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Three Different Kinds of Picking

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Red Henry

In the last week or so, I’ve participated in three really different kinds of picking sessions. All three were enjoyable, all three were beneficial (read: good practice), and all three might have hints for Murphy Method students who like to pick.

The first jam, on Thursday evening, was the weekly event at Linda’s Mercantile and Fruit Stand, a mile or two north of Winchester, VA on U.S. 522. As usual, by 7:00 p.m. we had a full crowd of listeners and a dozen or so pickers, and things got under way. Now, you need to understand that at this Thursday night event, the music is not just for the musicians. It’s for the listeners too. And the musicians are not all experts (plus, we don’t often have a bass player) so you need to hold the music together the best you can and let the audience enjoy the show.

There were about 9 guitar players, 3 fiddle players, 3 banjo players, two mandolin pickers, and a gentleman who alternated between harmonica and spoons. In this situation, holding the music together generally means finding the solidest guitar picker and putting my rhythm ‘chunks” right between his down-beats, so that everybody can hear the rhythm. I have a mandolin which will be heard, and so that clear off-beat sound helps all the other musicians stay in time with each other. And then we have to play music for the audience. What do we do? Well, for one thing, before launching into a number it’s good to check around to see if some of the other musicians know it. In fact, it’s best to stick with well-known tunes and songs altogether, so that nobody’s getting lost and everybody can play. Then, when playing or singing lead, you need to get to the front of the group and make sure that the audience can hear what you’re playing and singing– this is pretty important– and take turns, so that everybody gets a chance to sing or play their favorite numbers, even if they aren’t forward enough about it to say they want to. As many musicians and singers as possible, even the shy ones, need to be invited to play. And we did a whole lot of bluegrass and old country songs. It was a good session, and the audience liked it.

The second session was on Friday night. This was an old-time session, playing all traditional or traditional-style tunes, held in a primitive cabin over in West Virginia. We had about 12 or 13 players there: 3 or 4 each on banjo and fiddle, plus a couple each of guitars and mandolins, and a bass. We had a wide range of proficiencies in the group, but the players were all involved and paying attention, and knew what to do in a jam. This meant that we all knew many of the same tunes, and nobody was trying to show off, and nobody was holding the group back. We hit comfortable tempos right off on tunes we all knew, and the music was fun and comfortable to play. I had to quit early, but the group went on to a late hour, partly just because the music was going so well.

On Sunday night Murphy and I were invited to another old-time session, but this time the situation was different. There were about 9 people there. The majority of them had played bluegrass or old-time music for a living at one time or another, and they were mighty fine pickers. (The few “amateurs” were real good players, too.) Since we were playing old-time instead of bluegrass, though, some of the well-known bluegrass pickers switched off from their regular instruments. Murphy, for example, played fiddle instead of banjo. Cousin David played banjo instead of mandolin. And our friend Marshall was there, but he stuck with his usual instrument and played amazing-as-always bass. And two real pros at old-time music were there to inspire the rest of us.

So what did we play? At a session like this, along with familiar tunes, we could bring out a good many fine but interesting and obscure numbers to play. And everybody there listened really well all the time, and kept their rhythm “tight” with the other players. It was a mighty enjoyable time, one of the best old-time sessions I’ve ever played in, in spite of the fact that the majority of the musicians were not old-time, but bluegrass players!

So what does this musical peregrination show? It shows that you can enjoy a lot of different musical situations. It doesn’t have to be all bluegrass. You can have a great experience playing many different kinds of music. Just relax, keep your ears open, “play together” with everybody else, and have a good time!

Red

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Posted in banjo, By Red, jamming, Learning By Ear, Practice | 1 Comment »

Thoughts on Old Joe Clark

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Murphy Henry

I recently received this email from a student:

I have learned the notes to Old Joe Clark and can play the slow version along with the DVD. However, I absolutely cannot translate this to the correct rhythm. I cannot even get the first lick! I am going crazy!

And I answered thusly:

I don’t know if it will make you feel any better, but MANY students have trouble with the correct rhythm to Old Joe Clark. It’s hard! Remember: the first two notes you play are pick-up notes–before the down beat. The down beat is the third note, the fifth string. My guess is you might be hearing it wrong. If you are hearing the first note you play as the down beat, then you are…..well, let’s just say you’re in trouble! If you can count time, then you can count those first two notes as “and-uh” with the fifth string then becoming “one.”

ASIDE: I’m not much of a time counter myself, but when I was learning banjo I occasionally had need to count time. What worked for me was counting every single note like this: one-ee-and-uh (which would represent four notes), two-ee-and-uh, three-ee-and-uh, four-ee-and-uh. So a simple square roll—3,2,5,1—would count out “one-ee-and-uh.” One syllable for every note. Ignore this if it’s confusing!

Now, if you are worried about the “bounce” or what notes to emphasize, it’s way too early for that. Just keep playing the correct notes mechanically for a while as you try to get them into your fingers. Do not try to play fast! I promise it won’t help. After a while, if you are faithful and diligent, the “correct rhythm” will come to you. Don’t rush the process!!!!! In fact, you can’t rush the process. (Can you, Marty??) And if you could find someone to play guitar with you, that would help. Especially if the guitar player knows Old Joe to begin with.

Believe me, there is no trick to learning this, no magic cure. Listen lots to where I play Old Joe with the guitar on Beginning Banjo Volume 2. You might also try the Slow Jam DVD, which includes Old Joe played with a band. You can play along with us, and we leave a hole for you to play by yourself. That should help. Although it might be too fast to play along with at first. But you could listen over and over and over and vamp along. Learning to vamp to the song should help with your understanding of it.

You didn’t say how long you’d been playing or using the Murphy Method, but if you are a really new player, or new to playing by ear, then it might be too early for Old Joe. You might need to go back and get some of the “foundation” tunes from Beginning Banjo Volume 1 and Misfits.

Last resort: Hop a plane and come take a lesson with Casey in Nashville or me in Winchester!

But in the meantime, as someone said to me recently (two people, actually!): Patience, patience, patience.

And don’t give up! Good luck!

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Posted in banjo, By Murphy | 5 Comments »

Logan’s Graduation Picking Party

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Murphy Henry

My long-time banjo student Logan graduated from high school last week and this past Saturday he had a picking party at his house to celebrate. Red and I attended as did my friend Janet (guitar picker and sometimes square dance partner), Logan’s Scout Master Gerald, also on guitar, and Chris Lovelace, high school buddy of our son Chris, who also plays guitar. Gerald and Chris both play some lead guitar, although not on the fast instrumentals. We played from about 4:30 till close to 8:30 and Logan was playing the best I had ever heard him! Go, Logan!

So, what did we play? Not in any particular order:

Lonesome Road Blues
Foggy Mountain Breakdown (which Logan still hates, but his dad wanted to hear it!)
Old Joe Clark
John Hardy
Wildwood Flower
Old Spinning Wheel
Clinch Mountain Backstep
When You and I Were Young, Maggie (instrumental)
Train 45
Little Bessie
Worried Man
East Virginia Blues
Old Country Church
Hit Parade of Love
Rolling on Rubber Wheels
Old Homeplace
White Dove
Will You Be Loving Another Man
Head Over Heels
Nine Pound Hammer
Take This Hammer and Carry It to the Captain
Over in the Gloryland
Foggy Mountain Special
Limehouse Blues (I was REALLY proud of Logan for remembering how to pick this one!)
Gold Rush
Shenandoah Breakdown
Wandering Boy
Shucking the Corn
Mountain Dew
Darling Say Won’t You Be Mine

As I mentioned, Logan was playing great. Most of these songs he knew already, but a few he’d never played before and he didn’t shy away from improvising. (Except when we played in the Key of D. Then he went to get something to eat! Guess what his next lesson is going to focus on??) I usually played my break before he took his (I was sitting right beside him) and it didn’t take me long to realize that he was COPYING my breaks! Not exactly note for note, but he’d steal licks and use them in his own break.

I said to him, “Dammit, Logan, you’re stealing my licks. Stop it! Make up your own licks.”

His immediate comeback was: “You stole them from Earl first.”

Touché, Logan!

Of course, I was only pretending to grouse because I LOVED IT!

And to be fair, I stole a lick from Logan which I now use in Lonesome Road Blues. He had learned part of Kansas City Railroad Blues (in C) from Casey’s Melodic Banjo Video [now retitled Blackberry Blossom on DVD], and somehow he ended up transferring one of those licks to Lonesome Road Blues. I liked it so well, I transferred it too!

As we were packing up to leave and saying goodbye, Robyn, Logan’s mother, was reminding me (and everybody else) that when she first inquired about lessons for Logan, who was 11 at the time, I told her no! I had a pretty full teaching schedule and I wasn’t very interested—at that time—in teaching kids. (I much prefer teaching someone who can carry on a conversation with me.) ANYHOW, I hooked him up with my excellent student Gina Furtado, who gave him his first lessons. Then somehow that wasn’t working anymore (too far to travel is what I remember), so Robyn asked again, and this time I said yes, with one huge caveat: if Logan ever showed any teenage “attitude” or surliness, he and I were through. Kaput. It would be over.

I don’t know if I scared him or it just wasn’t in his nature, but he never gave me one moment of trouble. (Okay, there was that time he thought he was right about the chords to some song and he was wrong and we made a bet and I won and became the Bluegrass Master.…) This is not to say that we didn’t have some practice issues and some other banjo-related issues. For instance, sometimes he just HAD to do it his way and I just had to let him. Sometimes he was missing just one note in a song and I could NOT get him to fix it so I just had to let that go. (He did finally fix that one note in Clinch Mountain Backstep, I was pleased to see!) And there were timing issues early on. Once in a jam, we sat Logan by Bob Van Metre and his bass, so he (Logan) could, hopefully, stay in time better. But that was a failure because, at that point, Logan didn’t know how to even LISTEN to the bass to hear the beat. He learned though, and now has great timing.

And then somewhere along the way, Logan fell in love with the old, traditional bluegrass: Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and Don Reno. (He also likes the new stuff like the Avett Brothers and some group called Noah and the Whale.) He started listening like crazy to the old stuff and started asking me to teach him songs like Limehouse Blues, When You and I Were Young Maggie, and Old Spinning Wheel. I was delighted to do so, especially because he could pick them up so quick, and, if he forgot what I showed him, he could make up stuff well enough to fill in the blanks.

I guess you can tell I’m pretty proud of Logan. He’ll be attending Virginia Tech in the fall and I’m proud of that too. And he did finally buckle down and become an Eagle Scout. And, I think I told you this before, but Logan chose a picture of him and me playing our banjos to go in his yearbook. I felt so honored.

I can’t really think of a good closing for what has turned into a tribute to Logan. But these words from Ferrol Sams, one of my favorite authors (Run With the Horsemen), come to mind: He’s a Good Boy, he’s been Raised Right, and is bound to Go Far. And my guess is he’ll be taking his banjo with him!

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Posted in banjo, By Murphy, jamming | 2 Comments »

Recent Additions to the Custom Lessons List

Sunday, May 22nd, 2011

Casey Henry

I’m busy this morning updating the complete list of custom lessons that I have available with the ones that I’ve done in the last couple of weeks and I realized that I haven’t done a separate post announcing additions since March–and there have been a bunch of them. On the list now is my fiddle-backup lesson for “Sally Goodwin.” (That’s banjo backup to play behind fiddle tunes a la Earl Scruggs and Paul Warren.) Also Earl’s backup for the song “Blue Ridge Cabin Home.” There are three modern country songs now (“Without You” from Keith Urban, “If I Die Young” from The Band Perry, and “Landslide” from the Dixie Chicks). They’re not exactly my taste, but they sure are getting a lot of comments over on YouTube.

Completely new are some guitar rhythm tracks someone requested that I do. Info and ordering for those is over at my website.

As always, to order, just email me what you want. Or now you can order directly from my website.

So, here’s what’s new:

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Posted in banjo, By Casey, lessons | No Comments »

Get Out Of The Way!

Friday, April 15th, 2011

Murphy Henry

Remember that kids’ song/fiddle tune Old Dan Tucker? With the chorus Get out of the way for Old Dan Tucker / He’s too late to eat his supper?

Well, this blog only reminds me of that. It’s not about the song, nor is it about anyone named Dan Tucker, old or young. Nor is it about fiddling. (Your sighs of relief are audible!)

It’s about the banjo lesson Bob Mc had yesterday and how well he played Old Joe Clark. Bob has been playing Old Joe for three or four years now. And, as you know, that’s not an easy song. If you make a mistake while playing, it’s hard to get back into the flow, and it’s particularly difficult to come into the lead after the vamping. I think it’s fair to say that Bob has struggled with these issues. For years.

Well, Bob has got an Apple Blossom Festival jam session on the horizon and we’ve been working on tunes that are likely to be played there. Old Joe is one of them. So we were practicing it, me on guitar, Bob on banjo. He misfired a couple of times, and couldn’t get it off the ground. Then—miraculously it seemed to me—he found the groove and played it through several times without losing it.

So when I asked him what happened and why he was able to play so well he said, “I just got out of the way. I just stopped thinking about what I was doing and got out of the way.”

Hallelujah!

I’ve been trying to get Bob to do this for years, but I never thought of expressing it as eloquently as he did. The best I could do was to tell him to stop thinking so much. And while that is true, it’s not quite the same as saying “Get out of the way!”

So, I’m not exactly sure how he did it. (Maybe you could elaborate in a response, Bob.) He said that closing his eyes helped. But I do know that that’s the way it’s done. At some point—after much practice (and I stress that!)—you just have to let go and get out of the way.

Yes, it has to do with muscle memory, relaxing, hearing where you are in the song, and being able to keep steady time. But after all that, as Bob said, just get out of the way!

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Posted in banjo, By Murphy, lessons | 5 Comments »

Picking and Dancing

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

Murphy Henry

So, last Friday we had a square dance in Front Royal, Va., with the Rivermont Ramblers Square Dance Club. I brought my banjo and I asked Nick and Janet to bring their guitars so we could practice “Hey Good Looking” which we are performing this weekend at our big square dance convention, commonly referred to as WASCA (Washington Area Square Dancers Cooperative Association). I wasn’t sure at what point in Friday’s dance we might sneak off to practice and as it turned out there was no sneaking off time because we were too busy dancing, visiting, and eating. So Nick suggested we take our instruments over to the Melting Pot, a pizza place we retire to without fail after our Rivermont dances for more eating. I was game and Janet is always ready to pick at the drop of a hat, so that was that.

When we got there, we had the whole back room to ourselves so it wasn’t like we’d be bothering anybody else who wanted to converse or just eat in peace and quiet. I had just finished my turkey sandwich when Nick said, “Are you ready to play?” Poor Janet had just started in on her pizza, but she jumped up and grabbed her guitar as I was getting out my banjo. That girl is ready!

Nick had just put new strings on his guitar so he was tuned a little low and had to bring it up to pitch. He did this by ear, as he hasn’t quite gotten used to these new-fangled things called tuners.

We started out with Hey Good Looking which I used to sing in G. My cold dropped it down three frets to E which suited Nick just fine since he doesn’t use a capo and plays lead and rhythm using barre chord formations. I told Janet to capo at the second fret and play out of D. And that the “off chord” would be an E shape. (A two chord if you need more info.) Nick wasn’t using the two chord at first (an F-sharp for him), but he liked the sound of it and said he had thought there was something missing. He took some nice lead guitar breaks while Janet held the rhythm steady and I added some “vamp diddlies” as Casey calls them.

With that song worked up to our satisfaction after a couple of passes through (unlike Lynn Morris I am not a big fan of practice!), we decided we were having so much fun that we’d play some more. We did Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Lonesome Road Blues, I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, and my square dance song, Save Me A Square on the Floor. Nick also accidentally started playing Under the Double Eagle (in C) so I took a break and that was fun, since I don’t pick that one much. After we’d finished he said he hadn’t meant to play that, he’d meant to play Wildwood Flower! So we did that one too. We ended with I’ll Fly Away which had the other dancers singing along. I could have sung all night, but, alas, it was closing time and we had to go.

As I made the requisite pit stop in the little girls’ room I passed one of the guys who works at the Melting Pot. He had on a T-shirt that said, I swear, Paddle Faster, I Hear Banjo Music!*

It was a fitting ending to a fun evening and I thought, “I’ve got to blog about that.” So I did.

I leave tomorrow for the big WASCA convention where we will play Hey Good Looking at a fashion show for square dance attire. The last time I played for a fashion show I was in high school. I played piano for a 4-H club fashion show which was held on the stage of the old Clarkesville Elementary School. Ruby Dean Crider was our 4-H leader and Birdie Moss, as ever, was her dependable second in command. (These details are provided for the benefit of our Clarkesville, Georgia, readers who might remember the old school and those good folks. Are you there, Mark?)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’m looking forward to dancing all day and all night. As I told Janet at her lesson, “I hope we have some time to do some picking.” She said, “Well, we will have if you can ever quit dancing long enough.” We’ll see!!!

* That reference, for you youngsters, is to the movie Deliverance which features men in canoes, paddling very fast, and lots of banjo music. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT watch this movie without your parents’ permission. It gets pretty raunchy. But the picking is very good. AND, by the way, one of the banjo players on the sound track, Eric Weisberg, will be at Mid-West Banjo Camp in June. I’m leading a jam with him. How cool is that????? I can’t wait!

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Posted in banjo, By Murphy | 4 Comments »

Additions to the Custom Lesson List

Friday, March 11th, 2011

Casey Henry

I’ve been kind of slow at getting my custom lessons taped in the last month due to a lot a factors, but, slowly, surely I’ve been chipping away at the huge list. I’ve started posting clips of me playing the arrangements on You Tube so that people can listen before buying. Don’t know why I didn’t think of doing that before…

Also, I finally got it set up so that you can order these lessons directly from my website: caseyhenry.net/lessons.html. (Just scroll down the page a little.) All you have to do is type in the title of the song you want and click “Add to Cart” and, voila!

Here are the ones I’ve gotten done in the last month or so:

Country Roads – yes, the John Denver song. This is a beginner version that consists mostly of rolling through the (many) chords.

I Run For Life – Melissa Etheridge’s inspirational song about living with breast cancer. All profits from the sale of this break will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Watch clip.

Red-Haired Boy – This fiddle tune is notoriously hard to play on the banjo, but I’ve come up with a nice Scruggs-style arrangement. Watch clip.

Welcome to New York – One of Bill Emerson’s banjo tunes. This made me finally break down and get the Amazing Slow-Downer because I’m a stickler for playing every note exactly like it is on the recording, especially if I’m teaching it to someone else.  Watch clip.

Sally Ann – One of Earl’s classic tunes. I teach it just like he played it. Watch clip.

Molly and Tenbrooks – A straightforward break to this popular singing song. Watch clip.

Roadrunner Theme song – This is maybe the quirkiest lesson request I’ve ever gotten. The Roadrunner cartoons had a theme song and the student sent it to me, wanting a break to it. Unless you already know the song, I’m not sure it sounds like the song, but many banjo breaks are like that!  Watch clip.

You’ll see that in this batch are a couple lessons I recorded in my den instead of in my office. I’m getting my house re-wired so I had to temporarily re-locate so as to be out of the way. You still might hear a few stray hammering and drilling noises on those two lessons!

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Posted in banjo, By Casey, lessons | 2 Comments »

Thumb Picks

Monday, February 28th, 2011

Murphy Henry

Oh, goody, oh, goody I can hear some of you saying. Finally a blog about something mechanical! As many of you know, I don’t get too excited about the fascinating-to-some world of banjo parts: tone rings, rims, stretcher bands, bridges, tail pieces, head tension, strings, and, yes, picks. I don’t like to tinker with my banjo. I find something I like, often by accident, and I stick with it. (Okay, I did move to light gauge strings because I read that J.D. Crowe used light gauge.)

Furthermore (and here’s the lecture!) I’ve often found that students often tinker with their banjos in lieu of practicing. Note: changing your bridge will not cure all your banjo-picking ills. Nor will changing your picks. Or strings. Still and yet, I know that tinkering is fun for some of you and I certainly don’t begrudge you that enjoyment. After you practice!

Having said all that, someone gave me a thumb pick the other day that I really like. On the pick is the word “COOL” and below that “Beta-medium.” It’s clear plastic, tinted light yellow (maybe even amber?) and it gives an excellent tone when I play. Equally important, it feels good on my thumb. It fits perfectly—good and tight—with no reshaping required. (As you might imagine, I’m not big on having to reshape a thumb pick. Been there, done that. Find it a pain.) In fact, it reminds me a lot of the clear Dobro thumb picks I still use. The initial fit is a bit smoother, though, and the tip is not as pointed. The Dobro picks always took some wearing down to feel exactly right. (And, yes, I did occasionally rouse myself to round the tip off with a file.)

In the Olden Days I used to use the old, tortoise-shell-colored National thumb picks. In fact, when we first visited Winchester I thought finding a cache of those very thumb picks was one of the “signs” that we should move here. I bought them all, but, alas, over the years the plastic turned brittle and the ones I was holding in reserve all broke when I put them on. Very sad. And while the new Nationals looked much the same they were made out of a softer plastic and I didn’t like the tone they gave. I tried Golden Gate for a while (good, hard plastic but a little too tight on my thumb) before moving on to the Dobro brand. And now I find myself liking these “Cool” picks.

Several of my students are using them and they also seem to like them just fine. I have heard these students say that these picks are supposed to be “microwavable” to get the perfect fit, but I’ve not heard any reports of this actually happening.

I’m sure you can Google these picks and find out more about them, but I thought I’d give you my up-close-and-personal report. As always, we welcome your comments!

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Posted in Accessories, banjo, By Murphy | 7 Comments »

Pet Peeve

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

Murphy Henry

I’ve been teaching a long time now, and I like to think that over time I’ve developed a certain amount of patience that I perhaps did not have in my younger years. If people don’t practice, I can live with that. We all lead busy lives. As I tell the students, “We’ll practice in the lesson. I just want you to keep playing.” If people need to cancel lessons or switch them around, I can deal with that. In the old days, you booked your slot and if you didn’t show, tough stuff. (Cleaned that up for the blog!)

But there is one thing that still irks me: Someone is learning a tune. They don’t quite have it. They are playing it for me. They mess up. They play that part again, they mess up again. They try again. They still mess up. So far I’m TOTALLY OKAY with all of this. I know they are learning and that messing up is part of the process. Then they say the dreaded words: “Let me try it faster. I can play it better if I do it faster.” ARRRGGGHHH!! No, you can’t! It does not sound better faster! It sounds worse. It’s just that the mistakes you were making go by faster, so you can pretend you didn’t hear them. Nothing is gained. Much is lost.

Usually nowadays, I let the student try the song faster. Then when it falls apart, I suggest that now we slow it down and try again. Some get the message, some don’t. Sometimes it’s like that movie Groundhog Day. We just keep doing the same thing over and over. They come in playing fast, I try to slow them down.

I have a new student whose attitude I just adore. (He doesn’t know I’m blogging about him either….) He’s only on his third song (Cumberland Gap) and this is what I love: when he makes a mistake he stops and plays the song more slowly! I didn’t tell him to do this, he just automatically does it. His playing sounds excellent! Clean, clear, crisp, in good time. All these things you gain when you play it slow, and learn it right.

I’m not saying that you should never try to play fast. Of course you should. That’s part of the fun. And sometimes playing fast can help you get a sense of the song and how all the licks fit together. But you should never think that playing it fast is going to fix your mistakes. It will not. It only allows you to slop over them.

So, my advice is, if you’re having trouble with part of a song slow it down, slow it down, slow it down. In the long run, you will learn the song faster, and eventually be able to play it faster. Slow leads to fast, but fast leads to sloppy playing and bad timing.

Now, I’m gonna go get my breakfast…..

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Posted in banjo, By Murphy | 6 Comments »

Practice!

Friday, January 28th, 2011

Red Henry

Today we’ll talk about what may be an unpleasant subject: PRACTICE. While some learners find it easy to play one or two or six or seven hours a day, some can’t get the energy or time for 20 minutes. But it’s important.

I can talk from my own experience. As I get older it’s harder to get up the energy to practice, but sometimes there are special events coming up that make it easy. Right now, I’m practicing mandolin and singing every day, to get ready for a CD which Christopher and I plan to record in a couple of weeks. And you know what? Practice helps, even if you’ve been playing a long time. I’m playing and singing a whole lot better than I could a month ago. I was pretty rusty, but now I’m getting back into shape.

Is it hard for you to practice? Remember that it’s a lot easier to start practicing and sound good after just a day or two off, than it is if you haven’t played for a week. That by itself is a good reason to play a little every day– you’ll sound better when you play again. In fact, play every day if you can, even if it’s just for 20 minutes. Or 15 minutes. Or 10 minutes. Then when you get a chance to practice for a longer time, it’ll be easier to play and sound better!

As I’ve said before in these pages, 20 minutes a day is better than 2 hours on Saturday. If you go from one weekend to another without practicing in between, it can be hard to even pick up your instrument and play! So even if your schedule is rushed, when you have a few minutes in the morning or evening, play a tune or two. Your fingers will be glad you did.

Red

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Posted in banjo, By Red, General, Practice | 2 Comments »

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