Learning Banjo for guitar players

All instruments that aren't guitars (or bass guitars).
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Pepe Silvia
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Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Pepe Silvia » Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:26 pm

I have a banjo and I have been trying to learn songs, but I would also like to learn the basics, techniques etc. Everything I find online is for people that never saw a banjo in their life but want to play it. Is there a good resource for guitar players to learn the basics of banjo?

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Larry Mal
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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Larry Mal » Mon Mar 20, 2017 7:58 pm

You have a five string banjo? Can you fingerpick on the guitar? It's actually not all that complicated, it's tuned to a chord and open strings/hammer ons are the rule. The left hand has it kind of easy on the banjo, but the right hand needs to step up. You'll spend some time getting the rolls down. That's where it's at on the banjo, the right hand.

I love the banjo. It's a whole world in and of itself, and some of guitar technique will apply but a lot of it won't. It's easy to make it seem like you are doing a lot on the banjo when you aren't.

But don't think it's a shitty instrument and can only do the cliche stuff you hear. You can put mutes on the bridge and get a whole set of other sounds that way, it can really do a lot of things that most people don't suspect. People get all excited when they hear I can play the banjo- although I haven't owned one in a few years- like it's some novelty. But it's not.
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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Pepe Silvia » Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:29 am

Yup, 5 string banjo, tuned open G

I can finger pick on guitar but not as good as I used to.

The string spacing and neck size has freaked me out, still getting used to it.

I started looking at rolls a little bit, I guess I'll continue looking into those.

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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:20 am

Yeah, the rolls are where it's at. Spend as much time learning them as you can. I'm glad to hear that you have a proper five string banjo, you can't learn banjo properly on those ones that are strung like a guitar since you don't have that high G string to use your thumb on.* That high string is what makes it seem like a banjo player is playing fast and complicated stuff, since you can play the root note of the key by using that string open, you can of course fret it, and there are capos for it as well. It doesn't have to play the root note of the key, either, you can be in G and capo it to D, or quickly tune the banjo to open E minor or such. The banjo is a very friendly instrument to various tunings.

But in all those cases your right hand will be executing a series of rolls, and when you get good you can alternate them and emphasize various notes in the chords and the melodies in there. So, you might play a roll of thumb-middle-index for one chord and then switch to middle-index-thumb, let's say. You get the point, the sky is the limit. But learning those rolls is of great importance. It's really nothing that can't translate to other instruments, though, so maybe ditch the pick on your guitars for a while too.

It's a great instrument. If you can wrap your mind around the idea that you will be playing melodies contained in chords simultaneously on the banjo, that'll get you going. It's a complex instrument capable of doing a lot, sometimes even too much, since it's such a dominant instrument both in terms of volume, and sonic space, and what it is capable of doing musically. That's why in a lot of bluegrass the comparatively quieter and softer guitar usually plays a somewhat percussive chordal accompaniment (of course you could find any number of examples that are different than this generalization).

It's easy to make the banjo do a lot. The skill is to learn to use it to be a supportive instrument.

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head. I need a new banjo, I have the one I want picked out next, but haven't got the scratch together. I sold the one I had for a Telecaster, I had kind of outgrown it (a Deering Goodtime Special 2, fine banjo). But I need to get a new one together.



*This isn't to discount the four string plectrum or tenor banjo. That is a great instrument with its own thing going on. But fuck the guitar styled six string banjo.
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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Pepe Silvia » Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:46 am

That's what I picked up, a Deering Goodtime.

Thanks for the advice.

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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:23 am

Absolutely! I hope some of it helps. Those are nice banjos- so do you have the Goodtime 1, without the resonator, or the 2, which does have one? There is also the Goodtime Special, which I might buy, which adds a tone ring to the equation.
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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Pepe Silvia » Tue Mar 21, 2017 7:43 am

Larry Mal wrote:Absolutely! I hope some of it helps. Those are nice banjos- so do you have the Goodtime 1, without the resonator, or the 2, which does have one? There is also the Goodtime Special, which I might buy, which adds a tone ring to the equation.
Goodtime 1, no resonator. Figured I didn't need a resonator for screwing around at home.

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Re: Learning Banjo for guitar players

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Mar 21, 2017 10:06 am

No, probably not for learning anyway. And they do sound different and neither is "worse". I always thought the resonator would make the instrument more comfortable to hold, though.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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