How Long Does It Take?

By far the most common question my students ask me is "How long does it take to learn to play the banjo." And I never have an answer for them because I don't know. First off you have to define the point at which you've "learned to play the banjo". Have you learned to play the banjo when you can play one recognizable song? Or do you need a repertoire of songs? Or is it only when you can hang in there in a jam and take breaks and play back up?

Then there's the question of how fast you learn. I've had students who could pick it up as fast as I could show it to them. Natural talent you could say. Then I have students who struggle with every new concept, who have finger dexterity and coordination problems and who don't or can't practice and whose only time with their instrument is during lessons. In other words the learning curve is different for everyone.

So, frustrated in my non-answer, the follow up question is usually, "Well, how long did it take you to learn?" I have an answer for this one: "I'll let you know when it happens"

j

Playing By Ear X

THE CHORD CHANGE

"How do we know the chord is going to change and how do we know what chord to go to?"

Unfortunately, there's no easy answer. One way would be examine the notes that fall on the strong beats and see what chords they fit into. But that can sometimes be misleading. In I Saw The Light, for example, the notes that fall on the strong beats of the 2nd chord are A - G - and - E, but the chord is C. Besides, music - particularly Bluegrass/folk music - is supposed to come more from the right - emotional - side of the brain rather than the left - rational - side. It's more important for you to be able to hear the chord changes and this can only come with time and practice, and most importantly, playing with other people.

There are some shortcuts you can use, however, to figure out the chord being played, assuming it's not the G chord. (For the sake of this discussion I'll assume we're only playing in the key of G) The G chord is your home base, and like your home it's where you go to rest. All the other chords revolve around it. Your home base chord, the root chord of the key is sometimes called the "Tonic" or the I (Roman Numeral 1) chord.

The second most used chord is D, or D7. It is sometimes called the "Dominant" or V (Roman Numeral 5) chord and it's very often the final chord used before you go home to the tonic at the end of the verses and choruses and at the end of the tune. There are countless tunes in the Bluegrass repertoire that use only these 2 chords.

If the tune has 3 chords then the 3rd one is most likely to be C, sometimes called the Sub-Dominant or IV chord.

These are the 3 "major" chords in the key of G and you could play 99% of all Bluegrass tunes using just these 3 chords because every note in the G major scale is in at least one of them.

Well, that's nice but what is the next chord in Do Lord? If you can't hear it then maybe you can figure it out from the melody:
------------:------------:-------------
------------:------------:-------------
------------:-0--0-------:-0--0--0-----
-2--2----4--:---------2--:----------2--
------------:------------:-------------
Hmmmmm. Well it's not obvious, there's no C or D note there but if you sing it while playing one of the 3 major chords you'll see that it only fits with one chord. Can you hear it?

j

Playing By Ear IX

OK, so now we have 3 measures of Do Lord. The fourth measure contains just the single G note, right? What can we do with it?

Well, the simplest thing, and maybe the best, would be a couple of pinches:

----0-----0--
-------------
-0-----0-----
-------------
----0-----0--

Nothing wrong with that. Maybe instead of the 2nd G you'd hit the low D string:
----0-----0--
-------------
-0-----------
-------0-----
----0-----0--
to sort of keep up with the bass. It also leads us to the next line and the chord change. We'll discuss that in the next lesson.

j

Playing By Ear VIII

So, as you have probably figured out, the second measure is the same as the first only on a different string:
-------0-------0--
---0-------0------
-0---0-------2----
------------------
---------0--------

Now the 3rd measure is going to make us think a little bit about the nature of the Scrugg's style. The melody is "do remember me", right? Or:

--------------------
--------------------
-4---4---4---2---0--
--------------------
--------------------

Which does fit the AT (Alternate Thumb) roll:

-------0-------0---
---0-------0-------
-4---4---4---2---0-
-------------------
-------------------

There's nothing wrong with it, it just sounds a little 'klunky' don't you think, all the melody notes lining up in an even rhythm? But if you'll play it hitting the strings in the same order as the previous measures - 3 - 2 - 3 - 1 - 5 - 2 - 3 - 1 - you'll still have a recognizable melody and it will maintain the bounce of the song:

-------0-------0-
---0-------0-----
-4---4-------2---
-----------------
---------0-------

Be thinking about the 4th measure, you've got an entire measure with only the one melody note.


j

Playing By Ear VII

OK, so you have a rough melody worked out and you can play it and tap your foot once for each note, or thereabouts. Now for the sake of this exercise we're going to say that this tune is in 4/4 time (OH NO, TECHNICAL MUSIC TERMS!!!) Don't freak. 4/4 time simply means there are 4 beats to a measure - top number - and quarter notes get 1 beat - bottom number. What this means to you is that the rhythm is going to be felt in groups of 4 beats; 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - , 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 etc.

Now how are we going to fit this tune into a roll? And what roll(s) should we use? Well, the tune starts on the 4th string so we know that the thumb will play these notes so we need a roll that starts with the thumb, right? That would be either the Alternate Thumb Roll or the Forward-Reverse roll (you could start the forward roll with the thumb also - TIMTIMTI) So you've got some options. In this case I want to start with the Alternate Thumb Roll.

You've learned it as:

-------0-------0-
---0-------0-----
-0-------0-------
-----------------
-----0-------0---

But you could play it as:

-------0-------0-
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
-----------------
---------0-------

Or:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
---------0-------

Since Alternate thumb simply means playing TITM, TITM, or the thumb playing every other note, what strings you play really doesn't matter.

FITTING THE TUNE INTO THE ROLL

In 4/4 time - for the sake of this exercise - we're going to play 2 notes to the beat. So where you tapped your foot for every melody note we're going to play 2 banjo notes and we're going to count them 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &, 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & etc. playing one banjo note for each number and each &:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------0---
---------0-------
-1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Now take a minute and get used to playing this pattern. Play it until you feel comfortable with it.

Now if we super-impose the melody of the first measure, which was played on the first, second and fourth beats, over this pattern we come up with:

-------0-------0-
-----------------
---0-------0-----
-0---0-------2---
---------0-------

Now, what would the second measure look like using the same Alternate Thumb pattern? Remember Aternate Thumb means Thumb, Index, Thumb, Middle. Regardless of what strings you hit.

Playing By Ear VI

(I'm not really sure why I started numbering these posts with Roman Numerals like they do Super Bowls. It looks OK when it's Playing By Ear II or III but, you know, Playing By Ear C or D - D is a Roman Numeral isn't it? - is gonna look pretty stupid, no?)

OK, so you should have something that sounds like this right?:

---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦-0-0-X-2-¦-4-4-X-2-¦-0-X-X-X-¦
-0-0-X-2-¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦

---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦-0-0-X---¦-0-0-X---¦---------¦
-2-2-X-2-¦-------2-¦-------2-¦-2-X-X-X-¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦

---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦-0-0-X-2-¦-4-4-X-2-¦-0-X-X-X-¦
-0-0-X-2-¦---------¦---------¦---------¦
---------¦---------¦---------¦---------¦

---------¦---------¦------------------
---------¦---------¦------------------
-4-4-X-0-¦-2-2-X---¦-0----------------
---------¦-------4-¦------------------
---------¦---------¦------------------

The Xs in this tab are where you don't play anything. In other words if you were to tap your foot in a steady rhythm for each note, the X is where you tap but don't play a note.

Playing By Ear V

OK, let's see if we can't get a simple Bluegrass melody worked out. I want to start with that old tune you may have learned in Bible School, Do Lord. This is almost the same melody as the song Worried Man Blues; "It takes a worried man to sing a worried song" etc.

So once again you'll need to pick out the melody. I'll get you started by giving you the first note, it's the D, on the open fourth string. So go ahead and pick out that melody and then we'll put some rolls around it and see if we can't work out our first Bluegrass song by ear

Playing By Ear IV

Now Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. As I said, unlike Mary Had a Little Lamb where nearly every note is right next to the following note, this one has a big jump or interval. When you hum it, can you hear the interval I'm talking about? All of the notes are right next to each other with the exception of these 2.

You should have come up with this:

-----0-0-2-2-0-X---------------
-----------------1-1-0-0-------
-0-0---------------------2-2-0-
-------------------------------
-------------------------------

That big interval I was talking about is between the 2nd and 3rd notes - G to D - and it's called a fifth. The reason is because there are 5 scale notes between these 2 - counting the first note as 1: G(1) A(2) B(3) C(4) and D(5). When speaking of intervals we only count the notes within the scale.

Now if you couldn't get these 2 tunes figured out, then you'll need some ear training that I can't do on a blog. If that's the case you need to stop here because the rest of the lessons will probably be much too frustrating. The good news is that your ears should improve somewhat just by practicing and playing your banjo. Don't be afraid to sing as you play.

j