often have to move your ring finger down to the second string. Not impossible, just different. And you often are moving from the C chord (three fingers down) to the F chord (three fingers down) and that’s a lot of having to keep your fingers down! There is not so much of that nice open G chord or even the often open D chord. For another thing, the “tag lick,” which is so easy and automatic once you learn it in G, it much harder in C. There is also, generally speaking, much more movement of the left hand involved because you frequently have to go up to the fifth fret first string to get a melody note. And then there are a number of totally new rolls that you have to learn. None of this is impossible, it’s just hard.
Lastly, there is the whole issue of hearing and thinking in a new key, a key in which the G chord is now the V (five) chord, not the I (one), and C chord is now the I and not the IV (four). And then there is the F chord. Oh, I already said that. Well, it bears repeating. Then there is the F chord.
In short, you need to be a fairly competent banjo player in the key of G before you tackle C. There is no reason to make things harder than they have to be by trying to learn them too soon. In the mean time, use your capo!
Tags: playing in C
Oh man,
That leaves out D, E, and F too. Oh, well, 5 years for the 5 string.
Marty
Thanks, Murphy! That explanation helps!
Thanks from me too, Murphy. This is one of the best blogs EVAH! My confidence level just jumped up 10 points.
Just to add my two cents, I’ve found that students don’t really need to play in C position until they NEED to. That is, they’ve been jamming and it has come up and they realize that this is something they need to do in order to participate in the jam to the degree that they want to. It’s not going to do you a lot of good unless you’re jamming with it anyway. And trust me, if you’re jamming and there’s women who sing, you’re going to need that C position in order to play in the key of D and E. Unless you want to go for playing in D position, which is about five times as hard as C position.
Hi Casey, I don’t mean any fighting words here, but I disagree with your comment about students not needing to learn to play in open C. It’s not that difficult to do and, here anyway, many of the Carter Family songs such as Wabash Cannonball, Wildwood Flower, etc. are played as instrumentals at jam sessions. Also, here in Japan there’s a rather good balance of men and women (singers) in amature bluegrass too. I’ll be a student of the banjo for the remaining years of my life and I want to learn to play, as proficiently as possible, in the Key of C and D. I think you ought to encourage students to learn to play some in open C as soon as possible. It goes with the territory, so to speak. From the back of the classroom, the bad boy’s 2 cents.
Hey Steve,
I didn’t actually say that students don’t need to learn to play in C. I said that they don’t need to until the circumstance arises in a jam where they can see that they need to be able to do it, and will be able to USE it when they learn it. You are in exactly the kind of situation I was referring to — where you play with people who play in those keys of C and D and you do NEED to know it. You’re so lucky to have a good balance of men and women to jam with. That is often not the case here in the States and a bluegrass jam can go for HOURS never leaving the key of G, A and maybe B. Which I think is kinda boring.
Thanks for the comment!
Casey
[...] from Japan had some interesting thoughts in response to Casey’s comment about my original blog “Playing in C.” I thought I’d post them here, so I can add my two cents worth. Hi Casey, I don’t mean [...]
[...] Playing in C « The Murphy Method Blog [...]
Casey’s right. I had been wanting to learn to play better in C but never really got around to it….until I joined an all-women’s bluegrass band! With my feet to the fire, I had to learn quickly!